“You Look Like a Mobster”

Posted on December 24, 2019 by thewineraconteur

“You look like a mobster” is how someone broke the ice in a conversation with me, at a corporate holiday party, because Corporate America can not call it a Christmas Party anymore.  I mean I was totally at a loss for words for a moment, because I was trying to think what a mobster would wear at a party.  I was not dressed like I worked a nine to five job, in a gray or navy suit.  I had a dark burgundy sport coat with pearl gray flannel trousers, with a complimentary shirt and tie, perhaps the shoes were a bit much, since they were pearl gray suede wing tips, but I am a retired clothier.  The man was adamant because I looked slick and I had slick hair; that is what he told me.  I gave up and let him go on with his conversation, instead of having Rocco and boys take out back for a lesson in manners. 

Be that as it may, we had a very nice holiday party and both my Bride and I were rebellious and did not try to apply the “Avery” self-stick name tags on our garments, as she was wearing velvet and I have never liked wearing those.  Outside of the new couple, I knew everyone at the table, and everyone knows my Bride, since she works for the hosting company.  There were hot and cold appetizers being served by the waitstaff during the cocktail time of the dinner, and there was a seven-piece band playing very nice music in the background, and a photographer taking photos of people milling about.  I do get a kick out of watching people swoop down and try to get tons of the appetizers, my philosophy is to try one, if I don’t like them, no big deal, but others I guess were afraid that there would not be enough to eat during dinner.  We eventually were seated for dinner and rolls and butter and a salad were brought out.  The salad was what is termed a Michigan Salad with slivers of apple and raisons and a Champagne vinaigrette dressing.  The dinner was an option of either chicken or salmon that one had to preselect prior to the actual affair, and my Bride and I both had the Grilled Salmon with Lyonnais Potatoes and Green Beans.  For dessert there were a couple of sweet tables set up and one could get as much or as little as they wanted, and to me that is perfect.  After dinner there was a small talk by the Big Boss and they also handed out some awards and then it was time for dancing.

As I mentioned there was a cocktail hour and there was a cocktail bar, off to the side of tables and one could find groups huddled together as always happens at these affairs, for some business never ends.  The liquor selection was very good, I didn’t see what the beer selection was, but I did see some of the younger hires walking around with a bottle of beer, instead of using a glass.  Then there was wine and they were all from Langtry Estate & Vineyards.  Langtry Estate & Vineyards is located in the Guenoc Valley in California’s Lake County, and it was established by the British actress Lillie Langtry who bought the estate in 1888 and introduced the area to vineyards.  They produce all types of wines and blends and it is now twenty-three-thousand acres and overlooks a reservoir.  The estate if now owned by Foley Family Wines.  When I first went up to the bar to get a couple of glasses of white wine, I was informed that there was either Pinot Grigio or Riesling, so we ended up having the Langtry Estate Guenoc Pinot Grigio California 2018.  It was a very easy drinking glass of wine and that works for me.  When the dinner portion of the evening was approaching, I went and got a couple of glasses of the Langtry Estate Pinot Noir 2017, as I thought that I would like the Pinot Noir over a Cabernet Sauvignon to pair with the Salmon.  It was a decent wine, but after dinner we ended up going back to the Pinot Grigio and then the ladies behind the bar also discovered that they also had a Chardonnay, but we stayed with the Pinot Grigio.  My Bride and I stayed for some dancing, until they stopped playing our dance music, but it was a very nice evening.

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Ramos Pinto Lagrima

Posted on December 22, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I thought I was all done with the tastings at The Fine Wine Source, but Vintage Wine Company had another wine to pull out of their sleeve.  Vintage Wine Company represents Maisons Marques & Domaines, originally the marketing arm for Champagne Louis Roederer in the United States of America, but they have since expanded their services to forty-three wineries that are both domestic and abroad.  They had a white Port to serve.

Ramos Pinto is one of the Port Houses in Portugal and was founded by Adriano Ramos Pinto in 1880.  Their portfolio is famed for their aged Tawnies, but their other offerings have increased in respect in the past years and they offer all of the typical Port styles; besides the Tawny, there is the white, ruby and LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) as well as their Vintage Ports, and they also offer a Red and a White Douro table wine.  There are four different quintas or vineyards that they own, the first was bought in 1919 and the last was added in 1985.  In 1990 they became part of the Roederer Group.

