A Mixed Day

Posted on July 2, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It almost felt like a regular day, we were going out to see some family, then kind of a day trip and finally out for dinner.  My Bride was going to meet some of her family at one of her sister’s home and do water aerobics in their pool.  My Bride is going great guns with her new health regimen and now she is down to the size of when we met and got married.  I on the other hand have steadily shown signs of being happily married and then compound that with some medical side affects and let us say that I am more than a few pounds over the weight when we met, or even we married.  We had lunch at her sister’s house with all the others that attended and then we were off on potentially an adventure.  We were going to get new phone upgrades from our provider, but we could only go to two locations in the state and the closest one was almost two hours away, with no way to guarantee that when we got there, that there would be new phones available, so my Bride was in kind of a holding pattern on her mood.  Thankfully all was good and it went relatively smoothly and painlessly, in comparison to another couple that also made the trip from our home city and left empty handed for a couple of reasons and they were not happy.  I didn’t realize how far we were, because my Bride is the road warrior of the family or I would have suggested another restaurant to try, but all was good, because she really wanted to go to Rocky’s again. 

At her sister’s home, we had a nice barbecue lunch of grilled Bratwursts, Cheeseburgers and Hamburgers.  There were also plenty of sides, because people that attended the water aerobics brought sides like fruit salad, potato salad, Cole Slaw and Macaroni salad.  There was plenty of food and enough to eat to hold us over until dinner time.  When we got to Rocky’s, thankfully we had a reservation, because since they can only be operating at fifty percent, they were filling up quite well.  Rocky’s could probably run at full capacity, because it is a mature clientele and even at the bar, not a crowd of hard drinkers like at the two bars that were written up for not doing social distancing, perhaps if they had announced at those two locations that they were protesting there would have been no writeups.  At Rocky’s it was all done in proper style, walking in with a mask, until we were seated and you could have swung a two by four around and not hit the diners at the next closet table.  We both knew that we wanted the Black Bean Soup and we even ordered a quart of it to go, trust me, it is that good and worth the trip.  My Bride had the Potato encrusted Whitefish with a Lemon Sauce and fresh vegetables and I went with the Broiled Shrimps Casino with Basmati Rice and fresh vegetables. 

We also took a bottle of wine with us to her sister’s house, especially because after the water aerobicize my Bride deserved something cold and special.  I turns out that I had a second bottle of Russian Hill Chardonnay Gail Ann’s Vineyard Russian River Valley 2007.  Patrick Melley is a self-taught winemaker and co-founder of Russian Hill and Talawind Ranch wineries.  He went from the restaurant industry to making wine himself, back in 1989 he started making wine at home, and then in 1993 he co-founded Benicia Cellars Winery.  In 1997, he and his partners moved to the Russian River Valley and founded Russian Hill Estate Winery.  I couldn’t find any winemaking notes on this wine, but it was the tenth year that the winery was in existence. The good news is that the cork in this bottle was solid and I poured a wine that also had a deep amber-gold color, looking more like an aged Sauternes. Whereas the first bottle that we had, the nose was light, this bottle still offered some fruit and spice and the taste was subtle with some flavor of terroir, but the finish still evoked alcohol.  It actually was a beautiful drinking wine, and more flavorful compared to the first bottle.  After all the running around and we were resting at Rocky’s I picked out a very easy drinking white for us to relax with.  We had a split of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2018.  Kim Crawford is probably the most recognized wine producer from New Zealand and its Sauvignon Blanc is the most popular wine from New Zealand sold in the United States of America.  Kim Crawford began in 1996 in Auckland and built a state-of-the-art facility in Marlborough in 2000.  In 2003 the brand was sold to the Canadian firm Vincor and the following year Vincor was acquired by Constellation Brands.  Kim Crawford was also one of the first in New Zealand to produce an unoaked Chardonnay.  Marlborough is the most important wine region in New Zealand and Sauvignon Blanc account for almost eighty percent of the production.  The wine is very fruity with a nose promising passion fruit, melons and some spice, with a taste of fresh fruit and acidity and a pleasant finish that kind of beckons another glassful.  All in all, it was a most enjoyable day with a couple of charming wines.

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Father’s Day 2020

Posted on June 30, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Historically, Father’s Day is normally a quiet affair and even more so this year.  Fathers appreciate being acknowledged and a dinner is nice.  Some men golf, and I haven’t golfed since my college days, I sometimes think that Ben Hogan was my instructor, but I guess I didn’t pay attention to his lessons.  Other men like to go out on a boat, my luck it would be the Titanic, especially this year.   We are really not into barbecues either, but some people really excel at it.  Since the state is just loosening up and we went out for dinner the night before, we were going to have a quiet dinner at home.  The good thing is getting phone calls from the children and that is enough reward.  We also had a Zoom session with some of the family and that was interesting, as always.  

