On this particular late afternoon this is what Danielle Davidowitz ( www.dionysosimports.com ) our rep for Dionysos Imports had in her bag of tricks : the red and white dry Portuguese wines of ESPORAO, Alentejo Portugal, a sparkling dry French pear POIRE like sparkling apple cider except made with pears, a dry white Spanish made with the indigenous grape Verdelho ( used to make madeiras ) and a ginger beer, too.
Above I love this picture of the 2007 red Herdade Do ESPORAO ( Alentejo Portugal ) with Danielle. Where's a glass of it when you would like one?!? As a matter of fact looking at these photos makes me want to try them all over again.
We already have the ginger beer at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 anthonyquinn@clevelandparkwine www.clevelandparkwine.com ) and we will think about bringing the red and white Alentejo Portuguese ESPORAO as well as the sparkling French pear POIRE.
I enjoyed sampling these current releases from Dionysos Imports and as you can see from these photos I also enjoyed capturing the moment and some good pictures of Danielle through the wine glass as well as pouring and without her knowledge pictures showing her relaxed and natural as she spoke about the wines, sparkling pear and ginger beer.
I like to have un-posed pictures that flow naturally wherever I can.
I also like to have pictures of the wine labels and bottles through the wine glass and through the wine which they hold inside the bottle. It;s important for me to show the product so that you can actually see it and what it looks like outside of the bottle.
What is it's color, it's clarity and how does it change by the light and by the Reidel wine-tasting glass that holds it?
I have more to add but want to post these pictures now for your visual enjoyment. It's Thanksgiving weekend 2009 and it's a beautiful Sunday Nov. 29th, 2009 and I've got to be outside now. Stay-tuned for more soon.
Cheers, TONY
The day has been glorious and I was able to be outside in our yard in my shorts and my sandals raking leaves and feeling warm and comfortable and thoroughly enjoying the sunny, bright, blue-skied day with wispy trails of white clear clouds ... nice.
It occurred to me during all of this that I am quite pleased to see these Portuguese wines that still use their indigenous grape varieties and that still are overall traditional in style yet tweaked by modern innovations. This is important and this reflects the experience of hundreds of years and I applaud that. It's fine to add here and there but it's also important to continue doing things that have always worked and which have been learned gradually over many years and moons and often the hard way and by accident.
The other thing that occurred to me is to mention that in three days : Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 from 5:30-8:30 PM that we will host our annual " Big Theme " Bubbly / Sparkling Wine / Champagne Tasting at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. Everyone is welcome and so bring a friend, a family member, a neighbor, whoever wants to come along with you.
We will have Danielle as well as Yanni the owner of Dionysos Imports pouring their selections on this evening. It will include I believe three Portuguese sparklers as well as one red Portuguese sparkler. This will be a lot of fun as well as quite educational. It also occurred in doing this to ask Danielle to pour the sparkling pear, the French POIRE. This will add another fun element to our tasting.
I will ask Danielle this on Tuesday when I get to the store or perhaps tomorrow if I remember while I am still home on my day-off. Cheers and be ready for more still to come.
The other young lady pictured here is one of our favorite customers that I asked to stop and taste with us as I knew she liked very much a good red wine ...
There's an undeniable beauty here between the facial expression, the glass and the wine in it and around it's surface as well as how the light both frames Danielle's face and the wine splits and adds accents to it. And that's before you even consider the warm smile ...
The reflection of images ( what are they? I think they are the refracted light of the colors from her scarf that you may see in some of the photos. It's amazing how they form individual columns of bright color reflecting of the deep, concentrated red color of the Portuguese ESPORAO ... This in itself is a wonderful abstract expression ) in the glass of red wine above and the way the ceiling bright white/yellow florescent lights frame both Danielle's smile and her perfect white teeth is simply amazing to me. I love it. I think I really captured her here and she was even aware that I was taking this series of pictures? I guess her face relaxed here and lost any self-conscious qualities and her true spirit triumphed? It may be one of my best photos. Subject and wine and wine glass and everything nice ...
The photo below when she was completely unaware that I was taking these series of quick snap shots also is a winner as her true smile and colors reign supreme. What a smile.
I'm an artist and love to take these pictures while I sample and taste the wines brought to me at the store. I delight in capturing pictures that are pure and not posed and forced and self-conscious. I hope that those that I capture in them may also appreciate them as a tribute and as my expression of the moment as captured with luck, experience, a willingness to experiment/try and either win or lose as I go for a picture that is hopefully original in some fashion or other.
I enjoy the wines as I did very much here with this selection. I also enjoy very much the setting, the people that are with me as I taste the wines and I find it all quite inspiring, too. I want to capture my enthusiasm and share it here and after the fact as I talk about it and look at the pictures that help bring various aspects of it back to me.
I feel blessed to have so many generous and kind as well as beautiful customers and sales people. It sounds corny but I do believe that my world is filled with both beautiful females and handsome males as I try to look below the skin and into the people themselves and whatever joy or warmth that they have there and are willing to show and share with me and with others ...
I hope these pictures have inspired you to come to Cleveland Park to purchase some of these wines and to see what we are all about here.
Come to the BIG THEME Bubbly / Sparkling Wine / Champagne Tasting this coming Wednesday, December 2nd ( 5:30-8:30 PM ), 2009 at the store. See you soon ...
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