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For being the 500th person to “Like” Gang of Pour on our Facebook page this summer, our friend Stacey Lind won a casual dinner with Adams/Heritier and Associates at Gang Central. So, armed with some delicious home made apple dumplings with maple sauce and accompanied by her husband Jim, Stacy braved the cross-town traffic recently to join Kim, this taster and our longtime partners in crime Martha and Gary Shea for an evening of food, wine and stimulating conversation.  We got things started with some nice rosé.

2009 Domaine du Pellehaut Côtes de Gascogne Harmonie de Gascone Rosé, 12.5% alc., $8.99: Raspberry pink color, with ripe raspberry, strawberry, rainwater and mineral flavors and aromas; medium bodied, smooth in texture, with good acids and length.  Riper than many southern French rosés, but not unduly so, and a worthy successor to the previous model that we liked so well. Find this wine

Imported by J & J Importers, Ltd., Bloomfield Hills, MI

We followed that up with a nice 2009 Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Rosé that we first reported on last April, courtesy of Martha and Gary, then moved on to the latest incarnation of a dear old friend.

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2008 Chateau d’Oupia Minervois Tradition,13% alc., $12.99: As with the best of the Tradition bottlings over the years, this dark garnet colored elixir exudes a note of black olive that sets the tone to its personality, all over a solid core of earthy blackberry and black currant.  Full bodied, with balanced structure and lovely presence, this is already drinking well from the first pour, and should improve over at least the next few years.  Classic d’Oupia Minervois, and a pleasure to sip and savor. Find this wine

Louis/Dressner Selections, Imported by LDM Wines, Inc., New York, NY

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2009 Montebuena Rioja, 100% Tempranillo, 13.5% alc., $9.99: Clean, dark color, with creamy, somewhat chocolatey black cherry and blackberry character that morph into a chocolate cherry kind o’ thing as it opens in the glass.  Full bodied, with good structure and length; definitely in the international rather than traditional style, and while I can appreciate it for what it is, I wouldn’t buy it again. Find this wine

Imported by Kysela Pere et Fils, Ltd., Winchester, VA

We finished up with Stacey’s delightful apple dumplings, along with a little bit of J.K.’s Scrumpy Farmhouse Organic Hard Cider, which proved to be too much (too sweet!) for just about everybody but me, and I like it just fine. (Our colleagues at Gourmet Underground Detroit said much the same about this cider being too sweet in a recent blog post. )

All in all, a delightful evening was had by all, and the smoked pork didn’t suck like Kim said it did in my not-so-humble opinion. Most surprisingly, who would have suspected that all six of us were fans of late, great, ever-so-eccentric Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould?  We rocked out to the Goldberg Variations…

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.

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3. Wine with Pizza
4. Dinner at the Forest Grill, Birmingham, MI
5. Touring California Wine Country – Rosati Family Wines with a little Ridge Jimsomare on the side