My Bride likes to make a bit of a splash about a Sunday breakfast or should I say brunch.  She made Bavarian-style pancakes, those baked monsters, but these didn’t fluff up as much, but the flavor was still there, so all was excellent.  We also had bacon, she is always trying to make me eat healthier, but she lets me cheat a couple of times a week.  Actually, I am the one that should be on Weight Watchers, but I guess I am not into regimens, she also tells me that it all is about portion control and I guess I still think that I have the appetite of a teenager (at times).  I guess it is my way of thinking that I am still young.  Later that day, she made Salmon with her Bourbon Sauce along with Corn on the Cob and Snap Peas.  Followed by Chocolate Pudding.  The funny thing is, that I very seldom have dessert anymore, but the puddings, mousses and Crème Brulee desserts are all hitting the spot.  Thankfully, we don’t eat that big every day. 

It was another day to enjoy the labors of the cellar.  I think it would be a sin to use Dom with orange juice, so we used Korbel California Champagne, which is produced in the time-honored way of “Methode Chanpenoise” and it is a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, French Colombard and Pinot Noir. A perfect way to start off the day and Korbel is one of those houses that have been grandfathered in using the term “California Champagne.”  We now make them in the steakhouse method that we discovered in Las Vegas, which is to fill the glass with Bubbles and a tincture of Orange Juice.  I have been raiding the wine cellar and grabbing some wines to try.  Some wines come under the category of “that is too good of a wine just for us” or “let’s just have our house wine,” since we cannot have dinner with others, let’s have a little fun.  I found a lone bottle of Bernardus Chardonnay Monterey County 2000.   Bernardus Winery and Vineyards was founded by Ben Marinus Pon about twenty-five years ago with the intention of creating premier wines in the Carmel Valley.  His intent was to produce single vineyard designated wines and a Bordeaux blended wine.  Bernardus has three estate vineyards: Marinus planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec; Featherbow planted with Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon; and Ingrid’s Vineyard planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  All fifty-four acres of estate vineyards are in the Carmel Valley AVA.  To compliment the estate vineyards Bernardus also has contracts with vineyards the Arroyo Seco, Santa Lucia Highlands and others in the Monterey County. I am sorry to say, that Mr. Pon passed away in September of 2019 and his vision will be continued by Robert van der Wallen the current owner, who also understand the passion that Mr. Pon had for his winery.  As a non-wine note, they have recently opened Bernardus Golf in Holland, and it will be the host for the Dutch KLM open.  Just another sublime winner, a twenty-year-old California Chardonnay that has a reason to be proud.  We are really going to have problems drinking the young wines again after all of this.

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Father’s Day Saturday

Posted on June 28, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We made arrangements to have a dinner and celebrate two fathers for Father’s Day weekend.  We invited our one son and his family to have dinner with us, as we slowly get used to the new protocols of going out for dinner.  For Mother’s Day we didn’t have such a luxury, because we were still under lockdown and I am still concerned that we could be penalized for the all of the peaceful protestors and their inciters that sent all the rules of social distancing out the window, but we shall see.  Any ways, I was thinking about Father’s Day and both my Bride and I, no longer have our Fathers with us.  I was thinking about my Father in the week or so, before the celebration and remembered some of his tales of his military career and I guess I am not the only raconteur and I did come by it honestly and genetically.   He was a Canadian citizen who like thousands of others volunteered to fight in the United States Army and that is a story in itself.  By the time he finished “Boot Camp” the war was over and my Father found himself as part of the First Occupation Forces in Japan.  One of his favorite stories was that he once found himself having a bit to eat and a couple of cold ones in tavern with a buddy.  He ended up totally enamored watching and listening to two Japanese men having a very colorful and rather animated conversation, and the more they talked, the more my Father was in awe and started laughing as he could no longer hide the fact that he was eavesdropping and they started to mention that they were watching some “dumb American” that was laughing at them and about their conversation.  My Father was not a translator, in fact he probably only started learned English after he had learned how to speak Armenian, the part that got him fascinated was that he was watching and listening to two Japanese men who were speaking almost fluent Armenian, so that no one in the tavern could follow their conversation.  My Father could no longer contain himself and had to speak to them in Armenian and they were in awe, as these two men had never met an Armenian, except for those in their circle and church and they had all started centuries back, during the days of Marco Polo and the Spice Routes.  Needless to say, a new conversation began that was also quite animated and I am sure that more beverages were consumed.  The two men, even invited my Father to one of the men’s home for an Armenian dinner that over the years had become Japanese.  My Father was also surprised when a third man asked if he knew an Armenian that ended up in Canada, that the third man had wanted to adopt, It turns out that it was a shirt-tailed relative of my Father’s who used to tell the same story and because it happened when he was so young, that everyone thought he was making it up, because instead of the Red Cross sending him to the Middle East or to France after the Armenian Genocide he ended up in Japan and crossed by train from Armenia through Siberia and China.  My Father also had many other tales about his time in Japan, but perhaps another time. 

