I'm pleased to include thes three labels here : two of the STEELE label and one of the SHOOTING STAR ( in blue ).
Remember when there were actual letters that would come in the mail with postage stamps that were sometimes quite colorful and beautiful?
It's Wednesday morning, July 15th, 2009 now at 12:17 AM and it's time for bed. However, I have just downloaded some of the earliest pictures that I have of Jed Steele. They are all take while I worked at Forman Brothers Imports.
This is one of your earliest notes to me Jed. I hope you don't mind that I included just this one? It gives an idea of what this blog is all about.
These pictures show my first meeting with Jed Steele. There's pictures here showing our meeting for all the wine department / sales people at Forman Brothers with Jed. In one there is also a picture of Jed, Jeff Woods and me ( both my back and that of Jeff Wood are turned to the camera. I'm glad that I have this picture.
Some of the pictures here are a bit distorted as I took them from angles as to not get the glare from the lights above in our family room downstairs. Sorry for the distortions. I will at some point correct this but in the meantime I think it's great to have some of these pictures anyway.
These pictures are of our visit to MacArthur Beverages ( Addy Bassin's Wine Shoppe ) to see Roy Cloud, then the buyer of California wines for the store. Pictured here are Jed, Roy Cloud, Pierre Ravani and Joe.
As I type I am wearing a Jed Steele baby-blue t-shirt Viognier 1997 Clear Lake " Dorn Vineyard " with the blue log being all cracked, faded, well-loved and worn by me over the years. On the back of the t-shirt it says : " One barrel of Wine Can Work More Miracles Than a Church Full of Saints ". ( Harvest 1998 )It's an Italian proverb. Jed gave it to me years ago with many others when I worked for Forman Brothers distributors and met him for the first time. He said to give them to the Steele friends and supporters out there here in Washington D.C. Well I did and I kept a few for myself as I have also been one of the biggest supporters of " Jed the Man " and everything else that follows from that including some of California's best wine and values period.
I have known about the STEELE wines for quite some time. I think my first real notice of them were back when I was in Wholesale working for Wines Limited and making a service-call on Burka's Fine Wines & Spirits that I managed once before getting into the wholesale side of the wine business. I saw them on a floor-stack I believe or possibly on a shelf close to the tasting table at Burka's and I mentioned them to whoever I was with and to owner Mr. Park as well. The oval, swirling label with tiny specks of stars and gold and baby-blues and rich browns and hills and a large glowing sun around the edges ( that looks more like a moon to me ) and the high-rising, monumental architecture of the word STEELE growing up and out from these rolling Mendocino ( Anderson Valley ? ) hills just intrigued me from the get-go.
I had seen the word STEELE before and was also confused as in the back of my mind I was thinking Italian vineyard?! Wasn't this an Italian vineyard and not one from California? Did I have the spelling right? Anyway, I think this was back in 1990 or 1991 : my memory if fuzzy on this. At some point I made the clear connection of STEELE with California and being more of a lover of European wines than those from the U.S. ( especially those from California ) I was cautious yet intrigued to someday try these wines that seemed to pop up out of nowhere and now showing up in the wine shops around Washington D.C.
When I left Wines Limited wholesalers in mid 1995 to take Chris Collin's much-coveted position at Forman Brothers distributors ( there were a whole lot of us then vying for Chris' spot in the Estates Division of Forman Brothers' Fine Wines ) I would not only try these STEELE wines but I would also meet Jed Steele himself. He came to our offices one Friday morning to do a sales' meeting for on and off-premise salespeople and I took some pictures of him then. I still have them and must digitalize them so as to include them later here on this blog.
Jed is a gentle giant of sorts when you meet him : tall and thickly-mustached, casual and colorful in his shirts ( Hawaiian often ), cowboy-booted, attentive and warm in at first a business fashion. Soft-spoken and a man of few words at first. I think he's much more interested in sizing you up and seeing/hearing whether you will be good at selling his STEELE / SHOOTING STAR wines. He's got a great smile that breaks quickly when you say the right things : about wine, about baseball.