The last wine was Ramos Pinto Lagrima NV, and a White Port is offered by every major house on the Douro River.  It is not appreciated as much as the other Port offerings, because it is viewed as inexpensive and slightly sweeter compared to the red Port wines.  There are about fifty different grapes that may be used to make White Port, and only about half of the grapes that can be used are white grapes, though the red grapes are often derided for being of lesser quality.  The wines are usually not aged in wood, but in Stainless Steel or Concrete vats, and they are usually aged for about eighteen months.  Lagrima means “tears” and usually refers to a viscous, sweet style of White Port and is predominately sold on their domestic market.  This particular wine is made using Codega, Malvasia Fina (Bual or Boal) and Rabigato (Rabo de Ovelha) grapes and they are all white or light skinned grapes.  I am sorry, but I fell in love with this wine, before I really knew what it was.  The nose was oranges and chamomile tea, the taste was just ripe fruit with a finish of a light honey.  I could picture any number of times when this wine would be perfect, even with my favorite dish of foie gras; or a dessert, which I seldom have any more, unless you count a wine after dinner.  This was a wine that I had to take home with me and eventually share with my Bride and others.

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Querciabella Chianti Classico and Camartina

Posted on December 20, 2019 by thewineraconteur

While I was enjoying a wine tasting at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, I was thinking what a great job the representatives at The Vintage Wine Company have in being able to taste and pour some great wines, potentially daily while they work.  The Vintage Wine Company is the distributor locally for Maisons Marques & Domaines, who originally was the marketing arm for Louis Roederer USA, Inc.  I just had two Italian wines from Querciabella, and I was going to try two other ones as well, and I did not know this winery until that day, which is not that hard to understand.  Alongside of the original hectare of vineyards are oak trees, and the name Querciabella translates to “beautiful oak.”

The third wine that I had was Querciabella Chianti Classico DOCG 2015, which is fitting for a winery that began in 1974 in Tuscany.  What is more Tuscan then Chianti Classico and a wine that I basically grew up on, even including the old straw wrapped bottles that add charm to many Italian restaurants.  Chianti Classico has to be Sangiovese and this wine is pure Sangiovese.  The fruit is hand-harvested and then destemmed but not crushed, it is sent to temperature controlled Stainless Steel vats where the fermentation and the maceration would take shape, the maceration lasts about twelve days and after complete malolactic fermentation, the juice is transferred to French oak barrels, both big and small ones, with only five percent being new.  The aging of the wine and the selection process for the Chianti Classico production takes about fourteen months and then there is an additional three months in the bottle.  This was a solid and rich Chianti perfect by itself and would be awesome with a big dinner with a great tomato sauce and plenty of spices, this wine would shy away. 

The last Italian wine was Querciabella Camartina Toscana IGT 2013, it is the estate’s signature Super Tuscan, but it is only produced in stellar vintages to maintain the prestige. The wine is a blend of seventy percent Cabernet Sauvignon and thirty percent Sangiovese.  The fruit is all hand harvested, destemmed and placed into five-ton French oak fermenters, where the alcoholic fermentation, maceration and malolactic fermentation occur.  The Sangiovese juice usually takes about twelve days, while the Cabernet Sauvignon usually require about twenty days.  Then the juice is transferred to French oak of which twenty-five percent is new and they are aged for twelve months.  Then the assorted lots are tested and the best are selected to be assembled in the final blend, which requires an additional year of aging.  The wine is then aged an additional six months in the bottle before release.  Eight-hundred-fifty cases were produced, plus some specialty larger individual wooden boxed bottles.  They figure that the prime time for drinking this wine is between four and eighteen years after harvest.  This was a charming wine and delivered every way possible, just from the visual of its deep color, the nose told you that this was a keeper.  A wine that had to be chewed to appreciate the layers of especially black cherries and other dark fruits that stayed with you for a nice long finish.  For me, this is a special occasion wine and should be paired with an excellent special cut of meat.  I was totally pleased and I think that I was so in awe, that I forgot to take a photograph of the wine.   

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Querciabella Batar and Mongrana

Posted on December 18, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There I was having this arduous job of just tasting some charming sparkling wines and then I was going to try some Italian wines while I was at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  All the wines that were being featured were from Maisons Marques & Domaines through there local distributor The Vintage Wine Company.   Maisons Marques & Domaines may have originally been the American marketing arm for Louis Roederer, they have since branched out and are the marketers for forty-three brands both domestically and abroad.