All of this brings me to our dinner date at a restaurant.  I am starting to think that I am the only person in the world that does not eat Japanese or any Asian cuisine, except for traces of it, in Fusion restaurants.  Since my Bride got cheated for Mother’s Day, I thought she and the others would appreciate, if I passed on a steakhouse and selected a Japanese restaurant.  I knew of this restaurant when it was The White House and had gone there years ago with my dinner club, and the restaurant is a large antebellum house that was built by a man to give to his wife in 1929.  Shiro can be translated to mean either “white” or “castle” and I guess both words are apt. We went in with our masks on and they took us to a side room where the group of us could dine separately and that was very nice, and masks were off.  I couldn’t understand why they brought a little pencil, like you use for recording your golf score on a scorecard, but everyone else understood and they were ordering food left and right from the Sushi menu.  My Bride ordered some Sushi dishes like the others as an appetizer and she also ordered an entrée of Sea Bass, so I knew she was happy.  For an appetizer I ordered Lobster & Crabmeat Spring Rolls with a Tropical Pineapple Sauce and then as an entrée I ordered Scallops.  I decided to play it safe, and I am glad that I chose a winning restaurant for the crowd, especially my Bride was happy.

My Bride and I were the only wine drinkers, so it was rather easy to select a wine for us and we had the Kunde Family Winery Chardonnay Sonoma County 2018.  The Kunde Family began farming in the Sonoma Valley in 1904 when Louis Kunde emigrated from Germany and acquired the Wildwood Vineyards Ranch.  The Wildwood Vineyard had been planted in 1879 using imported cuttings from Chateaus Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild.   They survived Prohibition, only to close during the Second World War, because the sons were drafted.  After the war, the sons expanded on the property and bought the Kinneybrook Ranch and that is where the winery is today, and the family is now into the fourth and fifth generations of family as stewards of the property.  The Sonoma Valley with its red volcanic soils and ideal climate is perfect for Chardonnay.  Seventy percent of the wine was aged for nine months in French Oak, of which twenty percent was new, and thirty percent of the wine was aged in Stainless Steel.  After blending the wines, the wine delivered a nice crisp wine, with good acidity and a subtle oak finish.  It worked extremely well with both the Sea Bass and with the Scallops.  While everyone else was ordering desserts, I thought that I would treat myself and try a glass of Sake, and I had no idea what to order, so I allowed the waitress to make the selection for me.  She brought me a glass of Sakeone Corporation Momokawa Diamond Junmai Ginjo Craft Sake NV and it turns out it was from Oregon.  Sakeone Corporation is Momokawa’s American offshoot.  Established in 1992 as a premium Japanese sake importer and in 1997 went to the Willamette Valley and the rice grown in Sacramento Valley and began brewing Sake in Forest Grove, Oregon.  They are now the most successful Sake producer in America. The Sake is made with polished rice and no distilled alcohol added, pasteurized twice it was rather crisp and is served chilled.  My Bride was already discussing the possibility of return visits to Shiro.

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San Felice Campogiovanni

Posted on June 26, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It is a bit heady to start feeling good again, after three months of lockdown to be looking finally at my April wine club selections from the Fine Wine Source of Livonia.  I had mentioned that the wine shop was closed, because they were not deemed “essential” by those that like to pick and choose who will live and who will die.  We are slowly getting in dribs and drabs’ listings of businesses that could not survive the forced closure.  I guess our local media, thinks that if only a couple of businesses are listed at a time, that it won’t seem as terrible.  I have to tell you, that this wine shop is not your local neighborhood corner store.  There are no bulk wines, and none of the highly advertised brands that one sees in every grocery and convenience store; and yes there is a place for all of those wines and I drink them as well, but when one wants to find something unique or special, then one must search out places like the Fine Wine Source. 

