Alfredo just came by to say " hello / hola " and it sure was nice to see him after so long! That was perhaps three weeks ago and I have been meaning ever since to blog both about it and our continued friendship over these many twenty or more years here together in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area as we both made our paths and our marks in the wine trade.
It's been a fascinating ride all these years and I have seen you Alfredo from time to time. We have even worked together on occasion to promote your wines here in our nation's capitol.
When I worked for Wines Limited Imports and we sold your wines I remember going to visit with you several of my accounts then. I especially recollect going with you to Riverside Liquors ( to see owners Brian and Robert ) as well as to Bell Liquors to see brothers/owners Bob and Fred Luskin as well as Mo their general manager. We would taste and talk pricing and quantity drops and free cases, etcetera. Those were rich and fun times together.
I also remember going out to your warehouse/offices of Billington Distributors in Virginia to pick-up both wine and wine-display units to assemble in the various stores. On one occasion you came out onto the loading dock and complemented me on my then-new Volvo graphite-gray station wagon. Funny how we remember certain things like that, isn't is?!?
But let's try and skip back to when we first met each other? Do you remember Alfredo? I'm scratching my head now to remember and it's a bit vague for me exactly when we met.
It was back in the mid-to-early eighties I think. I'm pretty sure it was at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits way back when when I was in charge of both the buying of California wines for the store as well as setting-up and executing the store's weekend wine-tastings.
Boy, times were simpler back then and less complicated. I really enjoyed immensely my three years working at the Mayflower. And I'm pretty sure we met soon after you started doing your wine wholesale business.
You came with wines like SAINT MORILLON I believe is how you spell it? You also came with the Elsa wines of VALENTIN BIANCHI ( right? or was that a bit later ? ) and I believe VALDIVIESO Sparkling wines, too.
Of course you also came to visit the stores like the Mayflower Wines & Spirits with the COUSINO-MACUL wines: both the regular bottling and the " Antiguas Reservas " bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon.
That wine alone, the " Antiguas Reservas " really hepled cement Chilean wines ( great values and excellent wines ) in the minds of the American public. You also sold a boat-load or more of the really inexpensive SAN MORILLON that stores like Calvert Woodley, Rex Wines & Spirits, Bells Fine Wines would all put ON SALE ( the Cabernet Sauvignon red and the white Sauvignon Blanc ) for $2-$3 a bottle.
That brought the customers in and made it easier for you to order and receive containers in those truly formative years when it was just you Alfredo. Do you still remember?!? I bet you do though you are probably happy and relieved to have some of that behind you now , aren't you?
Of course it is now Monday, November 18th, 2008 at 1:49 PM at my home on my day-off as I type this and I cannot help remembering my conversation this past Saturday in our store with your new rep William Davis. He was there doing a tasting of the three BIG TATOO- TWO BROTHER Chilean reds of yours ( a Syrah ON SALE for $6.49 - reg: $9.99 , and a 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Syrah , as well as the " new " California refreshingly-dry 75% Riesling/ 25% Gewurztraminer. William also poured the ALAMOS ( CATENA'S everyday wines ) Viognier as well. William had just asked me two or three days before if I had heard that you/they had lost the ALAMOS line and I was both shocked and quick to answer : " NO!!! ". That's tough Alfredo, what a blow! How will you replace the money that ALAMOS represented in your sales? I'm sure it will not be easy. What are the people at CATENA doing to replace this huge loss in revenue for you?!
Anyway, William told me that you will be again assuming a larger role to help Billington steer through these most-recent and unexpected choppy Argentinean wine waters. Good luck. We at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits will be more than happy to pick-up and floor-stack your new venture in December 2008. William just tasted me on them again, you mentioned them on your recent visit and for the life of me I cannot recollect their name! Argh! Oh well, I will find out soon and include it shortly here.
Anyway I met you way back when when we were both starting our wine careers and it's been fun to grow together along parallel yet separate paths that have crossed a number of times and always enriched both of our lives. I think that is why we are still good friends and happy to see one another most any chance we get.
