Funny, it was more of a social visit to say " hello " after such a long absence. We have not seen you Fran for years here in Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and the most important wine on your agenda seems to be your new line of " value " South African wines from a small settlement of original French Huguenots down at the southern tip of South Africa ( was it a group of forty+? I Think so ) ; and yet there were none of these wines to taste this Tuesday? In all fairness you Jeremy had already been tasting some of them out and we had already begun to order them from you as their quality and values were / are quite high.
It was great to see you again as I known your schedule is quite busy operating a wine wholesale house/business that covers much of the United States. We chatted and caught-up on our separate recent pasts and of course wine was the constant underlying theme. I thanked you in person for both the samples of excellent HUGL Gruners and MILTON PARK Shiraz and more wines ( a whole case , two bottles of each ) that you gave me for the beach. I told you that I would much rather drink one of your MANOIR DU CARRA beaujolais unfiltered Gamay or dry sec Vouvray Chenin Blanc whites than a bottle of the MIlton Park Aussie red : that I really also liked your better bottling of the HUGL dry white Gruner Veltliner.
I also thanked you for your gift of a book titled SALT by Mark Kurlansky - a World History -and asked you why you had given it to me? You said because I was a chef; and I responded that I had just recently seen it on my shelf and looked at it. That made me think of Janet Cam that is quite the expert on the various great world salts and has even been quoted on this in the Washington Post newspaper. It's a small world really with so many connections. I love salt, who doesn't? And then last night as I left the store( Wednesday the 29th, 2010 ) I ran into both Lilly and Nick and Nick told me that his doctor had told him that high blood pressure is a result of both too much stress and too much salt. Everything seems to connect : you just have to find the connections.
I kept asking you Fran what was the most pressing thing on your agenda and what you wanted to share with me as I was afraid that I would not get another chance to do this for quite some time. You mentioned the South African wines and I told you that your other " new " South African wines - The ROYAL was selling quite well here in Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 2010 Tel: 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com facebook at : clevelandparkwine.com ) : both the dry Chenin Blanc and the dry Shiraz/ Cabernet Sauvignon. You said that you had been spending a lot of time in South Africa.
We spoke of your most recent trip to Argentina ( Jeremy and his wife both went and had a great time ) : that the numbers going on the trips was reduced now to 15 people or less and that that was much better for everyone.
I tried all four wines and loved the first : the stainless-steel CRUCERO Chilean Chardonnay and kept referring to how balanced and pleasing it was and what a value that it represented. I liked all four wines and have sold them all well in the store except for the CRUCERO which will arrive in the next day or two into our store.
I still have much more to say but want to post this now on Thursday morning from my home here in northern Virginia at 8:34 AM on September 30th, 2010. Cheers and stay-tuned for the rest of this blog.
Thanks a lot for everything Fran, for your great " value " selections of wines and for all your great sales people like Jeremy and Manuel that have always kept your wines here at Cleveland Park over the years since Peter Anastopolos left to go to California and I took his job here as the wine manager. Cheers, TONY
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