🍷 Wine With Some History
US Grant Wines waited for the right time to release 12 vintages.
It’s not often a winery gets to start making wine and wait 12 years to release bottles — and it’s not often that a winery would choose a city the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan, among its first markets.
But that’s exactly what US Grant Wines did. And Essence Restaurant Group Advanced Sommelier Tristan Walczewski was able to bring in winemaker Michael Terrien for a special dinner at Bistro Bella Vita this week for the release.
US Grant Wines makes pinot noir on its estate overlooking Monterey Bay in California, and just a few hundred cases are made each year. The dinner at Bistro showcased four different vintages from the last 12 years, as Terrien hoped to showcase the differences that year-to-year changes in environment can influence a wine made in the same place.
The dinner paired 2013 and 2015 with duck two ways, and a 2018 and 2019 with grilled salmon. There were drastic differences between the vintages next to one another, like with the 2018 and 2019, the 2018 was much funkier and heartier on the palate than the cleaner 2019.
While the US Grant wines began making their first vintage in 2012, the site's history is awesome. It dates back to the 1860s during the Civil War, when the Jarvis brothers planted the first vineyard on the land, calling it the Union Vineyard. Zinfandel was first planted in 1914, before David Bruce purchased the vineyard and planted pinot noir in 1968.
Ken Burnap bought estate in 1974 and subsequently built a winery on the land, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards.
The current owners, Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons, purchased the land from Burnap in 2004 and replanted the six acres. On the estate, there remains one giant Redwood tree, which the original owners named General Grant.
With Terrien at the helm of the winemaking process, US Grant does minimal manipulation, including organic dry-farming and no tilling of the soil. The process also does not use pumps or filters.
Terrien allows the yeast from the grapes to wild ferment in stone concrete fermentation vessels.
From the small vineyard, the winery makes between 200 to 900 cases of pinot noir every year, helping showcase the Santa Cruz mountain terrior with the delicate, complex wines that vary greatly each year. The website has an excellent breakdown of each vintage.
By the way, Bistro Bella Vita has an excellent wine club that just went through a big refresh: Vino & Vita. If you’re in GR, the pickup day has a 20% off dine-in purchases, but those outside of the area can have it shipped. Tristan picks great wines and includes a really great breakdown and pairing suggestions for each of the three picks.
While Tristan knows wine inside and out unlike anyone I’ve ever met, he also has a great way of looking at it as he does a fantastic job of teaching customers, “don’t overthink it, it’s just grape juice,” as he once told me for a previous Saturday Sips issue.
Whiskey dinner
Along with the US Grant dinner, I had the pleasure of going to a rye whiskey dinner hosted by the Amway Grand Plaza’s Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
Lead server Kurt picked four ryes to showcase the array of differences in the spirit.
Meanwhile, the kitchen team at Ruth’s Chris was excited to stray from the corporate chain menu and show off some culinary flair they otherwise don’t get to:
Wild Turkey Russell’s 6 Year Rye with Gruyere Arancini
Sagamore Spirit Rye paired with a Creole Agnolotti
Sazerac Rye paired with Lamb & Halloumi Salad
New Riff Rye paired with Wagyu Beef Cheeks
The Sazerac Rye and Lamb & Halloumi Salad stole the show in both taste and the way they melded together.
Interesting reads of the week
I’ve gotten a lot of weird bottles of liquor sent to me over the years. Sometimes, I’m not quite sure what to do with them. Well, Inside Hook provided a great way to check out new spirits, the Sonic. It’s a mixture of soda water and tonic with the spirit.
If you missed it this week, Oscar Mayer held the Wienie 500 between the six regional wienermobiles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of its partnership with the Indy 500. It … was something. Anyway, here’s a great breakdown of 11 regional hot dogs ahead of Memorial Day, also from Inside Hook.
Thinking of American wine, California surely is at the top, then maybe Oregon, New York, here in Michigan; shoot every state now has a wine region. The first official wine region in the US, though? The Ozark Highlands in Missouri.
Loved this historical wine project highlighted by Wine Spectator. They’re bringing back winemaking to Pompeii.
Oysters are a fun treat, and $1 oyster nights used to be frequent. They’re disappearing. Eater dives into why. (Editor’s Note: Mark Kurlansky’s The Big Oyster is a great way to learn about the history of New York … and oysters.)