Jeff Wood and I went up to speak to him after this first meeting of ours ( perhaps early 1996 ? ) and a couple of pictures were taken of the three of us. Jeff sold to hotels and larger venues like that while I sold to stores. We three would work well in our own ways to sell and promote Jed's wines. Jeff ultimately sold many more cases than I ever did but I think I promoted enthusiastically as well as placed a number of the various STEELE / SHOOTING STAR wines in 375ml ( half-bottle ), 750ml and 1.5 ml ( magnum, double-bottle size ) throughout the D.C. area.
I was most proud of the promotion that Jed asked us sales people to sell the 375ml size bottles of STEELE wines and I won first-prize and a fabulous dinner for two at the then very trendy/hot-spot RED SAGE restaurant in downtown D.C. Thanks Jed, that was fun, both selling your wines and having such a tasty meal to share with my wife.
Jed is very attentive and very much of a hands-on type of business. wine owner/ winemaker man. I grew to really respect Jed and how he dealt with both his sales around the country and us salespeople. No other winemaker/ owner stayed in contact with me while I worked at Forman Brothers distributors. Not only did he keep in contact with me by short hand-written notes ( what a treasure it is to still occasionally receive an actual hand-written note! ) ; Jed also sent us " goody " packages with both wines, corkscrews, STEELE and SHOOTING STAR t-shirts and mouse pads as well as night-plug-in lights and fabulous coffee-tea mugs. I'm sure that there was more, too ; I just cannot now remember what as it has been ten years since all of this.
I valued all this but most of all my first real wine owner/maker connection. I appreciated that in Jed's busy schedule that he made the time to write to me and send me often short, one-two sentence notes. I still have them. On his first work-with me he later wrote : " Tony - Enjoyed working with you, although briefly. Appreciate the work you are doing for STEELE/ SHOOTING STAR ". Jed Steele.
I wrote Jed a response on November 22nd, 1996 : " Hello! It is late on this Friday evening and I am downstairs in my office. Your last visit to Washington D.C. has been on my mind for quite some time and I have wanted to write and thank you both for the time you spent visiting Addy Bassin's wine shoppe and Schneider's of Capital Hill as well as thanking you for the t-shirts you sent after your visit. Both Paul of Scheider's and Roy f Bassin's were very happy to meet you. I gave Roy copies of the photos I took that day. Only some of them came out. Both stores continue to do very well selling your wines ... " Sincerely, Anthony Quinn .
I have since then attended great wine-maker dinners with Jed ( as his guest with my wife ) at the Old Ebbitt Grill ( fun to think that this private dining room downstairs was also the room for a private Mick Jagger and band event; Jed is our " rock star " in the wine world ) and the Park Hyatt hotel as well as hosting Jed's in-store wine-tastings in early 2001-2002 at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( where I currently work as the wine-buyer 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ).
We have a " new " shipment of STEELE / SHOOTING STAR wines arriving in a few days ( it's Monday, November 10th, 2008 as I type this blog ) and that will be great and just in time for the Thanksgiving holidays. We currently are pushing Jed's " Pacini Vineyard " old-vines Zinfandel for the holidays as the temperatures drop and the cold penetrates deeper both physically and psychologically! You need a good Zin or a good Blue Franc from Washington State - even a rich Pinot Blanc from Santa Barbara County's " Bien Nacido Vineyard " to stave-off the brrr in cold weather/wind! And of course for turkey itself we will be selling lots of Jed's Pinot Noir, too. I will write more about all this in a few days in our Cleveland Park store wine email. Stay-tuned.
There are so many stories to share about Jed but I want to post this blog in time for the Thanksgiving and in time to publicly thank-you Jed for all that you have done for/ meant to me over the past years. Kudos. cheers to all your fine efforts from start to finish from making to promoting your wines - always hands-on in the very best sense of the word. You indeed have been a true inspiration to this one humble/thankful/grateful soul. I look forward to seeing you on your next visit to Washington D.C. You are welcome anytime.