At the moment, there is no wine tasting in the shop, which is one of the hallmarks of visiting the store.  There is usually two old wine barrels set up with an array of assorted wine bottles, the only difference is geography, one barrel features the Old World or shall we say Europe and the other barrel features the New World. Which would include North, Central and South America, Australasia and Africa.  When they have special tastings with the manufacturer and or the wine maker, it is extremely interesting and very crowded.  I guess this is one of the problems the government minions must figure out and they are still working on the wineries and their tastings and how to proceed.  When the creative minds of bureaucrats attempt to cure something, it is just more regulations and an attempt to stifle business.   Eventually and soon, I pray, there will be some one with brains that will help the wine industry. 

Agricola San Felice is a Tuscan wine producer with estates in Chianti Classico and Montalcino.  It is most famed for its Sangiovese wines and blends under the Campogiovanni and Il Grigio labels, as well as its Vigorello Cuvee, which some call the first commercial example of a “Super Tuscan.”  Sangiovese is the most planted varietal in Italy and thought to have originated in Tuscany and the name translates to “Blood of Jove,” which some would like to claim shows that it goes back to the Etruscan period, but historians can only date it to the 1700’s.  The terroir of Campogiovanni is sandy and mineral-rich which allows the vines to grow slowly and steadily, to create balanced wines. So the imported wine for the month of April was San Felice Campogiovanni Rosso di Montalcino 2013.  The rules for Montalcino wines, both Brunello and Rosso must be entirely Sangiovese.  Rosso di Montalcino was sanctioned as a way to generate money for the wineries as their Brunello wines age according to the rules, as the Rosso only needs to be aged in wood for six months and then an additional six months in the bottle before being released.  This wine is touted as offering a more unique and complex bouquet than normally found, as it features the classic cherry and blackberry notes, but also licorice, cola and balsam and a taste that offers ripe fruit including raspberry and blackberry.   Another wine that I can open for parties as they slowly start to emerge.

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Magnolia Court Dorrian Pinot Noir

Posted on June 24, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It is slowly starting to feel like a civilized world again, at least in parts of the world.  Our wine shop, The Fine Wine Source of Livonia recently opened up again and I was finally able to pick up three months of wine club selections.  Some of you are probably saying to yourselves, what is he talking about, you were able to buy wine and liquor during the entire time of the lockdown, well that is a yes and a no.  Originally, grocery stores were considered essential and that makes sense, even to the chief elected harridan of the state.  The grocery stores also sold beer, wine and liquor, then they realized that there had a snag, as not every community has grocery stores for a myriad of reasons, so then party stores or convenience stores were able to stay open, because they carried “groceries” and sometimes that definition was quite broad, but the state did need to keep collecting whatever tax money they could.  It reminds me of the old days in Ontario, Canada when they had taverns and saloons and one would have to have food; sometimes that was just potato chips or pretzels.

The Fine Wine Source is just a wine shop, no beer and no liquor and no food.  They were not considered essential, except to those of us that had Wine Club Memberships and each month we paid for our wines, knowing that one day, we would be able to pick up our new wines.  I do have to give them credit as they were running promotions and would offer free delivery within a delineated circle of so many miles, give or take if you bought “X” amount of wine, and that is what made me start going through the cellar, finding some of the strays with the concept of rearranging the cellar.  Lady Luck was with us, as I only had to report on one bottle of wine that did not age gracefully.   It was a great incentive to drink what we had, just like, we were actually eating food that was in two refrigerators and a chest freezer, so we really did not get hit with the potential “meat shortages” and we even survived the toilet paper rush, because my Bride had bought all her paper products and a lot of cleaning and sanitizing supplies, just before our trip to Louisville, so we survived the ninety-three plus days of lockdown. 

The domestic wine from the wine club selection for April was Magnolia Court Dorrian Pinot Noir Central Coast 2016.  The Miller Family Wine Company’s California farming and ranching legacy starts in 1871, when William and Francis Broome moved from England to begin farming in southern Ventura County.  The farming legacy was passed down to William Broome’s granddaughter Elizabeth who married Robert Miller in 1942, and then it became the Miller Family.  In 1973 the family developed a vineyard in the Paso Robles highlands and named it French Camp in honor of the Basque shepherds that once populated the area. There is fourteen-hundred acres of French Camp which supplies the Miller Family with their highest quality fruit. The parent corporation is the Thornhill Company, named for William Broome’s son, and they now are into the fifth generation of family control.  They make four different branded labels and then they also make limited production runs of assorted wines for multiple businesses for their house wines and private labels.  The Magnolia Court Dorrian is a tribute to the generation of strong woman in the family.  There were no production notes for the wine, even though it is listed as a limited production wine.  The tasting notes for the wine suggest aromas of cola and ripe red cherries, with bright fruit and a nice lingering finish, and the wine is described as medium bodied with medium tannins.   I am sure that once we get back into the swing of things for parties, this will be a bottle for us to try as it should be very good with salmon or pork tenderloins.