In 1974 Giuseppe Castiglioni, an industrial entrepreneur and lifelong wine lover bought a single hectare vineyard on a Tuscan hillside.  A place to grow his favorite grapes: Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, plus a couple more.   In the 1980’s he was joined by his son Sebastiano and they converted the estate to organic viticulture in 1988 and made Querciabella one of the original wineries in Italy to go that route.  Sebastiano also was for animal rights and made the winery plant-based.  From that single hectare vineyard in Tuscany, there are now more than a hundred hectares under the Querciabella name as they are also in Chianti Classico and in Maremma. 

The Querciabella Batar Toscana IGT 2015 was the first of the wines that I tasted from this winery.  This wine is a blend of equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc.  Some of the fruit comes from the original vineyard and then the other parts come from newer acquisitions and there are two distinct types of soil which lend to the terroir of this wine, one is of a sandstone setting and the other a schist and slate type of soil.  The fruit is hand harvested and after fermentation the wine is aged on the lees in French Oak for nine months and stirred once a week. After the two wines are blended, they are then aged an additional six months in concrete vats.  While the wine is drinkable immediately the winery feels that four years is when the wine will really show its personality and they think it will hold its own for twenty years in the cellar. The wine was very impressive and one of the few white “Super Tuscans” that I have had and priced like a fine red from the region.  The wine was rich, almost Burgundian with layers and nuances that were wonderful for a young wine, offering both terroir and peaches, honey and almonds.  I could have stopped here, but I did go on with the tastings.  The Querciabella Mongrana Toscana IGT 2016 is from the Maremma region and the Chianti Classico region and is a red “Super Tuscan” wine.  Since the inception of this wine, it has always been biodynamically grown.  The wine is fifty percent Sangiovese, twenty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and twenty-five percent Merlot.  The soils from the varied vineyards are a mix of gravel, pebbles, silt and alluvial sand all which impart terroir or as I affectionately call it dirt.  The juices were aged in either cement or stainless steel and then blended together.  This wine was what all the red “Super Tuscan” wines should be, especially in this price point which was very affordable and even in a restaurant would still not break the budget.  It was a rich, deep Chianti that had plenty of nuances from the different grapes and was made to be enjoyed young and up to ten years in the cellar.  Very easy to drink by itself or with food and light years away from that old “Dago Red” that was probably some of the earliest wines that I ever had as a kid. 

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Louis Roederer Cristal

Posted on December 16, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There are times when I get to taste a wine that odds are, I would never get a chance to try.  This happened at The Fine Wine Source in in Livonia, Michigan as I was doing a wine tasting.  The Vintage Wine Company was representing Maisons Marques & Domaines, the marketing arm of Champagne Louis Roederer USA, Inc.  They were offering ten different wines from this agency that they represent and there was a fine turnout for this tasting, and at times, it does get a bit claustrophobic, but I think that is part of the charm of the tastings there, and people seem to understand that I make a pest of myself as I take my photos and my notes.

Louis Roederer after changing the family owned business to his name, began some unique business practices for the day; like buying his own vineyards, instead of relying on the work of others, and he also began exporting his wine  in the 1870’s to the United States and to Tsar Alexander II of Russia.  He created a special Champagne for the Tsar, the first Cuvée de Prestige in 1876 and named it “Cristal.” This special wine even had a special bottle designed in leaded crystal and was a flat-bottomed bottle with no indentation in the bottle, as the Tsar was afraid of a bomb being potentially placed in the indentation with the intention of assassination.   “Cristal” is only produced when a vintage is declared and since the year 2000, they have only declared nine vintages. 

Louis Roederer Cristal 2007 is from one of those vintages and the fruit for this wine is estate only and from some of the oldest vines and their finest vineyards.  This wine was aged for six years on the lees, and after the disgorging the wine rests an additional eight months to fully mature, before being released.  The wine is a blend of sixty percent Pinot Noir and forty percent Chardonnay.  It had a very pretty golden color with the slightest tinge of maybe some orange, that may not show up in the photo.  It was a very silky wine with limestone terroir sharing with tastes of pear, currants and hazelnuts for a delightful finish.  Perhaps it was best said by the Cellar Master Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon who said “Cristal 2007 is a magnificent example of Cristal’s ‘discreet power.’”

