It was great to see Paolo Librandi once again as I believe this is now his third visit to Cleveland Park? Is that correct Paolo? And now you are engaged and about to get married, too in July I believe? So many wonderful things happening all at once and your wines today on this afternoon visit sure did taste wonderful. I really enjoyed all of them and I am happy to say that three of them are now back in the store and ready to be purchased. We sold some of this past weekend as a matter of interest and I am very pleased about this.
Paolo, I think you came on Thursday with Jody Jackman of Wine bow Imports. That would make it the 4th of March, 2010. And what is wonderful, too is that Katherine the young lady that had been asking for your LIBRANDI wines of Calabria, southern Italy was at the store on Saturday evening and I rang them up at the register for her, recognizing her once I saw what she had on the counter before me. I told her that we also had the Riserva Ciro LIBRANDI dry red ( $19.99 ) and she said that she would buy it, too. I called out to Chris Barker to get a bottle off our shelf and bring it to me and so Katherine that evening walked away with three bottles of LIBRANDI dry reds ( two of the regular dry red Ciro ) and that made me happy indeed. I was smiling from ear to ear - widely - exultantly inside - beaming, really as she walked away and out our front door. This is good business : everyone is happy this way. Everyone here got what they wanted and so what more could you ask for?!?
I love these two pictures above and below of both Paolo Librandi ( owner of LIBRANDI wines in Ciro, Calabria, southern Italy - go to my previous blog on Paolo Linbrandi at both LIBRANDI and also with owner Miriam Caporali of TENUTA VALDIPIATTA - two separate blog entries for - for more info and pictures ) as well as Jody Jackman from Winebow Imports. I like how the Librandi " Ciro " indigenous white really brings out the warmth of their smiles along with the help of the strong ceiling lights above filtering through/reflecting from both golden-colored wine and my Reidel wine glass.
Being an active artist I notice these types of things and hope you don't mind my sharing them with you? Let me know your thoughts any time. There's a place below to leave comments and I welcome them. It all adds to the moment.
Jody, you look fabulous here in this picture above? Have I already mentioned this? yes, I have : but I like saying it again as it's so true.
I must have been moving my Canon digital camera above as the image came out blurred here. It's got life though reflected in a jarring and flushed/rushed sort of way in the Reidel glass. It's like vibrating here : raw light and energy that will fuse into emotion: translate into emotion/ conviction? I like it.
I love the deep garnet/cherry toasted-reflective red color in the Reidel glass below of one of your dry indigenous red wines Paolo. You're a bit tentative in the picture as I probably took so many all in a row and it's hard to smile equally in all of them. I still really like this picture above and it's composition. I especially like how the ceiling light above cuts through the bit of red wine at the back of the glass and makes it look like the Yellow Brick Road in the movie " The Wizard of Oz ". Do you see it, too? Or is it just me and my really active and creative imagination going on about nothing? NO!!!! It's there. Where are we off to Paolo? Let's discuss this further over a glass of your LIBRANDI Gravello Val Di Neto Paolo.
I like the color, too in the picture above. It's got a lovely rustic, rusty brown nail grip, grit and grind that speaks of sun-bleaching as it warms the cockles of this liquid red wine's throat that will in it's own way sing and cry and rant and rave and pave a path of many ways and reveal the core of the relationship that existed that year between those select vines of LIBRANDI'S wherever they may be : on hill or in a undulating valley or ravine. I haven't seen the terrain of Calabria yet. What does it look like Paolo? How do the vines, the roots, the earth and the sun and wind and rain all interact normally in Calabria?
I loved this LIBRANDI " Gravello " Val Di Neto above. It was my favorite of the wines tasted here this afternoon with Paolo and Jody. It spoke to me volumes and I could easily have enjoyed the whole bottle over the course of the rest of the day before the sun's light bid us " adieu " and the reflection from the moon of the departed sun bathed us, depending on cloud formations or not in it's light. Let's take a bottle down to Spices again Paolo, just like we did the last time and let's call Miriam to come join us. I'd like that a whole lot.