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First Dinner After Lockdown

Posted on June 22, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We decided to go out for dinner after over ninety days of lockdown.  In my old school, pre-Common Core math that is like six periods of quarantine and as great of a cook as my Bride is, even she needs a night of someone else cooking.  Where we live, by the time we got a carryout from any of the restaurants that we enjoy, we would have to reheat the dinner and then it is like having leftovers, so we decided to stay home and cook.  It felt rather awkward walking up to the restaurant while we slipped on our masks.  As we were getting to the door there was a man with a big carryout bag and that was good to see, for those so inclined.  Usually when we walked in the bar area was packed, it was now every other seat or so, unless you were with your spouse(?) and the people that were bellied up to the bar, were not wearing their masks, because they were drinking and having some lively conversations.  I noticed that the bartenders, waiters, waitresses and other service people had masks on, but once you were at your assigned table you could remove your mask, because the disease knows that you are having dinner.  I also saw a photo op, that depending on who does them are despicable or brave and that is not for me to say, but I did see that the governor of Michigan desecrated one of my great “joints” Lafayette Coney Island in Downtown Detroit, pretending that she was a cook, I noticed that she had gloves on, but no snood on her coiffed hair and I thought that was a requirement by the Health Department and not a political fiat; but she does not have to abide by the laws, she only mandates.  I am sure that the media missed that Health Department protocol.  I really wish that she had done it next door at American Coney Island, because I don’t go there, because they serve salads along with Coney Islands. 

We went to one of our favorite haunts near our home that we have been going to almost from the time that they opened and that I have written about over the years.  We went to Rocky’s in Northville, that is off the beaten track and it looks like a structure that should be found in Northern Michigan with its rustic appearance.  Rocky is one of the surviving members of the great chefs in Detroit that studied under Milos at the old Golden Mushroom, and most of those chefs have died or retired, but Rocky’s still maintains the quality from Day One.  It did seem odd to be seated at tables that had no linens, but I guess that is a small price for dining out.  The menu was the same, but it was printed on paper, instead of a cardstock, which was no big deal.  We both knew that we wanted the Black Bean Soup and it had been so long, we had both forgotten to request that we didn’t want the dollop of Sour Cream, but we lived, I mixed it in and my Bride scraped it off the top of the soup.  To this day, I have never had a better bowl of soup compared to Rocky’s.  My Bride had the Great Lakes Broiled Whitefish with Rice Pilaf and Asparagus; she claims that she never sees Whitefish at the market, which is why she always seems to gravitate towards it as an entrée.  I also went with a dish that we don’t have at home, and I think it is just because it requires all day to make it, and that is a Half Slab of Baby Back Ribs and Four Jumbo Battered Dip Shrimp with Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Corn on the Cob.  It has been ages since I have had Shrimp prepared like that, I guess because my Bride has me eating healthier, though my figure belies that fact.   The food was so rich, and so delicious that we both had to ask for a doggie bag, because it had been so long since we have eaten food so rich, we couldn’t handle it all in one sitting.  I joked that I guess we have become Senior Citizens and we passed on dessert. 

As for the wine, we have been opening some great forgotten bottles of wine from the cellar, that I had to think about what we were going to order.  We had a bottle of Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranches Chardonnay Sonoma County 2017. This a far and away better than what is normally offered in most restaurants for a basic Chardonnay, but it is not the House Chardonnay.  Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards was founded in 1973 by Brice Cutrer Jones and the main estate vineyard is two-hundred-fifty acres planted with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  They have several other vineyards in the Sonoma region and they produce five different Chardonnay and four different Pinot Noir wines, all in the Continental style.  This particular wine is a blend of maybe a dozen different vineyards.  The wine is pressed whole-cluster and the juice is free-run and stored in a tank for a few days, before being aged in either new French Oak and neutral French Oak sur-lie and Stainless Steel for the balance; and aged for eight months.  We are partial to this wine and this vintage offered aromas of pear and apple, with some balanced acidity and a nice finish mixing in some smooth buttery notes without being overpowering.  As we were half-way home, when we realized that we should have probably ordered a couple bowls of the Black Bean Soup to go for when we had the leftovers, oh well, we have to get used to dining out again. 