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Champagne Louis Roederer

Posted on December 14, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I guess being retired and attending some wine tastings, like I do at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan is not a bad job.  Representatives from the Vintage Wine Company were pouring and discussing wines that they represent from Maisons Marques & Domaines an international wine management company that was originally formed as the sales and marketing arm of Champagne Louis Roederer USA, Inc.

Louis Roederer is a Champagne house located in Reims one of the two main cities of Champagne.  The house was founded in 1776, and while it has always been family owned in 1833, Louis Roederer took over the business from his uncle and renamed the company after himself.  One of the most unique business concepts at the time was when in 1845 he began acquiring some Grand Cru vineyards and got into the cultivation as well as the winemaking, because at that time, the houses just bought the grapes from the vineyards.  The house now owns two-hundred-forty hectares of their own vineyards.  They are also integrating the concept of biodynamic farming into their vineyards. 

The first of the Champagnes that I tasted was Champagne Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV, Brut Premier is their designation for non-vintage, because otherwise the wine would read Brut and the Year.  This wine is a blend of forty percent Pinot Noir, forty percent Chardonnay and twenty percent Pinot Meunier and the juice comes from forty different plots.  There are no shortcuts in making Champagne, as they use assorted casks and the juice used in the Premier has a minimum aging period of three years on the lees, and then the wine is rested for six months after the disgorgement to perfect and maintain the maturity.  The wine offers the classic taste of brioche and vanilla.  The second wine that I had was Champagne Louis Roederer Rosé 2012 and 2012 was a very difficult year to call, because production was down due to the weather conditions.  This wine is a blend of sixty-three percent Pinot Noir and thirty-seven percent Chardonnay and is entirely from estate grown vines from one of their earliest cru vineyards.  This wine is made using the saignée process, as the house calls their “infusion” technique, a small amount of Chardonnay juice is added to the Pinot Noir maceration which then ferment together with no malolactic fermentation, the wine is bottle aged for four years and then another six months after the disgorging.  This was a very refreshing glass of Champagne with offerings of currants, oranges and vanilla with limestone terroir and finishing off with hazelnuts and very vibrant and fresh despite its age.  Yes, I was a happy taster. 

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Scharffenberger Cellars

Posted on December 12, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I had the recent good fortune to attend a wine tasting at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan where I belong to their monthly wine club.  The tasting was being sponsored by the Vintage Wine Company and was featuring wines from Maisons Marques & Domains.  Maisons Marques & Domaines USA Inc. was founded in 1987 as the United States sales and marketing arm for Champagne Roederer Estate.  They now represent forty-three brands including Dominus Estate and Chateau Petrus. 

The history of Scharffenberger Cellars began in 1981 in the heart of Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, California.  They are located only miles from the coastal influences of the Pacific Ocean.  Originally founded by John Scharffenberger, the company has gone through changes including a name change from 1998 to 2004 when it was known as Pacific Echo.  One of the first changes introduced by management team of Maisons Marques & Domaines was the restoration of the name Scharffenberger Cellars.  Since 1989, the one constant was the winemaker “Tex” Sawyer who enjoys the cooler and longer growing period that the Anderson Valley offers and he has since developed strong relationships with other Mendocino County winegrowers for additional fruit.

I had the good fortune to try the two sparkling wines being offered.  The first wine was Scharffenberger Cellars Brut Excellence Mendocino County NV and it is a blend of fruits from the one-hundred-twenty acres of the estate and from select vineyards from the county.  The wine is a blend of sixty percent Chardonnay and forty percent Pinot Noir and they employ the Methode Traditionelle process after a period of two years on the lees.  They produce about twenty-thousand cases annually.  The wine offered the classic yeasty bread flavor with some vanilla and caramel in the finish.  The other wine that I tried was the Scharffenberger Cellars Brut Rosé Excellence Mendocino County NV.  This wine is a blend of fifty-six percent Chardonnay and forty-four percent Pinot Noir and was allowed to age on the lees for two years.  The color is achieved by adding four to five percent more Pinot Noir before the second fermentation and the Methode Traditionelle process.  There was just under three-thousand cases produced of this wine annually.  I really enjoyed this sparkling wine as it offered not only the yeasty bread that I look for, but also the nose and taste of some red fruits (strawberries and raspberries) for a delicious layered finish.  A delightful way to begin a tasting. 