I continue to do business with you because of this old connection that was and is still between you and me. You have since managed to hire many really competent people to do much of what needs to be done to continue the wines being represented and sold well at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits on a regular, fairly-consistent basis. I know I know, I could always buy and sell more but in my small way I do the best I can and am happy to have your selections ( Chilean, Argentinean, German, Spanish and now Californian ( when will you do right and go a bit more green and offer a fine Virginia selection?!? ) in our store where Mike Martin and I sell them.
Currently William Davis is doing an excellent job for us. He has a wonderful contemplative/ artsy side that I relate to really well having one myself. We had a really solid tasting of your wines this past Saturday as I have already mentioned. And before William there was the really qualified, smiling and enthusiastic John Peters that would often take a bow coming and going as if he were in a Shakespeare production - nice touch. He knew his wines as well having worked in retail at the original Wide World of Wines.
Then there was Tatiana Maria that was learning quickly all the ins-and-outs of the business and firing my heart and soul as she did! She had a wonderful smile as well and both she and John knew without a doubt how I operated the store and they both made things happen for us at Cleveland Park when you had winemakers/owners visiting as well as vineyard managers ( Catena ) and other important people to the wineries. I never felt left-out with them or with you. You also brought me people like Arturo Cousino and Jaime the old winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL ( he had been there making wines for more than thirty years when I met him ). Of course there were others like Matias Rivera the " new " winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL who now has just recently left I am told.
I just remembered how Mary Arsenault sold your wines, too Alfredo. I recall the one year that I worked at MacArthur Beverages how she came in to make a service call and we got to try some of the new Vintages in your portfolio. That's also where I first met Arturo Cousino when you brought him there yourself once before that wonderful evening when he took all the wine staff out to dinner at the famous Spanish restaurant on 18th St. N.W. What's it called? I'm bad!
Over all these years the only people I did not meet except for the vineyard manager of CATENA were any of the other principles there. Funny, I went there and was treated like a king - better even, surrounded in Mendoza by two of the lovely Catena ladies at dinners, etcetera and yet except for official functions I have not seen them and they have never come to our store.
I've thought about this and how I have represented and sold wines in and out of Cleveland Park Wines these last past 9 years. I keep coming back to the point that is most important to me as a wine-educator and ambassador selling and properly promoting wines : those people that actually come to our store become the closest family to me and thus get my attention and efforts the most. It's odd, not totally practical or rational and yet there it is. Of course this is just an observation of mine that I am sharing with you Alfredo, an old friend. A small detail for many but obviously a huge one for me.
Having said this I should add of course that I have attended some wonderful CATENA events thanks to you and Billington over the years. I'll not soon forget sitting with Beatrice and her husband Jose Galante ( I had met both years ago and have those pictures, too back in 1995 when I won the trip to Argentina and went with Nora Favelukes and a small group of perhaps twelve people. I got a chance to speak to both of them, too back then in 1995 at the dinner already mentioned ) the winemaker at CATENA a few years ago at the Gabriel restaurant when Chef Gregory Hill was there and you were introducing the " new " vintage of Zapata. I've got an open signed bottle by both husband and wife at Cleveland Park now. I got to sit next to them, took some great pictures of the event and really enjoyed the experience immensely. Thank you for that.
I also got to take my wife to the Argentinean Embassy downtown just off of Dupont Circle the next year when you introduced the next " new " vintage of the Zappata. Of course this was a much bigger affair and there were many more people in attendance. There were two professional pairs of tango dancers to enliven the already lively events of this evening. I saw Mark of MacCarthur Beverages there and we spoke for awhile. I also saw Kay Mallon of Winebow Imports there. But the piece de resistance was seeing besides you Alfred and you Alex both Nicolas Catena and his daughter Laura! Wow! I got them both to sign one of those empty bottles as well and it, too is at the store.
Anyway, just after our food and before the grand introduction ( a speech both by Alfredo and Nicolas ) I saw him sitting off to the side and went up to speak to him. We stumbled through with his English and my Spanish and I am grateful for that chance to have spoken again with him after so many years ago. I did get to meet and say " hello " very briefly to Laura on the dance floor.