I really liked both the weight and the concentration of the full canopy of moods and attitudes/latitudes of the many red grapes that baked I would believe in the intense sunshine until night brought the much-needed relief of dark and cold to equalize the blaze of the preceding hours. I am only guessing here of course but then these many red orbs hanging in bunches as they do day-in and day-out must have to have a break from all their work, frantic at times I am sure as they try to either hide from the intense rays of sunshine as to not bake : as well as dig deeper from a hard and unforgiving poor soil that did not want to make room for anything at all. So, how survive? How thrive? How?
The picture above is of stark grades of dark and light : almost as if candle light here. The contrasts are deep and far apart and yet they do meld and mesh well. I like the circles in the Reidel glass and I love the ceiling lights above that really do seem to be of a real light from a fire or a flame. It's a bit hard on Paolo's features. Sorry Paolo : it's all for the sake of art.
This LIBRANDI Gravello Val Di Neto has all the highs and the lows as well as all the spaces and places in between that I can fit myself , starting with my palate and tongue and continuing on with each and every sense of mine, every limb and every thought and fantasy, too. This is a bit of a stretch, I know : but the wine makes me feel as if I can and that goes to a wonderful state of mind and senses that equates to an incredible feeling of attaining and wanting to attain many of the limitless possibilities that lie there very present if dormant in each and everyone of us. I like / more, I need that. Wine is an incredible catalyst for me : my drug of choice.
I feel the LIBRANDI Gravello calling out to me : calling me by name and what more could I ask of a wine? Not much.
I love the starkness and edgy/fuzzy-mixed-with-light-and-motion feeling of the picture of Paolo above. I get a bit of warrior quality here with this profile of Paolo's almost as if he has just returned from a successful battle campaign waged , fought hard for and won? Maybe I am confusing all of that with selling and promoting well one's family's wines today?!? Sure, that must be it.
I really love the red color of his wine above " transparent and light-infused that looks almost like tints of tomato reds and which I believe is the LIBRANDI " Duca San Felice " Riserva 2005 ( $19.99 ) here that was amazingly smooth, elegant, refined and subtly-nuanced and reserved almost to a fault. It would be ever so easy to enjoy glass after glass and probably it would not really go at all to your head. It's always been the best-selling of all of the reds but this vintage of 2005 is more refined and elegant than I ever remember it being? Has the style changed some here with this Riserva Duca San Felice or is it simply the vintage? Please let me know Paolo : I forgot to ask you this afternoon as I was so busy snapping pictures away and doing my sketches and helping customers, etcetera.
Having said all of this I don't want to take away from the other wines : they are all excellent, too. It's just that for each and everyone of us one wine speaks louder and more directly and profoundly than the others and that's simply the way that it is.
Besides the LIBRANDI Gravello I tasted in order these other LIBRANDI wines : 1 ) the Ciro dry indigenous white, the 2 ) dry Ciro indigenous redd, the 3) Duca San Felice Riserva Rosso 2005 ( $19.99 ), the 4) Gravello Val Di Neto, the 5) Magno Megonic Val di Neto 2005 I believe? I am home on my day-off, Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 9:47 PM as I type this and so will finish this from work tomorrow. It all takes time and I forgot to bring my paperwork home with me which included my notes. Oh well, that failed to happen so I have to rely on my memory and ad-lib things as best that I may.
Susan that works with Tom Calder's French and now European selections was in the store at the same time almost and waiting to see me ( she's got the yellow scarf on - Jody has the pink scarf ) and so I invited her over to taste along with me. I like including everybody when I can : I believe fervently that it greatly adds to any one's experience this sharing of the moments and thus stays with us longer as we make more contacts and connections.
Look at this wonderfully clear and reflective quality of red above being poured into my glass from the LIBRANDI bottle of wine? It has various hues of red and I like the movement and motion as well as the pattern as it flows into the Reidel glass : the circles, the reflections off the clear Reidel glass as well as the green neck of the foil on the bottle top : green and red - complementary colors that give a nice yin and a yang here of forces that work both together and apart? I also like the small bit at the bottom of the tasting Reidel glass and how it comes forward against the thick bright white crystal glass in all it's clarity and reflective brilliance. This is, of course the artist speaking in me. Please humor me : I can't make any of it go away. It's here to stay ...
I really liked the LIBRANDI Ciro dry indigenous white : it's clean and bright and flavorful and distinct. It's also really well balanced and easy to enjoy with or without a meal being medium-to-light-bodied with good acidity and minerals and citrus but neither sharp or tart or cloying. It's a pleasure to drink: and the prices on it and it's red counterpart are very reasonable for everyday enjoyment.