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Chateau Julien Chardonnay 1997

Posted on June 20, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Some days everything just seems to be good.  I got home and felt good about getting my haircut, as selfish and petty that I am.  I grew up with the long hair, as I said and, in its day, it was normal.  I was a bit nauseous wearing a mask, but I can live with a minor inconvenience, actually, from some of the photos, I think our politicians should have been wearing them for years, as it has improved their appearance and since most of them should have belonged to the Daltons or the James gangs. I also like that I don’t think that I have to look up arcane bits of dialogue that made me happy while I was in lockdown.  I am feeling better for the first time in ages, though it may be some time, before I can see the rest of the family and it really hurt to think that I had to cancel the idea of throwing my oldest grandson a high school graduation party.  All the graduates of 2020 got the short end of the deal. 

I have been enjoying the fact that my Bride has been working from home, and I think that she is really enjoying it as well.  She has also been very keen on the subject of trying new recipes to try to keep us both, but especially me, from lamenting that we couldn’t go out for dinner either on a date or with friends.  She made a special treat for dinner, she made Chicken in Molé for dinner, including soft tortillas.  I think I was maybe fifteen or sixteen years of age the first time I ever had Molé Sauce, and it was back when “Mexican Town” in Detroit was like two blocks long of restaurants, bars and markets, now basically the entire Southwest portion of Detroit is referred to as “Mexican Town” or other similar sounding titles.  I guess before I get to far into this discussion,  for those that have never had Molé Sauce, one of the main ingredients at least of the recipes I have encountered, and I understand that there are several hundred varieties is the use of Mexican Dark Chocolate and no, the sauce is not sweet, actually it can be quite spicy; and it is not made from moles.  Years ago, I used to get it with Ribs, and the meat would literally fall off the bone after cooking all day in a big pot and it was wonderful, of course that is only a memory, especially since we don’t have Ribs at home, but we had, just like every restaurant for years has served it with chicken.  We had it with the sides, and she made a big enough pot that we could have left overs, and it is great that way too, as the sauce gets to permeate the chicken even more. 

I thought she was going to have Margaritas with the meal, but she wanted a white wine.  I have been finding all the stray white wines in the cellar, as I get ready to rearrange the wines again.  I found a lone relic from probably our first trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  We had a bottle of Chateau Julien Private Reserve Chardonnay Sur Lie Monterey County 1997 and I had a back up bottle just in case.  I do remember tasting this wine at the winery in Carmel, in fact I think it was the first winery we encountered as we were out tasting and buying wines.  The wine was exceptional at the tasting, but I remember being told that this wine would be phenomenal ten years from now, but I think I probably just humored him at the time, because I had not heard of anyone cellaring California whites back then, but thankfully I have been proven wrong a couple of times during this lockdown.  In the late Seventies, Bob and Patty Brower decided to fulfill their dream, they were from the East Coast, but had fallen in love with French wines and hospitality and in 1982, began building what became known as Chateau Julien Wine Estate and in 1985 they celebrated their first vintage from the 1982 fruit and they bottled a Chardonnay and a Merlot and they had sixteen acres on the estate.  In 2015, all the property was acquired by a local winemaker Gregory Ahn and renamed Folktale Winery and Vineyards.  I have no production notes on the making of this wine, and I used my Durand to open the wine and the cork was in perfect condition.  The color was a beautiful golden sun and the nose had still had some citrus and apple notes.  The taste was awesome with fruit and some honey from a twenty-three-year-old with the additional notes of vanilla and cloves and a nice lingering after taste that wanted me to pour another glass just to appreciate the complexity that was still apparent.  I think we were both amazed.  Just for fun I thought I would include an old photo of a youthful raconteur with long (groomed) hair when he was about twenty-three.    

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“How Do I Look?”

Posted on June 18, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It is Day 91 and I celebrated by having a haircut, it may not be official, but who the hell cares.  My barber had to do the yeoman’s work and I just kind of felt good, especially if I was breaking the law, by a couple of days.  I have been feeling like the scene from Papillon when he is doing the second term and it was for five years in solitary confinement, when he sticks his head out the little window of his cell door to get his prisoner’s haircut and he asks a prisoner in the next cell “How do I look?”