Years ago and I don't know if you even know this Alfredo I met Nicolas Catena at Bilbo Baggins in Olde Towne Alexandria. It was arranged by Nora Favelukes and I have two pictures which I will have to digitalize and include later in a separate blog. Nora had called me and asked me if I would meet with Nicolas and give him any pointers/ suggestions / help as he was interested in any information as he set-up his U.S. distribution so many years way back when. I said " Yes " to Nora's invitation to meet Nicolas and I was surprised and pleased to discover that it was just the three of us enjoying a conversation and lunch together.
Since then I had been to his vineyard in Mendoza and met his wife twice and other Catena children and children of theirs. It was all wonderful, really and this evening at the Argentinean Embassy with my wife was quite special, too -one that I will not easily forget as it was classy, fun, spirited and remarkable just like the Zapata that was being introduced in the current vintage.
So, I've digressed and moved ahead of myself again. I just made a list Alfredo of some of the times our paths have crossed, etcetera. However, I want to go back to humbler and equally exciting times when we first did meet.
I remember setting up a Saturday wine-tasting back then at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits. You were just starting or perhaps more to the point we were just starting to get to know your Chilean and Argentinean wines back then. I was afraid that they were still largely unknown to the Washington D.C. public and so as to hedge my bet I signed up another tasting. There would be two this Saturday afternoon way back when? It would be with you Arturo and another fine gentleman named Aris Zizzis who sold the INO Greek wines. Wow! That was sure a different time! Anyway, both you Alfredo and Aris came and poured and sold your wines and that was the cementing of a beautiful relationship for us Alfredo as it was for Aris and me. Imagine that?!? So long ago, we have some real bottle-age on the both of us now, don't we!? How do we look ? How do we stand-up after all these years?! Honestly, I think pretty good.
I'm thrilled to have been able to take these recent pictures of you Alfredo " through the wine-glass " as has become my signature picture of late. I think you look pretty good even when your eyes are closed ( oops, sorry I included it - quiet and gentle as when you sleep? ) and when you are not posing and not smiling. I hope you like them. They are simply meant to capture you as you really are, flattering at times, less at others : but you nonetheless.
I have more to add Alfredo such as about the tasting that I organized with Alex your son to get your other son, Eric the tattoo artist into our store to together with Alex do a tasting of the TWO BROTHERS / BIG TATTOO wines as fifty cents from the sale of each bottle goes to the hospices in northern Virginia to help in the fight for breast cancer research and it's victims. We love supporting you in this cause. But more about that a bit later. It's now 12:42 AM on Monday night here at home on November 17th, 2008 and I think it's time I post this and get some sleep. Snow may be on the way and I have to walk our dog tomorrow and prepare for a very busy week at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits I expect with the Thanksgiving holidays just around the corner.
Cheers Alfredo for now. I hope you don't mind this chatty blog of mine about you. I mean it in respect and praise and friendship after all these wonderful years of ours here in the Washington D.C, metropolitan area. We sure have seen the wine business grow up around us and produce many great wines and many young people like your son Alex to take the reins and run with them. We need to someday go out for dinner after work sometime when we have no obligations for the rest of the evening so that we can eat, drink good wine and make merry, chew the fat and smile and laugh till our guts spill and it hurts! TONY
P.S. I see that I wrote this last bit that follows below when I downloaded the pictures at the store on Saturday. I've already said all of it again so I will probably delete it soon.
And for more technical information about Alfredo's impressive portfolio of wines go to : www.billingtonwines.com.
You are always welcome here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits Alfredo. We've known each other so long now we're practically family.
It's been a fascinating ride all these years and I have seen you Alfredo from time to time. We have even worked together on occasion to promote your wines here in our nation's capitol.