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A Great Night at The Earle

Posted on December 10, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We met The Caller and his wife at The Earle in Ann Arbor.  The Caller was given his name, by one of the other Wine Bloggers and the name has stuck, and it is because there are often times when we are not together that he tweaks my nose by mentioning dinners, wines, restaurants and vacation getaways that he and his wife are enjoying without us.  He is a real character and he certainly has a place among my circulating cast.  We always try to meet somewhere half and half, though Ann Arbor is closer for us, then for them, it is basically a quick shot, until you are actually driving in the city, and I sometimes think that perhaps the rules of the road do not apply to the world of academia, or maybe, because driving is not a practiced necessity in a university community, of course the same can be said about driving in Detroit.  You may notice that we often go to The Earle, because it has a wine carte of over twelve-hundred selections of wine and has received the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for twenty-one consecutive years, which is quite an accomplishment for an independent restaurant that is located in the basement of a building off the main drag. 

We got to the restaurant ahead of them, and even forgetting something, we made such great time that evening, that once we found that they were near, we ordered a couple of plates of Steamed Mussels in garlic and white wine and it arrived at the table at the same time that they did, because it usually takes us for ever to order food as there is so much to catch up on.  I was going to order a carnivore dish, but the rest of the table was going light and I even had to go a catch our waitress to change my order.  She was so thrilled with the dish that I had the last time that she had to order it again and talked The Caller’s wife into it, as well.  The Coquilles St. Jacques al crème de Xeres, or sea scallops sautéed with mushrooms and garlic, pan-sauced with Sherry and cream with rice, and since I wasn’t having red meat, ordered the same dish also.  The Caller ordered Breaded Chicken Breasts sautéed with Prosciutto, pan-sauced with white wine, lemon and sage and served with orzo, and not a bad dish (my Bride had hinted that I should have ordered that dish as well, but I guess I missed the hint).  Afterwards we had a dessert with four spoons, a community affair.

With such a great wine list, I needed some extra time to make the initial selection, as I always feel that all eyes are on me, including my own Chancellor of the Exchequer, to find a wine that is interesting, delicious and affordable, and it is the last requirement that sometimes gets me into trouble.  Please do not ask me how, but there I was looking at a long list of French White Wines and my eye was attracted to a wine that I had not heard of, but that I had seen it mentioned by two other Wine Bloggers, so I thought that was the wine to start with.  I ordered a bottle of Maison Chanzy Bouzeron Clos de la Fortune Monopole 2015, and the Sommelier arrived with the bottle, because she was very curious to see who had ordered this wine, and I have to admit that I had to look up Bouzeron after the second time that I saw it, in retrospect, I should have looked it up immediately, but sometimes I am lazy, even if it is about wine.  Maison Chanzy used to be known as Domaine Chanzy and they own eight hectares spread across three Burgundy Cotes, with the majority of the plantings in the Cote Chalonnaise and with an historical presence in Bouzeron, and it is Bouzeron that they are most proud of, and willing to tell the world about it.  Bouzeron is a small village that now has its own appellation since 1998, but only for white wines made from the Aligoté grape, and for years it was listed under a sub-division title of Bourgogne-Aligoté.  Bouzeron is in the northern Saone-et-Loire region of the Cote Chalonnaise, in the valley and the Dheune River separates it from Santenay and it is very close to Rully and Chassagne-Montrachet.  Eighty percent of the juice is done on the lees in Stainless Steel and the balance in oak and it is bottled in the summer, to maintain the fruit and youthfulness of the Aligoté grape.  As you may have noticed Maison Chanzy owns the entire Clos de la Fortune and they are very proud of it, as part of their domain.  The wine offered nice herbal notes, and some great terroir (flinty from all of the limestone soil of the area) with a nice refreshing finish.  I was going to order a titled Chablis for our second bottle of wine for the dinner, but I was roundly outvoted, as everyone was more than pleased with this wine.  After dinner, we did enjoy something that to me was more interesting and fulfilling than a dessert, as we shared a split of Chateau Les Mingets Sauternes 2011.  It is part of Vignobles LVDH and provides quality wines in the United States and Europe, since 1997.  The wine is pure Semillon and was aged in oak for eighteen months and like every Sauternes I have had, it is drinkable from day one, but really enjoys aging when it gets a chance.  It offered classic notes of honey and melon with some terroir thrown in for good measure.  Hopefully, now that three of the four of us are retired, we can make arrangements for dinners more often.  

