We were thrilled to welcome Hugh Hamilton back for the third time is it ?! He comes and visits each time he comes to the U.S. He's off to Vancouver later today or tomorrow to do a big tasting there and he made a point to stop off and see us first. Thanks, Hugh. We appreciate your time spent here in the store. As he said to one of our first customers at 4 P.M. when he got here : " I've only got four wines today so it's a reasonably quick trip ". Hugh makes perhaps ten or so wines in total so he meant that the customer would only be trying four out of ten - a quick trip through his wines. I loved it. I found it charming and I wrote it down after saying it several times. I did not want to forget it and wanted to include it in my blog. I even got Hugh to sign the paper which he did willingly.
Hugh tasted his two ever-popular JIM JIM wines named after his 12-year-old dog Jim Jim that he says is quite serious and you don't want to mess with him. He guards the Shiraz grapes and eats them when they are ripe thus announcing this most important fact before picking. We tasted the 2006 Shiraz and the 2007 unoaked Chardonnay : BOTH at $10.99. The Chardonnay is quite crisp and lively and refreshing, medium-bodied and lively with good acidity to keep it going strong on the palate as you begin soon to look for something to eat while you sip it.
The JIM JIM 2006 Shiraz is absolutely delicious drinking right now/now/now NOW. No need to wait, I really like how fresh and bright, how soft on the palate it is. I was surprised at how much I liked it : what's not to like?!? Buy several bottles and invite some friends over.
The two HUGH HAMILTON wines : the white " Loose Cannon " Viognier 2006, $18.49 has really a nice mouth-feel. It's got an appealing bouquet that reaches out and snags the nose and the taste is both aromatic and spicy and the taste won't let you quite go with a bit of tear and pull and rustic appeal. I liked it and can see it really doing well with quite a few foods. The " Mongrel Sangiovese blend with just small bits of Merlot and Tempranillo to round it up and out is showing fabulously. No bite, just a kiss of engaging Sangiovese fruited/lipped/sung/whispered ( pulled on your lips ) seduction in appealing red grape liquids. I really was most impressed. When we started selling Hugh's wines we started with this " Mongrel ". It has stood the test of time and we still love it. So do you all, you all bought most of our stock tonight. It's great with white meats and game and when you grill.
Here are some of the pictures we took while Hugh was here. It was a special three hours here at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits. Cheers Hugh, sorry we missed both you wife Pam and your daughter Mary.
2 comments:
Now I have sampled Jim Jim without considering a second go yet this sounds worthwhile so thnaks for the incentive.
It was awesome to meet Jim-Jim's owner and taste Jim-Jims wine! It was a pleasure. The Loose Cannon was delicious. Susan loved her signed bottle, she was sad she couldnt make the tasting.
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