This is a three-part story that started with Kay Mallon of Winebow Imports when she brought me Paul Cluver the owner of PAUL KLUVER, Elgin South African wines to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits on May 10th, 2010 to taste his wines currently available through Winebow Imports. That was Part One.
Part Two was when Jody Jackman our rep here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com, www.clevelandparkwine.com ) came to do her in-store/wine-tasting for our customers and tasted Chris Barker and me on the PAUL CLUVER 2008 Weisser Riesling Noble Late Harvest , wine of origin Elgin, South Africa. We tasted it and I liked it and before leaving after the tasting she offered me the bottle? I accepted and took it home to enjoy with my wife and daughter sometime later.
Part Three is a couple of weeks later ( this past Saturday, June 5th, 2010 ) after work deciding to serve it to my son's 5th grade teacher and her husband with our daughter's lemon dessert. It was the right decision : it was incredible, really. It shone with these rich and sweet and gooey slices of lemon dessert and were a perfect foil for their sweetness. All the elegant and refined and fine-nuanced/bright and fresh and with so many distinct, defined Kodak-type liquid moments : wow! The freshness of ripe apricots and peaches and nectarines were amazing and so crystal-clear.
The accents of sharp and yet smooth, never-heavy nuts and honey was another real treat as it provided relief and definition and an oasis from the sweetness of the lemon and sugar and softly chewy goo - pretty incredible, really. I kept tasting to see if the spell would be broken? Would the circle be broken as well? Never , and believe me I kept putting thins to the test silently as everyone talked and laughed and spun tales and added comments and their own spin on things as the conversation ricocheted back and forth between us at our dining room dinner table, never losing a beat.
Everyone enjoyed the combination I believe as plates were cleaned and glasses were drained ... incredible, wonderful, a " moment " for me, silent but loud with meaning ringing inside my head where only I could hear and smile ...
Paul, tell me about the Weisser Riesling as I have never heard of this before? What is the story behind it as well as your personal story about it?
Thank you Jody : I will have to thank you in person tomorrow when you come to the store.
I enjoyed meeting owner Paul Cluver of his own winery very much. I was able to taste four wines : 1) PAUL CLUVER 2008 Chardonnay ( $18.99 ) ; 2)PAUL CLUVER 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ( $14.99 ) ; 3) PAUL CLUVER 2009 Riesling ( $16.49 ) ; and 4) PAUL CLUVER 2008 Pinot Noir ( $22.99 ).
It was a good tasting and I think that we all really enjoyed each others' company. Jody Jackman showed up at some point and that was nice. She tasted with us briefly before having to head off to another appointment.
I enjoyed myself and took lots of my artsy photos as you will see here as you scroll down. I always have such a grand time trying to capture natural expressions that are not self-conscious. I also love trying to capture images that help tell the story of each of these special moments we share together through pictures and not through words. I almost want you the viewer here to fill-in the details of these tastings on your own reading what I have written as well as mostly relying on the pictures to give you some sense of place and time and mood/demeanor of those involved like the owners and wine-makers of their properties and wines.
It's easier said than done : it's really a whole lot of work that depends a lot on chance and timing and coordination of man and machine ( my Canon digital camera ) and of those other people I am photographing along with their wines, the Reidel glasses with their wine, their bottles of wine and their wine-labels, etc ... how to capture it all? How to make it feel and look exciting and grand and fun and monumental/profound, too?!? It's a grand challenge and one that I rise to quite often here at the Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits store that I have now managed and run for the last ten years in N.W. Washington D.C.
Here's Kay Mallon in this photograph above through my Reidel wine-tasting wine glass with the PAUL CLUVER wine inside and a nice smile on her face : I like it.
In this picture above Jody Jackman has arrived and Paul is pouring her some of his 2009 Riesling to sample.
Paul spoke a lot with his hands and I enjoyed capturing this with shot after shot, along with all the other pictures of him and his wines seen through my Reidel wine glass. I'm very pleased with many of them.
I asked Paul to write something in our guest book as we talked and bounced ideas and impressions/beliefs off one another. He wrote some pretty good things, too. Here is what he said and observed to me :
" People come to taste the Sauvignon ( Blanc ) and never want to try the Gewurztraminer. Once they try it they often end up buying a case as they are pleasantly surprised. "
And : " High alcohol wines with heavily extracted fruit are impressive at first, but I can hardly finish a glass let alone a bottle ".
