Archive for January, 2016
Mr. Ridge Goes to Mudgies
January 31st, 2016 | 
Author: Our old partner in crime, Putnam Weekley, gave me a shout a few weeks ago to let me know about an upcoming Ridge Vineyards tasting at a cool little Detroit deli called Mudgies. Mudgies is a classic Corktown joint, old school and charmingly so. The focus is on local products whenever possible, in-house roasted meats, fresh soups and high quality cocktails, meads, craft brews and, of course, wines. Putnam bartends afternoons and also extends his considerable knowledge toward the selection of the alcohol that is served. There’s a different wine theme each Tuesday evening, and last week, it was the aforementioned Mr. Ridge. Lord knows, I have more than a little experience with this producer, and while I might have passed on some other such events, I know that anything Mr. Weekley has his fingers in is bound to be good, so I saddled up and drove down to take it all in. Turns out I was right, because not only were the wines terrific, I also ran into and renewed acquaintances with my old friends Steve and Robin Kirsch and Rick Lopus. (Click images to enlarge.)
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Red Rhone Rangers from Bonny Doon
As always, our tradition of pairing Red Wings hockey with Red Rhône wines is not exclusive to libations from southern France alone. All a bottle needs to qualify for Hockey Night in Day-twah is to be full of Grenache, Syrah or any other variety native to that region, be they grown in California, Australia, Argentina or wherever. We have our favorites, of course, and it should come as no surprise to longtime readers that Bonny Doon Vineyard is at the top of the list. (Click on image to enlarge.)
We got our hands on these three recently, and yes, they were all enjoyed while rooting for our boys with the winged wheel on the front of their jerseys. Here are our impressions.
White Stuff
Our wine fridge in the basement died a while back, so I spent some time a few weeks ago transferring the bottles from it into our passive Cellar From Hell. I had to move some things around to make everything fit, which is a good problem to have in this case, because it occurred to me that what had been a somewhat depleted collection a few years ago has become fairly substantial once again. Perhaps most surprising is that there’s a good deal of Chardonnay down there now, which was never the case before, and it ain’t from California, baby, it’s all from the Chablis and Maconnais wine regions. Nothing “high end” (except for that one Raveneau), just solid and damned tasty stuff. We can live with that.
I’ve already blogged about the Collovray & Terrier Mâcon-Villages Tradition, Domaine de Roally Macon Vire-Clesse and Laroche and Picq Chablis, all of which are now well represented in our stash. In the past few months, the following three selections have also been very well received here at Gang Central.
I know that we’ve enjoyed previous vintages of this next wine at our good friend Anne Keller-Klump’s house; it’s out of the Vineyard Brands portfolio that she represents here in Michigan. This is the first time I’ve taken notes, though, and I’m glad I did, because it’s a keeper. (Click images to enlarge.)