When I worked for Wines Limited Imports and we sold your wines I remember going to visit with you several of my accounts then. I especially recollect going with you to Riverside Liquors ( to see owners Brian and Robert ) as well as to Bell Liquors to see brothers/owners Bob and Fred Luskin as well as Mo their general manager. We would taste and talk pricing and quantity drops and free cases, etcetera. Those were rich and fun times together.
I also remember going out to your warehouse/offices of Billington Distributors in Virginia to pick-up both wine and wine-display units to assemble in the various stores. On one occasion you came out onto the loading dock and complemented me on my then-new Volvo graphite-gray station wagon. Funny how we remember certain things like that, isn't is?!?
But let's try and skip back to when we first met each other? Do you remember Alfredo? I'm scratching my head now to remember and it's a bit vague for me exactly when we met.
It was back in the mid-to-early eighties I think. I'm pretty sure it was at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits way back when when I was in charge of both the buying of California wines for the store as well as setting-up and executing the store's weekend wine-tastings.
Boy, times were simpler back then and less complicated. I really enjoyed immensely my three years working at the Mayflower. And I'm pretty sure we met soon after you started doing your wine wholesale business.
You came with wines like SAINT MORILLON I believe is how you spell it? You also came with the Elsa wines of VALENTIN BIANCHI ( right? or was that a bit later ? ) and I believe VALDIVIESO Sparkling wines, too.
Of course you also came to visit the stores like the Mayflower Wines & Spirits with the COUSINO-MACUL wines: both the regular bottling and the " Antiguas Reservas " bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon.
That wine alone, the " Antiguas Reservas " really hepled cement Chilean wines ( great values and excellent wines ) in the minds of the American public. You also sold a boat-load or more of the really inexpensive SAN MORILLON that stores like Calvert Woodley, Rex Wines & Spirits, Bells Fine Wines would all put ON SALE ( the Cabernet Sauvignon red and the white Sauvignon Blanc ) for $2-$3 a bottle.
That brought the customers in and made it easier for you to order and receive containers in those truly formative years when it was just you Alfredo. Do you still remember?!? I bet you do though you are probably happy and relieved to have some of that behind you now , aren't you?
Of course it is now Monday, November 18th, 2008 at 1:49 PM at my home on my day-off as I type this and I cannot help remembering my conversation this past Saturday in our store with your new rep William Davis. He was there doing a tasting of the three BIG TATOO- TWO BROTHER Chilean reds of yours ( a Syrah ON SALE for $6.49 - reg: $9.99 , and a 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Syrah , as well as the " new " California refreshingly-dry 75% Riesling/ 25% Gewurztraminer. William also poured the ALAMOS ( CATENA'S everyday wines ) Viognier as well. William had just asked me two or three days before if I had heard that you/they had lost the ALAMOS line and I was both shocked and quick to answer : " NO!!! ". That's tough Alfredo, what a blow! How will you replace the money that ALAMOS represented in your sales? I'm sure it will not be easy. What are the people at CATENA doing to replace this huge loss in revenue for you?!
Anyway, William told me that you will be again assuming a larger role to help Billington steer through these most-recent and unexpected choppy Argentinean wine waters. Good luck. We at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits will be more than happy to pick-up and floor-stack your new venture in December 2008. William just tasted me on them again, you mentioned them on your recent visit and for the life of me I cannot recollect their name! Argh! Oh well, I will find out soon and include it shortly here.
Anyway I met you way back when when we were both starting our wine careers and it's been fun to grow together along parallel yet separate paths that have crossed a number of times and always enriched both of our lives. I think that is why we are still good friends and happy to see one another most any chance we get.
I continue to do business with you because of this old connection that was and is still between you and me. You have since managed to hire many really competent people to do much of what needs to be done to continue the wines being represented and sold well at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits on a regular, fairly-consistent basis. I know I know, I could always buy and sell more but in my small way I do the best I can and am happy to have your selections ( Chilean, Argentinean, German, Spanish and now Californian ( when will you do right and go a bit more green and offer a fine Virginia selection?!? ) in our store where Mike Martin and I sell them.
