This was a very successful wine-tasting back in April, 2009 sometime with our local rep for William's Corner Importers. It was her second wine-tasting in the store I believe? No, it was her first. I have already blogged here on this site once about her when she brought me some " new " samples to taste that I liked quite a bit. The quality level of these wines from mostly France is as high as it gets. I am sure that we will have them back in the store again as they sell quite well and it's fun to represent some of these more unusual and largely still-unknown regions of France.
At this tasting we had four wines that we were tasting : possibly five. I cannot remember exactly. They all sold well : two from LAURENT MIGUEL ( a dry white Viognier called " Nord Sud " from France's Languedoc, one pale-dry rose made from the Cinsault and the Syrah grapes ), one off-dry Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley called DOMAINE DE LA BERGERIE " Sous La Tonnelle " ; and one dry, clean crisp Austrian white made from the famous indigenous grape Gruner Veltliner called : " Grooner ". They were all well-priced and on this nice day we had fun tasting and selling them.
As these pictures will reveal we also had a SAM ADAMS Boston beer/lager tasting back in the back of our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008, sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel : 202-363-4265 ) and those sold well, too. It was a fun 3-4 hours in thes tore and our customers were not in a rush as they sampled both the beers and the wines before choosing what to buy.
AS you can see I interspersed pictures here of our neighborhood with the ones inside our store. I took these other pictures as I approached our neighborhood before starting my work. I think it provides a fun contrast and shows how much a part of the community we are and feel like. Without our community we are nothing. It does not matter that we may think we are great : if the neighborhood does not say it and tell others it just does not count.
We like selling dry roses and always have in the ten years that I have been the wine manager at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. This one from LAURENT MIGUEL definitely is best with food. It will make you hungry pretty soon. It also lends itself quite well to many foods from salads and cold-cuts, fish( salmon ) and white meats and many mixes of all these. It's not just a warm-weather wine and may even be enjoyed now in the winter months as it is Martin Luther King's Day today, Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 11:16 AM here at home in northern Virginia as I finally get ready to post this event.
Tonight I am making some Jumbo shrimp and I think that I could very easily serve this dry French rose blend of two of the five really important Rhone/southern French red blending grapes : Cinsault and Syrah. Too bad that I do not have a bottle.
What is even more funny is that this past week at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits our new rep for William's Corner, Frenchman and bubbly-maker ( he made one of the vintages of sparkling wine for Patricia Kluge - we have his bottles signed in the store for sale ) Charles brought Chris Barker and me a sampling of " new " wines to taste and included amongst them was an excellent dry 2008 rose from LAURENT MIGUEL. It's on special from them and we could sell it for $7 or less a bottle and may do so in February if there is still any left.
Charles had two Spanish wines as well for us to taste : both reds. There was not a wine in the bunch that we could not buy and sell quite easily as they were all balanced and priced fairly, too. But more about that in my next posting.
As you can see here that Andrea one of our customers is buying some of the SAM ADAMS beer that she sampled here at the the tasting. She may have already put a bottle of one of the wines she tasted at the register : I can't recall.
Here Andrea is again with Vince another one of our favorite customers. I do not know the brunette to Andrea's right wearing the red-rimmed glasses.
Pictured below is the shopping center a block away from us with the restaurant Palena in it : one of our favorites run by chef Frank Ruta and sommelier extraordinaire Kelly.
It's also the shopping center that importer Peter Weygandt chose to open his store in this year 2009 around mid October was it? I can't remember. They opened in the corner next to the excellent Fitness Center that are good friends of ours.
Vince loves to engage people in lively conversation about wine. life, art ( he's on the board at the Studio Theatre ), food and everything else exciting and fun.
I will have to ask Charles about getting some of the Viognier again. This last batch that he tasted Chis and me on was a bit fruitier and very soft, round and bright on the palate. I actually preferred the more restrained Chardonnay-Viognier dry white blend that he tasted us on and will probably buy them both to satisfy all of our customers, depending on their own taste-preferences or on the foods that they are preparing.