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The Ladies’ Annual Christmas Party 2019

Posted on December 8, 2019 by thewineraconteur

This annual Christmas party has been going on, long before I ever arrived on the scene, but not as long as the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade or the traditional Lion’s Thanksgiving game.  It is a tradition and it is a mix of business associates and family members, though some have accused her of weighting it more towards her family, but she does as she sees fit.  It is always a good crowd and it is always the first Friday after the Thanksgiving weekend.  The entrants all bring a wrapped gift for an exchange and before they select a gift, they undergo a type of third degree, where my Bride reads their last year’s goal, the person must admit if they achieved their goals and they must state their new goals.  My Bride keeps her notes from each party and has scrapbooks filled with photos and memories.  It is fun, and if the participants didn’t enjoy it, I am sure that it would have disappeared from the horizon by now. 

Besides the entrant cost of a gift for the exchange, the ladies all bring a dish for a “pot luck” dinner, a curious tradition that seems to endure across all age and socio-economic groups.  Consequently, there is an abundance of food.  There were plenty of salads, mixed, creamed, Jello and Tabbouleh; finger appetizers like jumbo shrimp cocktails (there must have been two different women that brought the same type of dish), as well as hummus and pita, and cheese and crackers.  There were roast chickens and fried chicken, rolled sandwiches and some casseroles.  Also, plenty of desserts and I guess all of the women were happy.  I had a prior commitment, so I wasn’t there from the beginning and by rights, I should not have been, but I did attack all the food that was laid out on the island in the kitchen after saying hello to everyone. 

There were many different beverages being consumed with such a large group.   I saw a couple of bottles of Clos du Bois Pinot Grigio California 2018 finished off.  Clos du Bois was founded in 1974 by Frank Woods in Sonoma County and originally produced Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Woods eventually sold the winery to the beverage giant Constellation Brands, Inc. in 1988.  This was a very easy drinking wine that was aged in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit and a floral nose.  I think that I may have been the hero, because I stopped and got a bottle of liqueur that I was touted about, that I had not heard about.  The ladies all loved the Baileys Chocolate Cherry.  Irish Cream was introduced in 1974, and Baileys accounts for half of all spirits exported from Ireland.  The recipe includes Irish Whiskey, sugar, cocoa extract, cherries and cream.  The whiskey is sourced from several distilleries around Ireland and they use two-hundred-twenty million liters of fresh milk each year.  In case you are curious, the cream and whiskey are combined, then homogenized with the aid of an emulsifier containing refined vegetable oils, so that the liquids do not separate when stored.  The alcohol preserves the cream allowing the liqueur to have a shelf life of two years.  The unanimous decision was that this drink had to be consumed over ice, as I was serving it, or with hot coffee.  I think that there is enough left for my Bride and I to have some in coffee, in the near future. 

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Thanksgiving 2019

Posted on December 6, 2019 by thewineraconteur

This was the first time that we did not have the entire family together for quite a while, but we did the best that we could do.  Thanksgiving has always been likened to the center of a hurricane, because there is just so much activity and pressure.  There is the extra and deep cleaning that occurs, before all the holidays and parties arrive.  With my entire career in retail the month of December had a tremendous increase in the amount of hours I would work, so there was the desire to get all of the shopping done, so that if I did have some free time, it wasn’t spent shopping, a busman’s holiday is not something to look forward to.  My Bride is to be commended, as I try to stay out of her way.  The day before Thanksgiving, she goes to the Post Office to mail the Christmas and Chanukah cards with newsletters inserted, the parcels for all the out of town gifts are also posted at that time.  All of the gifts for families, friends, coworkers have been all wrapped and bundled into groups; which means that by the time the big day arrives, all of the bills have been paid as well, she is very organized. 