Currently William Davis is doing an excellent job for us. He has a wonderful contemplative/ artsy side that I relate to really well having one myself. We had a really solid tasting of your wines this past Saturday as I have already mentioned. And before William there was the really qualified, smiling and enthusiastic John Peters that would often take a bow coming and going as if he were in a Shakespeare production - nice touch. He knew his wines as well having worked in retail at the original Wide World of Wines.
Then there was Tatiana Maria that was learning quickly all the ins-and-outs of the business and firing my heart and soul as she did! She had a wonderful smile as well and both she and John knew without a doubt how I operated the store and they both made things happen for us at Cleveland Park when you had winemakers/owners visiting as well as vineyard managers ( Catena ) and other important people to the wineries. I never felt left-out with them or with you. You also brought me people like Arturo Cousino and Jaime the old winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL ( he had been there making wines for more than thirty years when I met him ). Of course there were others like Matias Rivera the " new " winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL who now has just recently left I am told.
I just remembered how Mary Arsenault sold your wines, too Alfredo. I recall the one year that I worked at MacArthur Beverages how she came in to make a service call and we got to try some of the new Vintages in your portfolio. That's also where I first met Arturo Cousino when you brought him there yourself once before that wonderful evening when he took all the wine staff out to dinner at the famous Spanish restaurant on 18th St. N.W. What's it called? I'm bad!
Over all these years the only people I did not meet except for the vineyard manager of CATENA were any of the other principles there. Funny, I went there and was treated like a king - better even, surrounded in Mendoza by two of the lovely Catena ladies at dinners, etcetera and yet except for official functions I have not seen them and they have never come to our store.
I've thought about this and how I have represented and sold wines in and out of Cleveland Park Wines these last past 9 years. I keep coming back to the point that is most important to me as a wine-educator and ambassador selling and properly promoting wines : those people that actually come to our store become the closest family to me and thus get my attention and efforts the most. It's odd, not totally practical or rational and yet there it is. Of course this is just an observation of mine that I am sharing with you Alfredo, an old friend. A small detail for many but obviously a huge one for me.
Having said this I should add of course that I have attended some wonderful CATENA events thanks to you and Billington over the years. I'll not soon forget sitting with Beatrice and her husband Jose Galante ( I had met both years ago and have those pictures, too back in 1995 when I won the trip to Argentina and went with Nora Favelukes and a small group of perhaps twelve people. I got a chance to speak to both of them, too back then in 1995 at the dinner already mentioned ) the winemaker at CATENA a few years ago at the Gabriel restaurant when Chef Gregory Hill was there and you were introducing the " new " vintage of Zapata. I've got an open signed bottle by both husband and wife at Cleveland Park now. I got to sit next to them, took some great pictures of the event and really enjoyed the experience immensely. Thank you for that.
I also got to take my wife to the Argentinean Embassy downtown just off of Dupont Circle the next year when you introduced the next " new " vintage of the Zappata. Of course this was a much bigger affair and there were many more people in attendance. There were two professional pairs of tango dancers to enliven the already lively events of this evening. I saw Mark of MacCarthur Beverages there and we spoke for awhile. I also saw Kay Mallon of Winebow Imports there. But the piece de resistance was seeing besides you Alfred and you Alex both Nicolas Catena and his daughter Laura! Wow! I got them both to sign one of those empty bottles as well and it, too is at the store.
Anyway, just after our food and before the grand introduction ( a speech both by Alfredo and Nicolas ) I saw him sitting off to the side and went up to speak to him. We stumbled through with his English and my Spanish and I am grateful for that chance to have spoken again with him after so many years ago. I did get to meet and say " hello " very briefly to Laura on the dance floor.
Years ago and I don't know if you even know this Alfredo I met Nicolas Catena at Bilbo Baggins in Olde Towne Alexandria. It was arranged by Nora Favelukes and I have two pictures which I will have to digitalize and include later in a separate blog. Nora had called me and asked me if I would meet with Nicolas and give him any pointers/ suggestions / help as he was interested in any information as he set-up his U.S. distribution so many years way back when. I said " Yes " to Nora's invitation to meet Nicolas and I was surprised and pleased to discover that it was just the three of us enjoying a conversation and lunch together.
