Lunch at The Cellar Door Bistro & Wine Shop DG

Lunch at The Cellar Door Bistro & Wine Shop DG

We lunched at the The Cellar Door Bistro & Wine Shop in Downers Grove, (IL).

The Cellar Door offers a wide selection of wines BTG, by the glass, or by the bottle for purchase, to take home, or drink in the store with food, for a nominal corkage fee of $10. 

The Cellar Door was founded by Sean Chaudhry in 2005 and purchased by longtime General Manager Ryan Jansky in 2021. Sean also owns The Hinsdale Wine Shop in nearby suburban Hinsdale, IL. Sean has traveled the world, developing personal relationships with winemakers and exporters who specialize in small wineries that still hand-pick grapes and personally tend to the day-to-day management of their craft vineyards. It’s because of these relationships, he’s able to provide remarkable wines at a good value.

The Cellar Door was created to offer enthusiasts a place to relax and enjoy great food and wine, at reasonable prices.

The Cellar Door consists of a literal wall of wine, opposite a tasting bar, with casual seating inside, at the bar, or out front outside on the patio. 

The Cellar Door Bistro & Wine Shop seeks out interesting wines representing all the popular and designated varietals, to pair with a selection of food options, at agreeable prices. 

Besides Daily Specials, the food menu includes ​​Salads, Sandwiches, Cauliflower Crust Pizzas, and Cheese & Charcuterie Flights, market portions served with toasted focaccia bread, GF crackers, and three accompaniments and Warm Meat Options - Chicken Liver Pate (Brandy & Sage), and of course, Desserts. 

For each food selection, there is a suggested Wine Pairing.

For lunch we ordered a Cheese & Charcuterie Flight with toasted focaccia bread, GF crackers, and olive oil. We also ordered the ​Truffle Burrata Bruschetta - grape tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic & truffle oil, burrata, balsamic fig glaze, toasted baguette, Maldon salt, and the Bacon Wrapped Dates (g/f) goat cheese, medjool dates, Benton’s bacon, red pepper coulis, dressed greens.

All were artfully prepared and presented by friendly, attentive, knowledgeable staff, and were delicious, actually exceeding our expectations in all respects! 

In addition to the Truffle Burrata Bruschetta and Bacon Wrapped Dates, we also selected a cheese and pate’ plate. Our selections:  

- Delice de Bourgogne (soft triple cream, cow's milk, Burgundy, France)
- Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk (soft triple cream, cow's milk, California)
- White Stilton with Mango and Ginger (sweet semisoft cow's milk, UK)
- Benning's Goat Gouda (aged, firm goats milk, Holland)
- Warm Meat Option - Chicken Liver Pate’ (Brandy & Sage).

For a wine accompaniment we selected this interesting Napa Valley Red Blend - 

Robert Foley “The Griffin” Napa Valley Red 2019

Winemaker Robert (Bob) Foley began his wine making career in the Napa Valley in 1977, after graduating from UC Davis with degrees in both Viticulture and Enology. He spent his first year working for Heitz Cellars, followed by 15 years as the founding winemaker for Markham Vineyards.

In 1992, Bob began another 15 years as the founding winemaker for Pride Mountain Vineyards. During this town, he also created the highly acclaimed Switchback Ridge, Hourglass, Paloma, and School House wines. 

In 1998 he founded Robert Foley Vineyards where he is predominantly focused, as well as serving as winemaker for Padis Vineyards, Herson Family Vineyards, and JennaMarise Wines.​

In 1998 he produced Robert Foley Vineyards flagship Claret and has since expanded to offer a diversified portfolio of big reds including Petite Sirah, Merlot, Charbono, in addition to the limited-release estate bottled Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and Howell Mountain Merlot, as well as a Carneros Pinot Noir, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon, and this interesting blend wine that we drank, “The Griffin”. 

Bob has also bottled four of his favorites: a medium-bodied Chablis-style Chardonnay, a Syrah he calls Kelly's Cuvée, a Cabernet Franc, and a Port-style dessert wine named Conclusão.