She also has selected the menu for the Thanksgiving dinner as well and has shopped for it.  My job is to schlep the items that we only use occasionally in the kitchen, like the roaster, and that is set up in the library, just to keep the electric circuits from having too much strain.  Some of the side dishes she prepares ahead of time and the house smells even more delightful for several days in advance.  As soon as we get up on Thanksgiving Day, she begins making the turkey, which is always around twenty to twenty-four pounds (which seems to be the maximum size that we can fit in the roaster).  She stuffs the bird, and sews up the cavities, she puts butter under the skin, props the wings and the legs with onions and gets the bird into a cooking bag and then into the roaster.  Then it is time for coffee and the morning paper, and I must say that even though the daily paper is out and out liberal, they do become staunch capitalists on Thanksgiving Day when the price of a paper goes from $2.00 to $5.00 a copy and there is even less journalism than usual apparent.  I did keep all of the rotogravure section of the paper together, because I knew that after dinner, the shoppers would decide on their battle plans for Black Friday.  Now back to the menu, the stove was slowly being filled up with different dishes, some in the oven and some on the ranges.  She also made a very large roasted pork tenderloin, along with Armenian Pilaf, sweet potatoes, Brussel Sprouts sautéed in bacon and drizzled with aged Balsamic, a whole big pot of her stuffing that wouldn’t fit in the turkey, and gravy made from the drippings.  There were also dishes brought in by the family.  And let us not forget all of the assorted cakes, pies and cookies, of course there was a Birthday cake for the November celebrants.  My Bride and I always have discussions about when the food should be done, we tell everyone to come at two, so that dinner can be at three, I had the turkey and the pork carved (my big job of the day), by the time the first guests arrived.  Then all of the appetizers had to be set out.  Of course, I was already quite full, because you know that the carver has to check on the meats from different cuts, to make sure that everything is OK, and I am quite zealous about that.

The Louisville clan could not make the trip and then the wines get even more interesting, but with all of the work involved, I forgot to go pick some wines, but there are plenty of wines, where ever one looks basically in this house.  I also took it upon myself to do some proselytizing for new wine drinkers from the crowd that really doesn’t drink wine.  I was trying to teach them how to taste wine, and I had to keep stopping them from drinking the wine as if it was beer.  As I finally got them to slow down and whistle some air over their tongue and chew the wine before drinking, they had a bit of wonder in their eyes, as they finally kind of discovered the complexities of wine that they had not noticed before, when in a drinking type of mode.  Of course, the working hosts started the holiday off a bit early, with all of the pressure and strain of the day, we needed something like and easy and would work well, if and when our guests began arriving, with the appetizers.  The Joseph Carr Josh Cellars Chardonnay 2018 is a wine that I never worry about, as it is always fresh, citrusy with a touch of oak/butter in the mix.  Joseph Carr began in 2005 making his line of wines, representing the best of vineyards for a California version of the classic French wines.  In 2007 he created the Josh Cellar line to represent California wines in a more relaxed, and affordable price range and named this collection after his father.  The fruit for this wine comes from both Mendocino and Monterey counties, both respected for producing quality Chardonnay grapes.  Joseph Carr is part of the much larger Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, and as an interesting side note, Joseph Carr lives in Cape Cod when he is not making wine.  I decided to try some of the wines that I had just wrote about, to see what we may need for December, as if we need to buy any wine, unless I take her to a tasting.  The first of the club wines that I opened was a bottle of Tenuta Neirano Le Croci Barbera D’Asti Superiore DOCG 2016.  The Sperone family has been making affordable wines for four generations, originally in Puglia and in 1983 they purchased seventy-five acres in the Piedmont.  The fruit for this wine came from Le Croci (The Crosses) vineyard and the wine is entirely Barbera.  The fruit is hand harvested and has three weeks of maceration and four weeks of fermentation in Stainless Steel.  The juice is then aged for one year in small oak cask and then an additional six months in the bottle before it is released.  This wine showed great tannins and a rich nose and taste of black cherry and dark fruit, which I would expect.  A pleasurable and affordable wine that worked well with dinner. The second wine from my club that I opened was Rabble Wine Company Red Wine 2017 with its distinctive old-world wood cut label. Rabble Wine Company of Paso Robles was founded by Rob Murray and it was originally known as Rob Murray Vineyards and then it became Force of Nature, before settling into its current name.  The wine is a blend of seventy-seven percent Merlot, fourteen percent Cabernet Sauvignon and nine percent Petite Sirah and barrel aged for ten months and a potential cellar aging of three to seven years.  The fruit all came from their Mossfire Ranch Vineyard which is one of their flagship vineyards for red wine varietals.  This wine was really a winner, especially for being affordable, there were dark cherries and dark fruits in the nose and in the finish, that I could even get the novices to notice.  The tannins were soft and a nice medium finish of dark fruit and some spice that made one want to have another sip.   Well Thanksgiving 2019 is one for the books, and for all of the food we sent off with the different families, we still had some leftovers,  and then on the weekend the day came that I look forward to with dread, I had to bring up the thirty cartons of Christmas decorations up from the basement, so that she could get the house changed over from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and yes, I am still among the living. 

  

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