Now for the past five years we at Cleveland Park have hosted a n Annual German Wine-Maker/ Owner tasting at our store with usually between five-ten different wineries and their owners : Alice Fitz ( blond, blue blouse ) of FITZ-RITTER ( Pfalz), Joachim Hollerith of V. HOSPITIEN( Mosel ), Joachims Arns of SEEBRICH ( Rheinhessen), Barbara Rundquist of DR. THANISCH( Mosel) , Karin Fischer ( pin-stripe blue jacket and black turtleneck) of FISCHER(Rheinhessen ), Frank( pony-tail, young) of DR. HEYDEN ( Rheinhessen), SHAEFER( Rheinhessen), DR. FISCHER( Rheinhessen ), BOLLIG-LEHNERT( Mosel), STUDERT-PRUM( Mosel), SCHNEIDER ( I can't remember her name but she left us a marvelous map of Germany, thanks! Rheinhessen) and more. I am sorry that I cannot remember them all by name but I recognize them when they come and they really work hard to pour and explain and make their wines better known here. I appreciate that and applaud them all for their strong efforts.We have grown to know them and their wines. We love that they come. They make truly impressive wines with the Riesling grapes, also with the Pinot Gris, the Pinot Blanc, the Muller-Thurgau, the Pinot Noir ( wow, they are getting really good! ), the Gewurztraminer, even the Chardonnay with FITZ-RITTER, and the red Pinot Meunier. Impressive and really high marks for all of them. In a nutshell for me it's never a problem of quality with these wines. Of course I have my favorites and sometimes prefer one to another depending on my mood, the time of the year, what I might be eating and the temperature inside and out. That's only normal - otherwise it's just a question of how much can we at the store afford to buy?
It's also still a struggle to get people to try German wines. They are still very much a hand-sell and need to be tasted and explained. You have to assure many people that they are not all sweet and that they will both like the wine and that it will work with their meal. Saying this I don't mind fighting the good fight to get more people to try them and discover that they enjoy them. AS you can see they close the store down with us at 9 P.M., usually buying some beer and other things with which to unwind I suspect after such an intense, grueling schedule with little " down-time " or wiggle room for anything but selling and selling and selling more German wine!
Here are some of the pictures of this year's store event held in March, 2008.
I put one in , the second from the top in by accident of a Laurent Givry tasting here in the store. Sorry!
As you can see there are lots of customers her, some our regular and favorites like Sherri waving to me taking the pictures, Klaus, Pat, Bill and Hanna and others from the German Wine Society and more. There are also pictures of Chasity( she just had a lovely baby! Congrats Chasity!) and Valerie( gray suit, she's standing with them in the group shot as we close the store) that work with Adam Sager and these marvelous selections of German wines. I want to thank everyone that works behind the scenes to make these such big successes. You know who you are. Without your help we could not do these amazing tastings each year. Thanks.
Our order should be arriving anytime now and still be available to enjoy in this summer heat. Stay-tuned for more info on that. We also ordered extra for the store for all of you that want some but did not order at the tasting. Enjoy. TONY
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