Since then I had been to his vineyard in Mendoza and met his wife twice and other Catena children and children of theirs. It was all wonderful, really and this evening at the Argentinean Embassy with my wife was quite special, too -one that I will not easily forget as it was classy, fun, spirited and remarkable just like the Zapata that was being introduced in the current vintage.
So, I've digressed and moved ahead of myself again. I just made a list Alfredo of some of the times our paths have crossed, etcetera. However, I want to go back to humbler and equally exciting times when we first did meet.
I remember setting up a Saturday wine-tasting back then at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits. You were just starting or perhaps more to the point we were just starting to get to know your Chilean and Argentinean wines back then. I was afraid that they were still largely unknown to the Washington D.C. public and so as to hedge my bet I signed up another tasting. There would be two this Saturday afternoon way back when? It would be with you Arturo and another fine gentleman named Aris Zizzis who sold the INO Greek wines. Wow! That was sure a different time! Anyway, both you Alfredo and Aris came and poured and sold your wines and that was the cementing of a beautiful relationship for us Alfredo as it was for Aris and me. Imagine that?!? So long ago, we have some real bottle-age on the both of us now, don't we!? How do we look ? How do we stand-up after all these years?! Honestly, I think pretty good.
I'm thrilled to have been able to take these recent pictures of you Alfredo " through the wine-glass " as has become my signature picture of late. I think you look pretty good even when your eyes are closed ( oops, sorry I included it - quiet and gentle as when you sleep? ) and when you are not posing and not smiling. I hope you like them. They are simply meant to capture you as you really are, flattering at times, less at others : but you nonetheless.
I have more to add Alfredo such as about the tasting that I organized with Alex your son to get your other son, Eric the tattoo artist into our store to together with Alex do a tasting of the TWO BROTHERS / BIG TATTOO wines as fifty cents from the sale of each bottle goes to the hospices in northern Virginia to help in the fight for breast cancer research and it's victims. We love supporting you in this cause. But more about that a bit later. It's now 12:42 AM on Monday night here at home on November 17th, 2008 and I think it's time I post this and get some sleep. Snow may be on the way and I have to walk our dog tomorrow and prepare for a very busy week at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits I expect with the Thanksgiving holidays just around the corner.
Cheers Alfredo for now. I hope you don't mind this chatty blog of mine about you. I mean it in respect and praise and friendship after all these wonderful years of ours here in the Washington D.C, metropolitan area. We sure have seen the wine business grow up around us and produce many great wines and many young people like your son Alex to take the reins and run with them. We need to someday go out for dinner after work sometime when we have no obligations for the rest of the evening so that we can eat, drink good wine and make merry, chew the fat and smile and laugh till our guts spill and it hurts! TONY
P.S. I see that I wrote this last bit that follows below when I downloaded the pictures at the store on Saturday. I've already said all of it again so I will probably delete it soon.
And for more technical information about Alfredo's impressive portfolio of wines go to : www.billingtonwines.com.
You are always welcome here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits Alfredo. We've known each other so long now we're practically family.
Will Davis was just here tonight ( Saturday, November 16th, 2008 from noon-4 PM tasting the TWO BROTHERS Big Tattoo Chilean Syrah (ON SALE for $5.49 ) and Cabernet-Syrah ( $9.99) red blend, as well as the TWO BROTHERS 75% Riesling and 25% Gewurztraminer white CA. blend ( $9.99 ). I just finished my blog on Willima's two in-store wine-tastings that you may now read, too. This dry Riesling/ Gewurztraminer California blend will make a great Thanksgiving wine this 2008 in just a week's time now! Happy Thanksgiving to One and to All! Happy Thanksgiving Alfredo. Give my best to both Alex and Eric. I'd love to get them into the store to do the second in-store tasting with them. We could start by pouring the dry Riesling/ Gewurztraminer blend ( $9.99 - GREAT VALUE! ) ... TONY
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