As I have been typing madly/ fondly away I have had here by my side an empty signed magnum of your 1996 Santa Barbara County " Bien Nacido Vineyard " Pinot Blanc Jed. I can't get myself to throw it away! It's a dusty bottle and because I iced it down to serve it the label has moved a bit higher on the right and the ice did a job at breaking. biting into the label in three places, gnawing and tearing off parts. It's truly beautiful now in all it's glory and imperfections.
Funny < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Zin " 2004 Mendocino Zinfandel " Pacini Vineyard " label that I cut-off one of the boxes that the wine came in to us at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits years ago. Curious it would turn up now as I am writing this blog. The luck of the Irish I guess , or just my luck. It's a vineyard that Jed bought and now owns along with the " Catfish Vineyard ". Otherwise he sources the grapes from long-lasting agreements with the growers he has worked with over the yaers when he was honing his own skills and bringing KENDALL JACKSON WINERY to the exhalted position it now enjoys largelly in my humble opinion to Jed's efforts. The other interesting point to note for me as I used to be the wine-buyer of California wines for the Mayflower Wines & Spirits is : Jed started I believe his wine career at EDMEADES WINERY and way back when they produced an old-vines Zin that I really liked from this same Pacini Vineyard. Small world, wouldn't you say - or perhaps that often people build on old relationships and experiences as they forge into the ever-looming future?!? I believe I have this all correctly Jed. Please let me know if I am wrong. I have enjoyed being an ambassador of sorts to you Jed and then to your wines. With all the free/promotional stuff you have sent me I have dispensed carefully and widely of it ( sparingly, too ) over all these last years. As I said I myself have often sported your t-shirts and have a fond memory of doing so when I visited Colonial Williamsburg with my parents-in-law that I love. It was a sunny day and we went to the printer's home and there I got into a conversation over the baby-blue t-shirt I was wearing at the time. Someone there knew your wines and we got to talking and sharing. It was a lively, warm exchange in Colonial Williamsburg and so you and your wine as well as the print on it came up as we were in an old printer's house/ office.
Just recently I went to Australia for my very first time this past February, 2008. I loved it! It was wonderful. I took with me one of your STEELE mouse-pads as a possible gift for someone there in the wine business. I ended up giving it serendipitously to the owner of the finest wine shop, Michael, in Perth . western Australia. I will add soon both Michael's last name as well as the name of this amazing wine store - incredible collection of wines - AMAZING! But not as amazing as the largeness and generosity in Michael's heart! Here we were - two American strangers that Michael was meeting for the very first time and he's offering us each a bottle of " Laughing Jack " Limited Two 2004 Barossa Valley Shiraz. This floored me as it is truly scarce and valuable and someday I will drink and enjoy it with people special to me. Thank you Michael, thank you Jed. The mouse-pad was well-appreciated by the two ladies that work for Michael. They were fascinated by the label just as I was years ago when I first held a bottle in my hands at Burka's Fine Wines.
So, on this note/story I will bring this to a close for the moment, proof it and post it in time for these 2008 times to give thanks for all that we have. cherish, prize, love and hopefully find time to enjoy. To quote Tom M. Shroder, editor of the Washington Post magazine in his recent story about being a college student in Utrecht : " Each moment contains the world " , and paraphrasing him : " as simple an idea as that is it is the hardest to grasp. Thanks Tom, I really love this sentence of yours - inspiring in so many ways. Cheers, Happy Holiday to you Jed and your new wife and your family and to everyone else, too.
Jed. I am sorry that this has taken so long to accomplish! I should have done this years ago and can only say in my defense that I have just recently learned and begun to use this blog medium which I love ( May 1st, 2008 was the very first blog on CHATWINE ). I started to blog about those things which I had digital photos to include : yours were taken on my old NIKON Fun-Touch 5 Lens 29 mm AF given to me by friend and fellow wine-lover Tatiana Maria years ago. Pictures to follow I promise. In the meantime here's the blogging start to a continuing beautiful relationship I hope. TONY
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