Some may think that I am selfish or vain, because I wanted a haircut, but after over 91 days, I was looking rather shaggy.  I realize that in the real world there are animals that actually look shaggy and perhaps that is part of their charm.  I never looked this shaggy in the Seventies when long hair was chic for men, because there were stylists that kept the men from looking like ragamuffins.  I had no desire to do a home buzz-cut and look like I belonged in a federal penitentiary, even if I was in the lock down.  I know that our governor that tried to get her boat in the water, ahead of the citizens was getting her hair done, though she claimed that her daughter was doing it, just like she claimed that her husband was just making a joke about the boat.  It also came out that the mayor of Chicago was getting professional attention, but you couldn’t prove it by me, but both of these women are part of the elite and I guess the laws don’t pertain to them.  In fact, there was a movement in Michigan not to get a “whitmer” after she complained that the citizens were petty and upset that they couldn’t get haircuts, so, she told everyone to “Google” “how to cut your own hair” and that really went over in a big way with the unions for the beauticians and the barbers; of course almost all other union jobs were idle as well.

I called my Barber on his cell phone to book an appointment, as soon as he felt comfortable to reopen, since the Michigan Supreme Court found for the elderly barber who the state had taken his license from, because he was cutting hair in his shop, so that he could eat, and not lose what he had worked his entire life for and the lockdown for their services became moot.  Now, I know that it might sound crazy for me to have my Barber’s cell phone number, but I have been getting my haircuts by the same barber since I was fourteen.  When the original barbershop opened up in Downtown Detroit, the barbers were all trained in the Roffler “Sculptur Cut” at a secondary barber college founded in 1958, that stressed the cutting and designing using a razor to shape and correct hair in its natural form.  My Aunt originally gave me twenty dollars as a kid and told me to go get a haircut from this shop, as they had a clientele of men that had the old country curly-hair, and I have had that hair forever.  I remember even getting a Roffler cut, just before I had my high school graduation photos taken.  It was always a great experience going for a hair appointment, because normally in forty-five minutes I could get a haircut, a manicure and a couple of pairs of shoes shined, a little bit of luxury for the average working man.

I felt sorry for my Barber, because he like everyone else was out of work for about three months and then he had a myriad of new regulations and hoops to jump through, basically overnight.  Not to mention that he had to book longer intervals between clients, and everyone’s hair cut was going to be longer, because there was so much hair to cut, or because some tried a “whitmer” cut and then they expected him to do a miracle.  I expected an increase in the cost of the haircut and I figured that he needed a special tip as well for all the extra work.    

I also got him a bottle of what has become our go-to wine and I have to pick up another case as we are getting low again, go figure.  I am sure that both he and his wife will appreciate a bottle of Famille Sichel Bordeaux Blanc 2017 as much as we enjoy the wine.  Famille Sichel is a family owned negocient firm from 1883 in Bordeaux, as they were in the procurement process for their locations in Mainz, London and New York.  In 1938 they even bought Chateau Palmer, which at the time had fallen on bad times and have since brought it back to all of its glory.  The family does not believe in resting on their laurels as in 2001 they even built a completely new bottling and storage facility in the Bordeaux region.  This particular bottle of wine is a blend of the two leading white grapes of Bordeaux, namely Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.  I don’t think that I would be amiss to opine that this wine was aged in Stainless Steel as there was plenty of fruit and very refreshing.  It starts off with a nose of citrus fruits and finishes with some terroir with a decent finish.  As usual, I took a long way around the block to get to the wine, but trust me, it is a pleasure to be back as part of society.

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Two Pinots from Black Star Farms

Posted on June 16, 2020 by thewineraconteur

I am starting to feel positive that the state is opening up, because another sure sign of commerce in the state is a shipment from a wine club from Black Star Farms who have vineyards and tasting rooms on both sides of Traverse City.  I am sure that they are sweating it out to see, if the opening of the state is really true, as they were the area that was able to open up first, because the governor has a cottage near there.  By now, they would have been in full tourist mode and they would really be doing some exceptional business.  There are companies that deliver groups for tastings, as well as individuals that do tastings the old-fashioned way, by driving up by themselves, the first group, I would venture to say are not into tastings, as much as they are into a having a good time.  They are not letting people belly-up to the bar for a tasting, at the moment all tastings will be done in outside areas with a three-sample flight.  Some of the traditional events are on hold at the winery like the “Trail Events” at least until September.  The Wine Club BBQ is still tentatively scheduled for July 17th, but they are being cautious at this date and not taking reservations yet.  The Inn is open again, and so is the Café, but with a limited menu. 

