Friday, August 14, 2009

Flavius Cucu, Importer ( 1492, CRISTOBAL, GRANFORT, MONTE TORO) Visits Cleveland Park To Taste " New " & " Old " Releases/Selections With Mike & Tony

This was a fabulous impromptu tasting where Flavius Cucu the owner of Sopexa Imports comes to introduce his new rep to Mike Martin and Tony Quinn ( me ) : and to taste some of his current releases.




Usually Flavius brings me some of his excellent Romanian wines ( reds , whites, sparkling & off-dry whites , the core of his family's imports. Flavius works with his mother in this business ).




This morning Flavius had waiting for us ( if we were in the mood to try anything ) some Argentina, Spanish and French wines for Mike and me to taste. I was in the mood because Flavius does not come very often and since our business relationship started with him I always like tasting with him. He's where it all started for us and if I could I would just have him be our sales person always.




The fun thing here was that two of our " new " customers at Cleveland Park were French and both from Paris, France. I had met them the day before and spent quite a bit of time with them explaining both the beers and the wines from the western hemisphere. They were both " all ears ". I spoke to them the entire time in French.




I heard the French lady speak and recognized the accent immediately and pretty much jumped right in with the French. I was correct and everything proceeded smoothly after the traditional smiles of recognition and appreciation that I can speak French and am willing to speak it.




Here are some more artsy photos of this moment that I capture with Flavius and our " new " rep as well as myself and the French couple. I invited them over to taste the wines and they accepted pretty much immediately. That was good : it was great to get their opinions and to bounce all of these Argentina, French and Spanish wines off of them.




I liked most of the wines , especially the white 1492 Argentina white that was quite the complex, multi-dimensional white ( I think it was a Viognier, Chardonnay Chenin Blanc blend? ). It demanded more of me than all the rest. The 1492 Argentina red blend was so much easier to drink as it had fewer highs and lows. It worked more in the comfortable middle range. The Cristobal Malbec also was very pleasing to drink. I liked them both. The French couple preferred the Cristobal Malbec to the 1492 Argentinian red blend which included Bonarda and Sangiovese and Malbec.




The French red Granfort ( a 60% Cabernet Sauvignon / 40% Syrah ) sure was pleasing to drink. Medium-bodied and very smooth all by itself. It had just the right amount of complexity, pepper and spice and dark berry fruit. I'm sure that we will sell some it with time.





As I told Flavius after the tasting that I want to be reminded of all of these wines. The red Monte Toro Spanish red I want to retry as the bottle that they opened for us was corked.

I also told Flavius that I would first buy both the Legacy Romanian wines followed by the Brazilian Miolo wines. After that, depending on what money is left over we will buy some of these " new " wines : 1492, Cristobal, Monte Toro and Granfort.




I like taking pictures that show the wines that I am tasting as well as the labels and the people that are either tasting us or the people that are tasting along with us. It all adds elements to capturing " the moment ".



















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