This was like so many other serendipitous yet not exactly " chance " encounters. Yes, I had known people would be showing up to taste me on some wines. Yes, I knew that it was someone that our good customers of Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits wanted me to meet " if I was interested ? "
As I later told Kathryn and her son Michael that the fact that our good customer Dickson was interested that made me interested, too. We sampled both a rose and a white French Luberon white. The empty bottle of the 2009 rose is sitting right here by my side now in a clear, non-color with a gray and white and silver label.
I listened to Kathryn tell her story as I snapped quickly away with my camera of pictures of her and the two bottles and of Dickson of course. It was Dickson that initiated the conversation with me in the first place. He was very polite about it all and raised the question in a rather round-about way about whether I would be interested in selling wines from France's Luberon region? Having sold them for years as well as other of the many regions of France I was both interested and intrigued as to where this was all going? I did find out rather quickly and I gave him my card and told him that I would be more than happy to meet with the family that made these PARADIS PRIVE wines. I told him that they could contact me and that if he wanted to be in on the meeting that he would be more than welcome.
To make this story a bit shorter I will simply say that it took perhaps three weeks or so and the ball that had been set in motion was by now rolling quite fast and heading my way. I met with Dickson and Kathryn and then later with Kathryn and her son Michael Doyle ( President , md@paradisgroup.com , +1 917 539 9449 ) and then again with Michael this past Saturday at the store ( October 8th, 2011 ) when John and Theresa Morrison were doing an in-store wine-tasting. I told Michael about them and how I thought that they would be a really good fit for his wines. I also suggested that he come around and meet them at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com http://www.clevelandparkwine.com/, anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwine.com, on Facebook now at : Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and on Twitter at : cpwinespirits ). He did, too.
We tasted the " new " vintage 2010 of the PARADISE PRIVE dry rose. It's quite delicious : more fruit-forward than the 2009 version which is more tight and dry and acidic. The 2010 you could sit around and chat and watch the world pass before your eyes and enjoy sipping it. What a lovely idea.
For more info go to : http://www.paradisprovence.com/. The wine is bottled by : Cave de Bonnieux, 84480 Bonnieux, France and imported by : Paradis Group, LLC Washington DC and it's a Appelation Luberon Controlee wine.
I have some pictures to add to this blog entry as well as more commentary. That will have to wait until later. In the meantime enjoy this story " as is ". I don't want to jinx it and how it may turn out. I like the wines and wish Kathryn and Michael and their family as well as the French wine-maker and those in France involved all well. It's quite a task to manage and run and promote the selling of wines today. There certainly is a lot of competition.
I will always support small family ventures like this and do all that I can to promote and to sell both the wines, the grape varieties, the way in which to enjoy these wines and of course the people behind them. This is key if we want to keep our choices healthy and alive and readily available to all of us. I take a whole lot of personal satisfaction in knowing that in my very small way I am contributing to the continuation of small and important ventures like these.
Kathryn and Michael : do tell me / us a bit of how it came to be that you ended up buying this vineyard? Tell us more, too about your collaboration with the French there and how together you are now presenting these exact wines to the world at large and in New York city as well as here in Washington D.C. now?
I look forward to having you both come to the store to taste your wines and us together selling them to our customers here in the Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. neighborhood in our nation's capitol. WE will make a goof team I believe.
I also remember Kathryn your comment about how you thought that your son and I had very similar philosophies? You commented on it at least two-three times while we were speaking together this past Friday late afternoon ( the 7th I believe ). You may very well be right. It will be fun to sit down over a bottle of wine and a meal and explore this all further. Cheers and good luck to you and to your venture here in Washington D.C. I wish you all the best success. TONY
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