Bob’s reputation for producing very expressive wines that finish gracefully continues to develop at his winery facility on Napa County’s Howell Mountain, where more than 1,000 barrels are housed in an extensive cave system (completed in 2008) for the production of Robert Foley wines.

When Bob's not making wine, he spends time with his wife (and RFV's business manager) Kelly Kehoe, and his children and granddaughters. You can also find him mountain biking local trails, singing and playing guitar in The Robert Foley Band, or SCUBA diving.

“The Griffin” is a blend of the best in the red cellar that changes varietal composition each vintage. The Griffin on the Foley family crest in Irish heraldry combines the strengths of the lion, king of beasts, with the eagle, king of the skies. A winemaker’s dream is to be artistically free to combine characters into wine that is purely hedonic and non-compliant with varietal regulations, so The Griffin’s blend changes with every vintage.

Winemaker notes for this release of “The Griffin” - “Ripe black and red berry fruit abound! Full-bodied and mouth-coating, this fine red blend is all about fresh clean fruit with ultra-soft tannins and a long lingering finish. The Griffin blend will satisfy every need for a red wine.”

Like its namesake, this Griffin ’is a powerful combination of strengths.’ This year’s blend is 57% Syrah, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 3% Petite Sirah.

Jeb Dunnuck rated this release 93 Points,. 

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, complex concentrated brambley black berry fruits with notes of cassis, creosote and hints of black pepper and spice with full tannins on a rich finish.

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?5012401

https://www.robertfoleyvineyards.com/about

https://www.cellardoorwine.com/

Fantesca celebrates newest grand-daughter arrival

Fantesca fantasy label celebrates newest grand-daughter arrival - family fun with Fantesca continues … 

A quiet celebration at home for the arrival of our newest grand-daughter, and her courageous mom, we opened this whimsical label that celebrates a legendary harlequin. Seeking a Cabernet to enjoy paired with a selection of artisan cheeses and pate’, we pulled from the cellar an aged vintage bottle from one of favorite producers, Napa Valley Spring Mountain District, Fantesca. 

(Of course, readers of these pages saw our gala family celebration dinner several weeks ago revealing the name and anticipating Ryleigh’s arrival, featured in this post - Family Celebration Dinner at Mesón Sabika Naperville.)

The name of the winery comes from a character in the Italian comedy troupe that inspired Cirque Du Soleil. La Fantesca was the single female character in the early theatrical performances of Commedia dell’Arte. Both the lover and the equal of the protagonist, Harlequin, Fantesca could always be counted on to charm the audience. Owners, Duane and Susan Hoff write that "when we heard Fantesca described as ”Sexy, Smart, and Unpretentious,” we knew we had found a name worth living up to."'

We hold nearly two dozen vintages of this producer, one of our favorites, in our cellar holdings. 

We have been fans of Fantesca since the estate was taken over and the brand was established by Duane and Susan Hoff back with the 2004 vintage release. We hosted new owner/producer Duane Hoff at our home on one of his first release tours when he was traveling the country building the Fantesca brand, then enjoyed visiting the magnificent estate Chateau several times for tastings and tours, as chronicled in these pages in these blogposts:

We tasted and acquired early releases of this label during our visits to the Fantesca Estate on Spring Mountain in Napa Valley. Following meeting and hosting producer Duane Hoff here in Chicago in 2006, we visited the Fantesca Estate & Winery during our Napa Valley Spring Mountain Experience in the autumn of 2009, and earlier during our Napa Wine Experience 2007, and again in 2011. 

Initially, the early year 2002-2007 vintages from the estate were crafted and managed by winemakers Nils and Kirk Venge - some of our favorite winemakers and producers of a broad collection of wine holdings in our cellar. 

Then in 2008, Fantesca teamed up with legendary winemaker Heidi Barrett. The celebrated winemaker has been referred to as “The Wine Diva of Napa” and as “The First Lady of Wine.” She gained fame and recognition producing exceptional high quality wines that she produced for famous labels.

