I have known Antoine Songy now for probably close to twenty-five years. We've always had a nice relationship. I met Antoine many years ago when he would come visit his friend Laurent Vonderheyden the president of Laurent Selections import company that had a warehouse out in Brentwood, Maryland. Ed was the manager then of the warehouse. Anyway , that's when I met Antoine back in the mid eighties. That's also where I first met Andre Ostertag of OSTERTAG, Alsace wines. That's another story though. Since then we have communicated, even when Antoine went out to live in California and he repped Fortant and Renwood and other wines.
Antoine was nice enough to come and do the wine-tasting here last night because my local Kacher rep Ronnie Miller had to rush down to Florida to be with his ailing mom. Ever since Ronnie started working for Bobby our business has increased with them because he works really well with us, listens and brings us all his fabulous wine makers/ owners when he can when they visit Washington D.C. Thanks Ronnie for this. It has added immeasurably to our store. Ronnie, hope all goes well with your mother.
Antoine brought with him French Adelaide that is being sponsored for a six-month period here before heading back to Champagne, France from where she comes. It was great to have the two of them here last night to taste the " new " 2007 releases of dry French rose wines : the Domaine Fondreche, Cotes du Ventoux ( $13.49 ), the Domaine Valcombe, Costieres du Nimes ( $10.99, Syrah/Grenache ) and the Domaine Grand Cassagne, $9.49. Mike Martin and I both prefered the Grand Cassagne, Antoine the Domaine Valcombe and Adelaide the Petit Cassagne that we have also sold but are out of now ( we'll get more soon ).
The Fondreche has some really bright acidity that softens as it opens in the glass. It's got a lovely apricot color. The Grand Cassagne is the softest, mellowest and easiest I think for just sitting around sipping. The Valcombe has the most weight and power and is best with food. Both the Valcombe and the Grand Cassagne has a more deep pink-red color. We have all three in stock plus many others from all over the world. Almost all are dry and food-friendly.
We also poured some of the delicious 2006 O'sud red Mas Fondreche, $11.99 which is showing beautifully now and has lost it's bite and edginess of tannins/acids. We're almost out of it but it will return soon. These are some pictures of the tasting. I've taken my creative wine-in- Riedel glass-in-front-of-person pictures of Antoine and a couple of our customers with the rose wine in the Riedel glass. There are also some of our favorite customers, French-speaking Karen, Vince, Hans, Michele ( and her friend visiting from North Carolina, both dressed-up), and John. It was quite the fun, educational, great tasting-wine event. We got lots of complements from you our customers as you left. Cheers. It was great to see you Antoine and to meet you Adelaide. Antoine, merci pour tes mots gentils/ perceptives que tu a ecrit dans mon journal. A la prochaine et Bonn 4th Juillet et 14 Juillet aussie.
Happy Father's Day to all you hard-working,devoted fathers out there. You've all been inspirations to us that we should take time to remember and reflect over. TONY
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