It was great to meet Tom. We bonded almost immediately! We started to share our own personal stories and it was amazing how much we seemed to appreciate each other.
In our conversation at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W, Washington D.C. 2008 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel : 202-363-4265 ) I learned that Tom has been at CHANDON for quite some time now. He sort of worked his way up slowly through the ranks and has now been the chief / principle winemaker/blender there for quite some time. I love your smile Tom : your kind words, gentle demeanor and your willingness to express yourself. I caught some of all of that in the short hour or so that you were at the store.
My Pinnacle rep and old friend Eric Platt brought you around. He first called and asked me if I'd like to meet you and I immediately said : " But of course! "
You and Eric had the regular bottlings of CHANDON bubbly as well as the " Etoile " series and both the dry unoaked Carneros Cahrdonnay ( $15.99 ) and the dry Carneros Pinot Noir ( $20+ , I can;t remember exactly here now at home as I type this! ) . We have both of them as well as the Brut CHANDON. We bought more of the Brut CHANDON immediately.
My working partner in wine-crime Mike Martin preferred immediately the Brut and so we bought it. I was happy with the full range but Mike really liked the Brut so the Brut it was!
It;s excellent. I liked it , too. So dry , vibrant, steely, shiny and bright : bristling and lively and vigorous and firm and immediately impressionable! What's not to like?!? So, we ran with that until just recently when Christian our new Pinnacle rep came to pour all the CHANDON regular bottlings!
We tasted the Riche extra-dry, the Brut, the brut dry rose and the brut blanc de noirs. We also offered the half bottles of the nv brut. The 750ml bottles are all selling for around $20 and the half bottles for around $15. Just yesterday two young ladies came to the store wanting to buy some of the " Riche " and we had it for them. That was nice. Thanks Eric, Christian and Paulette for being a part of this annual " Big-Theme " bubbly/sparkling wine/ champagne tasting of ours ( around 45 offerings ) from around the world, all styles from dry to sweet, white - red and rose and all prices, too.
I did get a chance off-and-on to chat briefly with Tom. One of the things I mentioned to Tom immediately is how I have always loved selling and talking about the dry Pinot Munier non-sparkling made by DOMAINE CHANDON.
I learned that your father Tom had owned a retail wine/liquor/beer shop I think in Chicago for years. Tom grew up in this environment and kept telling me how much he liked our store, the feel, the attitude, the neighborhood friendliness that we exude. He was very complementary. Thanks Tom, I also liked you and your approach and professional, relaxed demeanor very much. For all that you have accomplished at DOMAINE CHANDON you were/are still very humble, appreciative, observant, reflective and sincere and I warmed to that immediately.
You were at our store to be helpful and to work with us : not to preach or judge or demand or be stand-offish. Kudos to you!
As you can see from these pictures I had fun taking them. I got you Tom to meet some of our favorite customers and they warmed to you immediately, too. Kate loves bubbly and buys it all the time from us. I know that she enjoyed meeting and tasting with you.
You and Eric were nice enough to leave the bottles you were tasting with us. I tasted them after you left with some of our customers and then took the bottles home to enjoy with my wife here in northern Virginia. She appreciated that, too. We liked especially the dry Etoile ( star ) rose.
Come again soon Tom. This time come for a scheduled tasting and we will get a crowd to come and see you.
CHANDON has such a wonderful reputation. I still have never been and I was a bit disappointed to see the " Etoile " restaurant so little appreciated on the ( what I call horrible show ) " The Real Housewives of Orange County ". It's just not for me this show. Oh well, I've said it and will stick to it. I was sorry that the four people there did not seem to appreciate the wealth of opportunity and tastes that are offered there in liquid as well as solid formats. What can you do?
However, there's an overall great reputation to DOMAINE CHANDON, the restaurant and the tasting-room and so many of our customers come to our store with " etoiles " in their eyes and on their tongues and in their hearts when they speak so affectionately of the experience that they enjoyed and retell over and over and over again about their visit there.
Cheers to you Tom and to DOMAINE CHANDON and to good bubbly most anytime and especially now with New Year's just two weeks' away!
Tom, I hope you like some of these artsy-fartsy pictures I took of you and the bottles. You may remember that I had to lay on the floor at the store to take some of them and you were probably wondering if I had lost my mind and gone insane? I wonder sometimes, too but I am happy with the pictures I got for the most part. The effort was well-worth my laying on the floor. You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes : really all times! Never settle : GO FOR IT! GO FOR THE STARS LIKE CHANDON! Hey, I should be on the DOMAINE CHANDON advertising team, n'est ce pas vrai monsieurs ?!? Oui. c'est vrai ... Bonne Annee a tous ...
Come by and buy some DOMAINE CHANDON from us at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and keep those etoiles/stars alive, bright and constantly sparkling for you. Be safe and in good cheer; and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 to One and to All! TONY
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