Dino here does an excellent job on our corner getting people to the restaurant. Dean is always running both great food and wine promotions and on Tuesdays there is a " no-corkage " policy where you may buy bottles of wine that you purchase from us and not get charged any money to open them there with your meal. I do recommend that you do this and plan to tip a bit extra to the waiter or waitress that depends on their tips as their salaries are quite low. Remember that usually when you buy a bottle at the restaurant that you are paying part of the tip for the wine. In short : be kind to your waiters and waitresses that in kind will repay you as you dine there in the future.
We had two " new " flavors tasted here of SAM ADAMS. For all the facts go to my SAM ADAMS Summer Ale and Blackberry Witbier blog ( use the search engine here to find it ) and see all the pictures and get all the details.
Vince, I see you looking at me as I take this picture. I can see you caught me! Oops!
More SAM ADAMS poured by our lovely SAM ADAMS rep. What was her name? Look at the color of that golden-sunshine-fused beer in Vince's glass. He always brings his own glass so as not to have to taste out of plastic cups. We have a few customers that do that : Jim, Marilyn, Vince, Mike and Nadia and more I am sure ...
Sometimes our customers have time to stop and to taste and other times they are in a bit more of a hurry. Here we have three of our neighborhood regulars stopping to taste and decide whether there is a wine here for them for the weekend or not.
I think Vince decided to buy one of the SAM ADAMS beers as our rep must have brought a 6-pack up to the register in the front of the store. What were you saying to her Vince as she walked away? I heard it at the time but cannot recollect now. She's smiling : must have been good.
You can see through the front windows that it was still a really nice day outside.
Here we have Alexander one of our favorite customers talking to Mike Martin leaning on the counter and with his back to me. Antonio in the front of the store by the front door looks on and puts some more 750ml bottles of OMMEGANG New York State Burgundy and Belgian-style beers on the display there.
The green-top bottles of Austria's dry white indigenous Gruner Veltliner grape called " Grooner " here did really well before, during and after this tasting, We are out and I must order some more as it is so bracing and dry, crisp, bright and lively and refreshing - and well-priced, too. And let's not forget that it has a really lovely-fun label, too. I like to refer to those that start drinking Gruners that they can become " crooners " with Gruners.
Here's one of our happy customers with two bottles from the tasting : the dry Gruner Veltliner " Grooners "and the off-dry Chenin Blanc from France's Loire Valley ( DOMAINE DE LA BERGERIE'S " Sous La Tonnelle " ).
Vince, you are giving all of this some serious thought here. What did you finally decide?
Andrea, I think I caught you off-guard when I took the first picture above of you here. You got more into the spirit with this second photo. Love that smile.
Look at the clear bright day outside the store, behind Andrea here. Has it stopped raining ? Let's also here it for LEFFE Belgian beer, too.
Is it just me or does anyone else see how Andrea's green umbrella here matches the green bottle tops of the Gruner Veltliner bottles?!?
Go Viognier and Carolina and one big, broad, beaming smile. Gotta love it!
I love taking these artsy photos through the wine glass. I really do like them though I know that they distort and women often find them hard to look at : especially when it is a photo of themselves. I do it all as an art pursuit and to pay homage to the men, women, wines and things caught through the glass as well as inside it. Here we have the dry rose : lovely color. I also love the smile how it shines through as well as the long baby-blue cobalt scarf and the distortion of the glass in the office behind ...
Here we have a happy customer holding and getting ready to purchase a bottle of the LAURENT MIGUEL " Nord Sud " white Viognier from France's Languedoc region. Bravo!
I'd say that this was both a fun time at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits as well as successful selling day, too of both wines and beers and let's not forget other things too ...
Thanks everyone here and that I did not capture in these photos for making it another exciting weekend day in Cleveland Park N.W. in our nation's capitol.
Cheers, TONY
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