As I mentioned in the last blog I opened some really good French wine this year to celebrate Bastille Day, July 14th, 2008. In this case it was my wife and son and two of my son's favorite people that are teachers both which he talks to regularly now but who never taught him when he was in elementary school. He's got a wide-open social network he does! Anyway, it was fun to have them come over and enjoy both the white 2004 Mersault " Poruzots " given to my wife and me by owners Francois and Marie-Pierre Mikulski as well as this bottle given to me by both Michel Gonnet ( S.C.E.A Etienne Gonnet , proprietaires-recoltants a Bedarrides 84 France and his wife ). I'm embarrassed, I cannot remember his wife's name! Oh well.
They came to the store with Robert Kacher rep Ronnie Miller ( I've got to look up the date, was it in 2007 or 2006 ? I think it was in 2007 ) and did an in-store tasting with our customers at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. It was a successful tasting and we sold a number of bottles of Michel's two less expensive Cotes du Rhone Villages as well as these 2004 bottles of red Chateauneuf-du-Pape. They all showed really well on this evening, one of the Cotes du Rhones Villages had more body and weight and was more of a food wine while the other was nice either with or without food. The Chateuneuf-du-Pape was fruit-forward and nicely balanced in it's medium-body and was soft and rich enough on the palate to drink young if you wanted. Most people do not wait, they buy the wine and probably consume it within six month's time.
There's a polish and a finesse to Michel's wines, an elegance that is very appealing. Between he and his wife they both tasted a number of our customers on their wines, signed them as gifts to them or their friends and soon-enough the three hours was up and Ronnie was inviting me to join them for dinner at Vidalia. I was pleased to go have dinner with them and to sample the food at Vidalia once again. I had not been in quite some time but had seen both owner/chef Jeff Buben and his general manager Michael over at Bobby Kacher's home recently. I was curious to see what they were up to at Vidalia's and it is always nice to get a chance to be one-on-one with wine owners and makers. I rarely get a chance for this in the store context because while they are there I am always introducing them to you our customers.
It's also a way of having more of a real sense for me of who these people are behind these excellent wines. I get a chance to ask them some of the questions on my mind that I have both time to formulate and to actually ask because I am not trying to sell another bottle of wine. It was my time on my terms and I like that. More often than not these become really special and memorable times for me that I carry with me for years and years and recollect when time permits or things happen to jar my memory and focus attention back on them.
Dinner at Vidalia was grand. It was quite the visual as well as audio and taste event where everything just goes smoothly and builds upon the others. Jeff's chef called B.J. I think ( ? ) came out and explained the menu - I translated back and forth from English to French. Michael the general manager came by, all the other staff was there and present and helpful, too. It was an animated, fun time and I think that the staff was all really happy to have Michel there and to get to meet him and his wife if they had not already. Things were bustling and energized and the restaurant looked really good, too. I was enjoying being thoroughly enmeshed in all of this.
I think Ronnie was happy to have me there because he knows I thrive on these moments and can also smooth things over by translating and speaking French to give the wine owners and makers a chance to relax and enjoy themselves, too. I can't remember our meals but I think I have signed menus and will search for them and include this information in a later blog. The food was excellent and we sampled some American wines that were recommended to us by Michael and the wine sommelier. I ended up drawing quickly some fast sketches of Michel, black ink on white paper portraits which I gave to them before I had to leave to drive home. I hated to leave but after about three hours of all this fun and excitement after work it was definitely time to get home and get some sleep.
The Gonnet's gave me this 2004 Chateauneuf-du-Pape while we were still at the store. I saved it for a special occasion and I am thrilled that my wife and daughter and two teachers were able to enjoy it with me on this past Bastille Day. My wife even said to my daughter that she thought she should try it, that she thought she would like it, that it was really good quality. Michel wrote on the bottle in gold script : " Bonne degustation ". It sure was a bonne degustation! Merci Michel et ta femme. Thanks Michel and your wife. We really did enjoy this bottle on the 14th of July, 2008. It really was a fine, smooth, elegant red to enjoy on such a spectacular evening out back on our deck into the late hours of the day on a gorgeous evening. We had no worries, we had no stress, we were cementing a nice, new memory/time for each and everyone of us to recollect fondly on later occasions.
We had it right after the lovely, complex, quite flavorful bottle of 2004 Meursault " Poruzots " from Francois Mikulski. It had a greater immediate range because of it's maturity with a broader band showing this evening of real highs and lows and everything in-between. It demanded more of my palate the Meursault on this evening. I loved them both but I worked harder for my reward on the Meursault than I did on the Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
In my next blog I will include a couple pictures of these wines for you all to enjoy the visual spectacle of bottle, glass, setting, lighting, distortion through the glass and wine of course! I used some of the candle-light that evening and it definitely added something. I am enjoying these more artsy/atmospheric pictures that I am taking. I hope you enjoy them, too.
THanks Michel and your wife, and thanks Francois and Marie-Pierre, you have on these four separate occasions in and out of Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits provided me and also at times my family and friends some really special moments/ tastes which I will not soon forget. Merci, TONY
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment