Chris is our new rep from Republic National that replaces our old and dear colleague Tom Morrissey that was in the wholesale fine wine business in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region for thirty plus years now and just recently passed away at a very young age. We will miss you Tom.
Tim just brought us Chris a couple of weeks ago and I immediately recognized him as just a week earlier he had come to our store as a customer in search of some of the better 2007 Cotes Du Rhone wines still available in our market. We must have talked for at least a half an hour before he bought two or three bottles to try. We were both smiling when Tim introduced us. Funny, I am now dealing with two " new " Chris' as Chris Barker is " new " to our store as well and helping me to both buy and sell wines to our Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits customers ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. , 202-363-4265, sales@clevelandparkwine.com, www.clevelandparkwine.com ).
This was a busy day for us being just after the big snow storm and Chris called to see if he could come by with samples of both the MONT GRAS and the LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS Chilean wines? I said " sure " after I gave it a quick thought. It was early enough in the morning and it is always good to see what is out on the market. On top of that I like Chris and I think he will do a really excellent job for Republic National because like Chris Barker they both have a real interest in the wine business as a whole and learning and tasting more. Both are young and very enthusiastic and I am sure I will glean things from them as I hope they both do from me.
Chris had a white 2008 ( or was it 2009? ) dry Sauvignon Blanc from LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS that we started with. Ed, one of our best customers tried the wines with me. He and his wife Jinny run a fabulous cooking class right out of their home for 15 people or fewer at one time called : Company's Coming. They live on Ross Street N.W. and you can google them for more information if you want the treat of a lovely evening in a warm and welcome environment that is neither stuffy or didactic and where you will surely learn and enjoy both at the same time.
I often invite our customers to taste along with me. I like to give them the option if they want and it works both ways as we share opinions and bounce things off of one another. Also : they may want to purchase whatever is being sampled right on the spot and that gives both the supplier and us the store some immediate business. Everyone wins this way.
Here's Ed in the picture below and some of the hardened snow and ice out in front on our parallel access street. It's pretty much a big mess and I wanted to get a fun picture of it so I scooted down to get a close-up of this as this last two weeks of snow in Washington D.C. has been called the snow storm of the century with the most snow ever on record!
Ed and Jinny have bee to both Chile and to Argentina for both the food and the wine as well as the countries and their cultures, too. I meant to ask him if he had been to either MONT GRAS or to LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS?
The Sauvignon Blanc of LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS I found to be very pleasing and enjoyable but not very exciting. It was very okay for what it is and we may sell some at some point. However, it was certainly not the star of the four wines tasted. The two Carmenere reds were the stars this morning. The 2007 Reserve Merlot from MONT GRAS was nice and yet it did not have as much modulation of flavors as either the two Carmenere reds. Like the Sauvignon Blanc it was pleasing and safe and that's okay, especially when you consider the prices for everyday enjoyment.
The two Carmenere reds from Chile were both well-priced ( the LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS are real values for the money : the MONT GRAS are just a bit more expensive. I will include prices of all four wines as soon as I am back at the store and can call Chris to ask him. I am writing now from home on Monday, February 15th, 2010 - President's Day at 1:29 PM having worked in our back to deal with snow removal from our roof and gutters as more snow is due to start falling now any moment! Yikes! More snow?!? Incroyable, vraiment!! ).
The LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS Carmenere is the more immediately pleasing wine with less-development than the MONT GRAS 2008 Carmenere. I liked both. By it's own I might very well prefer the LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS Carmenere. However, with food that requires more structure and backbone in a wine I would probably prefer the MONT GRAS 2008. It all depends on what I am eating or what the event is and who will be drinking the wines along with me. That's how I chose : by the event and the moment and the variables that will come together to define and make it the best possible.
As I told Chris I had just purchased some Carmenere from Chile as we were almost out and we needed some. He was just a day or two late and yet we will buy some for the front of our store in March 2010 as it is always good to have a Carmenere up front for sale at under $10 and that will be the LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS.
For the time-being we have some of the excellent ROOT 1 Carmenere for sale at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. There's another , too : both come from Winebow Imports and I simply cannot remember the name of the second now.
Ed, I forgot to ask your opinion on these wines. I also forgot to ask Stephen another good customer that sampled them with me. The store had a steady stream of customers buying and restocking at the same time I was tasting and so I multi-tasked as I like to say ...
Above is one of our favorite customers that comes from Portugal and so of course we had to talk about those wines before she left.
Good to the last drop ( or tear ) I like to say. I was feeling rushed and so I did not sample the wines with my regular Reidel wine-tasting glass here. I am sorry for that. Oh well, c'est la vie ...
The tall man tasting in the picture above is Stephen. I have a good feeling that he will enjoy some of the LUIS FELIPE EDWARD'S Carmenere once that we get it for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits.
Jo-Anne pictured above here did not taste as I forgot to tell her what was going on inside the store. I had just put some wine into one of our customer's car I believe. This is also when I took the picture of the large blocks of ice piled up on our sidewalk here in Cleveland Park. This actually may have been before Chris came with both the MONT GRAS and the LUIS FELIPE EDWARD'S wines?
I love both of these parting pictures here in front of our store as well as along the length of the block-long access road of ours and the the other businesses. It was a mess! Parking was a mess ! I had to drive down this earlier and contemplated turning around and heading home as it was so dangerous and I did not want to damage my Ford Taurus in the process of simply trying to find a leagl parking space and not getting a fine from the D.C. government for $250 which they were liberally giving even though the parking situation was a real tangle and a mess and not anyone's fault. The D.C. government should have been more understanding I humbly believe and not so available to profit from those at the mercy of the larger elements of Nature.
So long Tom Morriseey and welcome Chris - both Chris'. This sure is a beautiful morning and early afternoon here in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. on Connecticut Avenue just two blocks down from our national zoo as well as across the street from the Uptown movie Theatre that still has one of the very last large screens to view a movie on. Many of the movie premiers take place there as a result.
Many wine premiers also take place in our store as we are often some of the very first people to introduce a wine to our customers and our local D.C. metropolitan market. That's a big statement, I know : but I can back it up having now been in this market for more than 30 years. I think I have a pretty good and accurate grasp on it.
So : come to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits soon to taste and buy some MONT GRAS and LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS Chilean wines. Over the years we have carried both and will do so again thanks to the industry and hard work of Chris our new sales rep for Republic-National...
Cheers, and Happy Presidents' Day today to one and to all. TONY
P.S. You may all want to rush down to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits before it starts to snow all over again
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