Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

While most kids in high school were trying to get someone to buy them beer, I was that weird kid drinking wine.

The wine I was drinking was about the same level of quality as their beer, but I didn’t care. I was drinking real wine. From Italy. It was imported. And it was advertised on the radio. In the Buffalo area, where I grew up the ads were voiced by Danny Neaverth a long-time Buffalo radio god.

The ads?

Canei?* Yes, You Can!

*(pronounced like Can I)

Oh it was Klassy! It even had a screw top making it super convenient for the teenaged Gretchen.

I drank this wine as I moved into my college years (where it was actually not entirely too awful with the Thai food we ordered from Tipsuda (sadly, long gone!)

Why mention this?

Well, yesterday, while on a quest for a new hydrometer (people keep breaking them which I find annoying) and the liquor store that I visited to replace the broken equipment, there it was.  A bottle of Canei.  I haven’t seen a bottle of it in years.  It was calling me.  Like a siren’s song.

So we bought a bottle and brought it home and poured it while eating a Giordano’s Pizza (another 1985 pairing).

And like the siren’s song, the Canei dashed me on the rocks.

OMG.  It sucked.  SUCKED.
What was teenaged me thinking?  I don’t know.  I was 19.  I didn’t know any better and it was my introduction to buying wine.

Clearly, my taste buds have moved on.  And we ditched the Canei and opened a dry rosé instead.

So Canei go home again?  No, I can’t.

And I am guessing that the Ruinite and ice won’t be nice.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I don’t always go visit wineries… Sometimes I pick up wine at the liquor store, like I would if I were at home. That way, I can bring home more wine.

Such was the case with this wine that Kevin suggested that we open this bottle last night. It is from 5 Trails Winery in Nebraska, which I did not visit. I went to Feather River and tried to go to South Fork Winery instead. And to me, this is a shame as this was a GREAT wine. It tasted of pears and citrus and was full and fruity.

It is produced from the Frontenac Gris grape which came from one cane of Frontenac grapes grown at the University of Minnesota. This one cane produced gray fruit instead of black and is the source of all the existing stock of the Gris varietal. I had to look this up as I had never heard of it before.

I was once asked if I could claim that I wine from Southern Illinois (or any of the other places that I look for local wines) was as good as a wine produced in Italy or France. At the time, I argued that it was irrelevant because they were different wines and were meant to be so… This wine, however, I will put up against a Moscato anytime. It was excellent.

And this is what I love about VinoVerve and local wine.

Powered by Bookmarkify™