They then went on to bring on Master Sommelier DLynn Proctor as wine ambassador and evangelist. I met DLynn when he hosted a Penfolds Tasting that featured Legendary Grange at our local Binny's back in 2014, when he was Penfold's Ambassador and Education Director for that icnonic Australian producer. (Grange is one of the signature wines we hold for our son Alec, his birthyear vintage being named #1 Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator). 

What fun to meet DLynn in person, having enjoyed watching his pursuit of his Master Sommelier Certification in the entertaining documentary movie SOMM which is a feature on Netflix. We enjoyed seeing DLynn on the Amazon Prime Somm III documentary prominently wearing his Fantesca jacket.

We’ve had fun with and featured Fantesca labels in many special and family centric dinners such as this  Wine Dinner Featuring Spring Mountain Wines.

That tasting introduced the inaugural release of a new Fantesca label series inspired by the words of Winston Churchill:  “‘All great things’ are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”  

 

Each vintage release of the Fantesca “All Great Things” label commemorates one of those notable words from the legendary Churchill quote - freedom (2015), justice (2016), honor (2011, 2017), duty (2012, 2018), mercy (2013), and hope (2014) - this one christened the (first) "Honor" release. 

Fantesca wines have anchored several momentous dinners to follow, featured in these pages’ blogposts - Family Holiday Gathering brings out flight of varied reds, and Father Son World Cup wine tasting and  Family Christmas Celebration and Wine Dinner.

Fantesca wines have also anchored many of our Pour Boys wine groups dinners such as this one -  Sea Smoke Gratis, King Richards, Del Dotto Highlight Beef Tenderloin Dinner; And this one - Pour Boys EM Team Hemmingway’s Dinner.

We featured and wrote about the “All Great Things” label and branding in earlier blogposts in these pages back in April, 2023 - Family birthday dinner at Son Ryan's features a flight of big red wines

This was served by son Ryan at grand-daughter MacKenzie's birthday, when Ryan and D-inlaw Michelle hosted a gala family celebration dinner. At that dinner Ryan served from his cellar several vintage premium wines including this interesting label from Fantesca. “All Great Things”, Freedom 2009.

Tonight, We pulled this bottle from a mixed OWC - Original Wood Case of a mini vertical collection of 2005-06 and ‘07 vintages, selecting the oldest twenty year old 2005 release for enjoying, tasting/pairing. The ultra-premium packaging features oversized etched glass bottles with painted branding identifiers. 

Linda prepared toast points from three different breads, served with two different preserves, Raspberry and Shiraz Blackberry, along with pate’ and olives, and a selection of artisan cheeses - Brie, Swiss, Gouda and English Stilton Blue, 

Always the creative and innovative marketers, Fantesca have fun with their ‘fortune-corkie’ program, featuring notable quotes on the corks, submitted by Fantesca fans. Winners whose quotes are selected are rewarded with magnums of Fantesca wines. 

What fun that tonight, opening Fantesca to celebrate the women in our family, and most notably the arrival of grand-daughter Ryleigh, the fortune cookie whimsically quips about women - from comedian George Carlin! 

We last opened this label BYOB for an anniversary dinner at one of our favorite eateries - Chez Joel French Bistro in Chicago - featured in this post - https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2016/08/fantesca-spring-mtn-napa-cab-for.html.

Fantesca Spring Mtn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

At twenty years of age, the importantly fill level and cork (shown above) were still pristine. This is drinking at the apex of its drinking profile and still has life yet at this level - no need to hurry to consume remaining bottles in the cellar. 

Tonight’s tasting was similar to that BYOB Chez Joel dinner on the patio … The Fantesca was wonderful, a perfect selection for our intimate occasion, and a perfect complement to the Pate plate and then my New York Strip Steak with roquefort, as well as Linda's Salmon and asparagus entree.

Dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, a mouthful of sweet red currant, spicy cinnamon, black cherry, black berry, cedar and lively acid with a long sweet spicy oak finish held together by finely integrated firm tannins.

Interestingly as I write an earlier blogpost, I had pulled and compared my tasting notes to an earlier review of this wine when I wrote' "Over a eleven hundred different wines in the cellar and I chose this one for our intimate anniversary dinner ...."

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=355837

https://fantesca.com/

@FantescaWine