In 1998 Black Star Farms purchased Sport Valley Farm which was a one-hundred-twenty-acre equestrian facility, and the stylized black star was part of the architectural décor in the main house.  In their Twentieth year, they were honored to receive the 19’th Annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge (CIRC) -Best Wine of the 2018 Challenge and only the second time an American wine came out on top.  There were 567 Rieslings from six countries (Australian, New Zealand, USA, Germany, France and the Czech Republic).  The Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017 scored 98 points, in addition to taking home Best Dry Riesling and Best American Riesling.  In fact, all six of the Riesling wines that Black Star Farms submitted took home medals, showing a consistency across vintages and styles.  The fruit is sourced from both of the proprietor’s vineyards and from local grower partners in both the Old Mission Peninsula and Leelanau Peninsula.  The winery has three series; the premium Arcturos, A Capella and the Leorie Vineyard labels for sparkling and fruit wines.

We received four bottles of wine of two and two.  The first two bottles were Black Star Farms Arcturos Pinot Blanc Michigan 2017.  Pinot Blanc has seemed to adapt well to the Northern Michigan climate and Black Star Farms has bottled several vintages of this wine to date.  They claim that this vintage has beautiful aromatics, lush fruit flavors and a well-balanced wine.  Fresh apple and lemon notes with a subtle creaminess highlight this crisp wine and it is listed as being part of their dry white collection.  This wine carries a Michigan AVA, because the winery has vineyards in both Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas.  The other two bottles were Black Star Farms “A Capella” Pinot Noir Leelanau Peninsula 2017.  The “A Capella” designation is not used every year and only for better vintages.  In the past, they used fruit from multiple sites, but this year the fruit was from their Leelanau Summit site, which is now full matured.  The winery claims that this wine will deliver all of the virtuous qualities that one looks for from more “regal” wine districts; such as ripe cherry and pomegranate fruit, hints of violet and barrel spices.  This wine has the aging potential of five to seven years for cellaring.  I wish the wine regions and the whole state more freedom in the days to come.   

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Dawn’s Dream Rosé

Posted on June 14, 2020 by thewineraconteur

The last bottle in the carton from our wine club “A Taste of Monterey” was a Rosé, which is not something we normally see, as we belong to their Reserve Wine Selections group.  More and more people that I know are going back to work, which is a great sign.  The medical profession is getting back in order, and retailers no longer have to “wink, wink” about having an appointment for a customer.  I am still waiting to watch how the restaurant industry fares around here, so of the Mom and Pop places, and some of the chains are destined to close, because of the lockdown, while others will struggle with mandated limits on what they can do.  There are still some businesses that are still shut down and I feel sorry for them. 

On the real positive side, our wine club “A Taste of Monterey” is celebrating their Twenty-fifth Anniversary and that is quite an accomplishment.  I am not even sure how many years we have belonged, but we found them on our first trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea; one day we made a side trip, because I wanted to eat at the famous Sardine Factory on Cannery Row.  Ken and Robyn Rauh created the perfect showroom to feature the wines of Monterey County AVA.  The structure was originally the home for Paul Masson Winery and it has been reworked and is one of the finest wine shops and tasting rooms we have ever been to.  We enjoyed the wine tasting and the knowledge of the staff, bought some wines and also got some leads of wineries to go visit for further tastings and it ended up a major shopping spree.  We have been enjoying the selections ever since.

In the old days, one might have referred to Dawn’s Dream as a distaff winery or some might have called it a cottage industry, but today it is all good.  Dawn Galante is the wife of Jack Galante, and an officer for both companies, and to boot, she is from Michigan and fell in love with the Monterey region and who could fault her.  According to their blog Dawn’s Dream opened the doors in 2013 and the winery lives by her credo penned by Henry David Thoreau “Dreams are the touchstones of our character.”  Dawn’s Dream Pinot Noir Rosé Santa Lucia Highlands 2018 has been voted the “Best Rosé of Monterey County” for six years in a row, and without even trying it, I would venture to say that it is true, because some of the best Pinot Noir wines that I have had are from the Santa Lucie Highlands.  The wine features Clone 236 Pinot Noir grapes that are whole-cluster pressed to get a more delicate flavor, the wine is fermented and settled in Stainless Steel for a couple of months to maintain the freshness of the fruit and it was awarded 91 points in Wine Enthusiast.  The tasting notes say that this peachy-pink wine offers hints of tangerine, lemon zest and ripe apricot.  The taste offers ripe strawberry and watermelon with a crisp acidity that makes you desire another glass. I am sure that we shall soon have a verdict on this wine.

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