Les Vins Contés 2007 Le P’tit Rouquin

The sun was shining in Detroit yesterday. At the zoo, polar bears slept in their meadow and peacocks brazenly displayed for peahens. Small children roared at lions and attempted to jump as far as a kangaroo. The breeze was cool enough to wear sleeves.

After an early supper of Delmonico grilled over hardwood and a brisk salad composed mostly of dandelion greens I motored down Interstate 75 past sports arenas and casinos to Mexicantown where most of a bottle of Les Vins Contés 2007 Le P’tit Rouquin Vin de Pays du Loir-et-Cher waited for me.

Slanderous accusations were aimed at the aromas radiating from misty red wineglasses of this old-vines gamay. I did not understand. There was chalkboard (my old friend), berry-fruit salad, laughter and cinnamon red-hots. The floor appropriately thumped as I drained glass after glass and downstairs Steve Jarosz prepared for his weekly gig with Grupo Escobar at Sangria in downtown Royal Oak.

This is the kind of exceptionally drinkable red I want access to all summer -- to pull from the cooler after a long day canoeing when the sun goes orange behind the trees of the northwoods or to splash into friend's glasses on the front porch. In ways it reminds me of Emmanuel Houillon Poulsard, not necessarily in flavor, but disposition. I want a case of cases.