{"id":2185,"date":"2017-06-04T19:12:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T02:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2017-07-25T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T21:38:29","slug":"vinology-offers-a-relaxed-atmosphere-for-wine-drinkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/2185\/vinology-offers-a-relaxed-atmosphere-for-wine-drinkers","title":{"rendered":"Vinology Offers a Relaxed Atmosphere For Wine Drinkers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Revel

Revel patented “Lazy Susan” innovation in their wine tables or cellar corners can help the ambiance of a wine-drinking occasion.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cGood evening. Can I help you with something, ma\u2019am?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sommelier John Jonna,\u00a0Michigan\u2019s original \u201cMerchant of Vino,\u201d stood tableside after being summoned by a woman dining at \u201cVinology,\u201d the sophisticated (but not stuffy) downtown\u00a0Ann Arbor\u00a0restaurant he owns and operates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited when I ordered this bottle of Muscadet\u2026but it\u2019s not as good as I remember,\u201d she told him. \u201cCan you taste it to make sure it\u2019s not gone bad?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonna, who has traveled the world studying and selling wine for more than 20 years, sipped some, swishing it around in his mouth and sucking in air to activate his palette. Nodding, he looked at the woman and asked her, \u201cMa\u2019am. The last time you drank a bottle of Muscadet, was it in\u00a0France?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere you drinking it in\u00a0Nantes, in the\u00a0Loire\u00a0Valley?\u201d<\/p>\n

She confirmed that yes, in fact, she was.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuscadet, as you know, is produced from vines in that region,\u201d Jonna told her before asking, \u201cWhile you were drinking the wine, were you eating anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeafood,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pays Nantais traditional, local, fresh oysters probably, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid the restaurant have a view of the moon shimmering on the\u00a0Loire\u00a0River?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lovely view,\u201d she remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere you at the table with someone you cared about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonna paused, smiled slightly and nodded before telling her, \u201cMadam, I can serve the same Muscadet, but I cannot reproduce the same moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moral to the story is that wine is \u201cromance,\u201d according to Jonna.<\/p>\n

Jonna uses enthusiasm and education to take the \u201csnobbiness\u201d out of wine and delights in presenting tasting techniques and wine anecdotes to anyone who comes in the door for a formal tasting or otherwise. He tends to his other Detroit-area restaurants and wine bars while his children Vincent and Kristin (an MSU-alum who moved back from working with a major winemaker in\u00a0Sonoma) operate Vinology on\u00a0Main Street\u00a0inAnn Arbor. Learn more at VinologyA2.com.<\/p>\n

For safe sipping and tripping, Lansing\u2019s DeanBlackCar.com offers car service \u2013 Cadillacs and Suburbans – to and from wine tastings at Vinology or meals at other restaurants for small groups and couples who are dropped at the door instead of searching (and paying) for parking in bustling downtown Ann Arbor. Locally Dusty\u2019s Cellar, in Okemos, offers a similar zest for the lifelong passion of wine with varied tasting programs and dinners organized and hosted by proprietor Matt Rhodes, whose no-cost \u201cSix for Sixty\u201d wine club program has gone a long way to make high-rated wines approachable and affordable. See DustysCellar.com<\/p>\n

East Lansing\u2019s Jim Cash, who founded his internationally-renowned \u201cRevel Cellars\u201d custom wine-cellar company, is also one of the wine industry leaders and aficionados in the area dedicated to the growth of \u201cthe grape!\u201d See his creations at RevelCellars.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGood evening. Can I help you with something, ma\u2019am?\u201d Sommelier John Jonna,\u00a0Michigan\u2019s original \u201cMerchant of Vino,\u201d stood tableside after being… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19164],"tags":[1384,2834,1749,180007],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-offcourse","tag-wine","tag-michigan","tag-italy","tag-ann-arbor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2017\/07\/RevelTable.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}