We were all caught off guard this last Saturday at 1 P.M. when owner Felipe Gonsalez came with his wineries's / bodega's right hand man, Genaro Benitez that ir responsible for checking on the state of the flor in each of the hundreds of sherry barrels at the bodega. They came in arms full with a mat and a wooden barrel, boxes, folded table, etcetera and proceeded to set up shop to taste their Tio Pepe sherry to our customers for the next three hours.
They had with them two different nuts and some green olives to have along with their $18.99 bottle of Tio Pepe sherry. Gerano had to change into his official attire of a red vest with black pants and white shirt and he looked grand. It was fun to watch him demonstrate how to pour his sherry from the cask. Actually he'd lower his venenciador into the sherry cask/barrele and fill it and with an arc /sweep of his arm and hand/ all one fluid motion he's arrive at transferring through the air from his small cup to that one in his hand the Tio Pepe/ Whoosh, swift, smooth, swift and hardly any spilled out of the glass or onto the floor. He's a master. It was impressive and took everyone's breath away.
We did this for three hours, stopping customers, making introductions and pouring the sherry and then seeing if you all liked it or not. We sold all but two bottles of the Tio Pepe here in that three hour period. Felipe and Genaro had to leave at four to head to the famous restaurant the Taberna Alabardero to do a similar tasting with smoked ham instead of nuts and green olives. I wish that I could have tagged along. It would have been fun to have been a part of that.
I got lots of pictures of both Felipe and Genaro and our customers. Hope you enjoy them and can get caught-up in some of the spectacle and the theatrics/ magic of these three wonderful hours here.
David Enright of Grapolli Imports was also here tasting his excellent selection of Italian wines. As he said : " I can't compete with that ". He's right but his wines are excellent and people tasted these once they'd sampled the sherry and buy some of David's Dolcetto red, red Aglianico, white Pinot Grigio, too. It was fun. Just after all this Hugh Hamilton of the HUGH HAMILTON winery in Mclaren Vale, south Australia came to taste a selection of his wines.
Never a dull moment it seems here at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits. At least not this Saturday, cheers. TONY
1 comment:
I like its taste very much, thanks foe sharing.
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