In the picture below I have Paolo seen through the green glass of this LIBRANDI Ciro dry white. It's perfect as one can actually see through the color of the wine as well as the color of the green glass. I like it when I remember to take pictures of the owners and the wine-makers through the bottles of their wines. Sometimes I get an incredible picture : other times I get interesting contrasts of light and features distorted and seen through or masked by glares in the glass as here with the bridge of the nose between Paolo's eyes. I like it : there's a warmth and a glow and a cozy feeling of saturated and absorbed light from the ceiling that is made palatable and welcoming here though the yellow-green fusion of glass and light. I almost forgot to mention the intense yellow/mango color found in the LIBRANDI " Ciro " label itself that is very attractive and pleasing all on it's own. It, too adds immensely to this picture and warm feeling above.
What do you think? Do you like it?
I liked also how appealing the simple dry indigenous Ciro LIBRANDI red was here on this afternoon. Again it was very approachable and enjoyable all by itself. I am sure that at some point I would have become hungry drinking it but I have a good sense that I could have enjoyed a glass or two in conversation with Paolo and Jody before any food made it's entrance?
Here's the quick portrait sketch that I made of Paolo before he and Jody left to go to their next appointment. I did it and am glad that I did. When I saw Paolo again awhile earlier as he and Jody got settled and we spoke of past meetings he asked if I was still sketching and making portraits? I said I was and that I would do another of him before he left. I did two on this visit. The last time I did two of him when he was seated across from me a year or so ago with Patricio and Miriam Caporali of TENUTA VALDIPIATTA ( Montepulciano, Tuscany ) at Spices Asian restaurant down at the other end of our block.
When I gave the two quick sketches of this afternoon to Paolo he said that he would include them with the two that he already has. Thanks Paolo, I'm glad that you still have them : that pleases me enormously.
The last wine that I sampled was the LIBRANDI Magno Megonic Val Di Neto 2005 dry indigenous Calabrian red. I liked it very much for it's elegance, poise and style and superb finesse. It was so nice to sip all on it's own but I felt too coddled and pampered by it. I wanted to be more jostled and shook and turned round and knocked a bit senseless and to the ground if you get my meaning. I like a wine to chew on me some like the LIBRANDI Gravello does and after just having thoroughly loved that in the Gravello it was a bit of a let-down for me being served right afterward. I think for me it would have worked much better if the order had been reversed here. I think I would have sung it praises more if this had been the case. But that's just me : I am sure that it will be a big hit with many and I will consider bringing it to the store again perhaps towards the end of the year when things start to get cold again. Jody, why don't we work it into one of your in-store/wine-tastings?
I loved Jody's idea to place my quick portrait sketches of Paolo with his back to me and the camera. We will have to work more on this idea Jody : it's a great one with lots of artistic possibilities. I'm pleased with these fun pictures.
Thanks for stopping by Paolo. Come again anytime. Let's get you back the next time for an in-store/wine-tasting of your current inventory with Winebow the next time that you come to Washington D.C. ? Let me know and we may organize this early so that we may let everyone know. Grazie et a presto Paolo .... TONY
1 comment:
Ciao Tony, I really enjoyed your post that gives back to me exactly the taste of that afternoon.
It was fun once more to bring a little piece of Calabria in Washington DC.
You made a few questions in the post, here some very quick answerws.
Concerning our terroir, Calabria is mostly mountains, the vineyard are only close to the coasts, so we can benefit of the influence of the mountains and the sea at the same time. This mostly means very warm days and much fresher nights, important condition for the aromas of the wine made with our grapes. The wind is quite strong during all the seasons and this is all you want if you grow grapes...and the sun, oh the sun is always with us! The soils are very rich and capable to keep humidity, a mixture of clay and calcar that may change in the percentage of both depending from the altitude and creating different crus in the area. It takes definitely to come and take a look.
Concerning the Duca Sanfelice instead, the 2005 was a fantastic vintage as it was in Burgundy too, I like to see it that way for varietals with a lot of similarities, but the style of this Cirò riserva changed a little bit in 1998, when we decided to have less estraction and concentration but more elegance. What may change from a year to the other now is totally up to the vintage...
Thanks again for your warmth and hospitality and I can make my way back very soon!
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