Then Paul finished with " Dear Tony, Fantastic meeting you. Your enthusiasm is amazing. Hope you enjoy the cool climate wines from Elgin. " Cheers, Paul 10-5-2010
Thanks Paul, I agree wholeheartedly with your first two observations.
This is a really good picture of you Paul above : do you agree?
Too bad in this picture above that I did not wait another split second to get the wine being poured from the bottle into my glass. I did, however get the label and the glass and a bit of you and that tells the first art of the process of pouring wine doesn't it?
I love this picture above as there are three images of you Paul here : amazing. Enlarge it n your monitor screen at home and see these three images broken apart of you at the same split second that I snapped this picture. I love this type of thing : very artsy.
I also like this picture above of you Paul very much for the same reasons. It's not as dramatic or shocking : more subdued and yet it has it's draw and appeal, too ...
I love all the many big beads or circles/pools of bright red toasty 2008 PAUL CLUVER Pinot Noir being poured into the Reidel wine-tasting glass above. The ceiling lights really shine through it and make it churn and move and come alive visually. Only with the camera can you/I really hope to appreciate all of this as it all happens within the blink of an eye or a split one-hundredth of a second ...
In the picture above I have captured a more calming and serene moment in the lie of this 2008 PAUL CLUVER Pinot Noir and with the ceiling light shining through and illuminating it ( like a beautiful old manuscript ) I rather like it as well as the more turbulent image above ...
I am speaking here with my words and with my Canon digital images as an artist and I hope you enjoy my perspective and angles in all of this that I have with the help of my Canon and with sheer luck and chance materialized for everyone to enjoy now and later and whenever they may want or choose ...
Sorry I cut your head off above Paul but I did get all of your handsome suit and dashing figure and shiny shoes. The ladies will like this I hope. I did then snap quickly a picture which is one of the first I have downloaded above in this blog with all of your head. Combine the two : super impose one over the other and create the whole of you Paul Cluver. I leave that up to you experts with cameras and editing for later. Cheers and good luck with that.
With the Soccer World Cup taking place in Cape Town, South Africa in just a few days I want to get this blog posted by tomorrow ( June 9th, 2010 ) at the latest. I still have to refer to my notes at the store tomorrow and call Jody Jackman about a few details and then I will finish typing and post this finished blog. It;s quite a bit of work from start-to-finish and I don't want to compromise on each post and bee in too much of a rush. So please enjoy and be patient with me. The idea is to give you some new stimulus to go out and look for these wines and try them : maybe even while you are watching the Soccer World Cup? Not a bad idea, really ...
Look at the bit of 2008 PAUL CLUVER Pinot Noir from Elgin that I have at the bottom rim of my Reidel glass in the picture above? Look at how the glass curves and makes Paul's face inside look smaller than that of him outside the glass? Interesting : two perspectives here in one ...
I'm always glad when I can manage to get a picture of all of the participants in any given time and " moment ". It helps to bring a certain sense of closure for me and I hope for everyone if you will ...
I liked meeting and tasting with you all today and will speak now to Jody about ordering some of these wines. We will compare our notes ( mine are in Cleveland Park at the store now - I'm still at home ' and we will buy some of these wines for the store. I will add the PAUL CLUVER 2008 Weisser Riesling Noble Late Harvest half-bottle to the mix as I sure was impressed with it, especially when I had it with my daughter's dessert recently.
I will also undoubtedly buy the Gewurztraminer if and when any comes to the United States. I hope you all have some in stock Jody? If not I will add the Riesling to our selection at the store as I do not have any of that either. The rest we will just have to see about Paul. I buy them as I am inspired by them or as I need them to fill a void/category.
Stay-tuned for more soon and drink up and enjoy the Soccer World Cup really soon .... cheers, TONY
P.S. For more info on PAUL CLUVER the wines and the family and the man go to : PAUL CLUVER ( managing director ) De Rust P.O. Box 48 Grabouw 7160 , South Africa, Tel : +27 21 844 0605 Fax: +27 21 844 0150 paul@cluver.com www.cluver.com.
And please feel welcome to comment in the space below/following this if you have anything that you want to ask or add. I'd love to read what you all have to say.
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