I hadn't see Anthea Gardner the president of Boutique Imports is it( ? ) in a number of years and here she shows up with Matt our new rep for Suprex this late afternoon after the hours that we usually like to see salespeople and taste their wines. I launched into a spiel about that and thought I would not have a taste at all of any of the wines as I was trying to rush them out and get ready for the evening's rush at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel: 202-363-4265 ) of many of our regulars getting off work and coming for whatever suits their whims or fancies? That always changes and I can never be sure exactly what they will want?
There was a brief lull and as I asked Anthea and Matt to leave I realized that I had been a tad hasty in all of this and not properly said " hello " and so I stopped, smiled and greeted Anthea properly with a kiss on each cheek and asked her to pour me a taste of one or two. I tasted quickly these wines as I knew my window of opportunity to taste and to evaluate was very narrow now and I wanted to see what Anthea was up to these days.
Anthea's still had her same bag of tricks except that all the vintages were fresh, bright, balanced and current. That pleased me immensely as I began my " photo shoot " and I did that quickly, too. Here are some of the pictures that I took in rapid succession and I hope you like their more playful, more artsy style here.
Anthea wore a blouse that mimics the patterns in the BOUTIQUE " Wildflower " Chardonnay 2009 ( $14.49 ) that I quickly tasted, followed by the BOUTIQUE " Wildflower " Merlot 2008 ( $14.49). Matt pointed out to me the similarity between Anthea's blouse colors and that of those in the BOUTIQUE 2009 " Wildflower " Chardonnay label : quite striking. I've always liked that label. When you put it together with Anthea then you've really got my attention and my mind was quickly composing images in my head as I snapped away and asked Anthea to hold the bottle up in front of her face for me. Being clear , transparent glass in the bottle is perfect for capturing those behind it and I think I got some interesting as well as a couple of stunning images here. What do you all think? Are you more interested now in tasting Anthea's wines after having seen these pictures? That's the idea in my mind.
The " Wildflower " 2009 Chardonnay was quite pleasing and very drinkable with some nice rounded flavors and hardly any bite if at all. It could have been a bit colder in my glass but then it was towards the end of the day for them I am sure. I may have been their last sales call of the day? I think if it had been slightly cooler that it would have had more energy and brightness with more accents and exclamations and dotted " i's " and crossed " t's ", etcetera. I liked it though, don't get me wrong here.
The 2008 " Wildflower " Merlot was fuller and richer and more " impactful " on my palate. It spoke more readily/ore immediately to me. Perhaps I was simply more in the mood for a red wine at this moment. I do know that I had already tasted lots of wine and perhaps my palate was fatigued from all of that? I would not be surprised. Anyway, the Merlot on this occasion worked really well for me and I think I will get Matt into our store to do an in-store, wine-tasting soon that will include this " Wildflower " 2008 Merlot ( $14.49). This will be a good start to any tasting.
I quickly then tasted both the MERMAID RIDGE wines: a red and a white. I did not focus enough on them so I do not want to comment more than to say that I found both quite enjoyable. I will say more the next time I have a chance to try them. We have sold them as well as both the " Wildflower " wines and they have always done well. This, however, was more than five years ago. That's how long it has been since I saw and tasted with Anthea.
That's why I wanted to taste them quickly so as to have some idea what Anthea was up to these days. I'm glad that I did, too.
I really liked the last wine that I sampled with Anthea : her FIVE GEESE Grenache ( 80% ) and Shiraz ( 20% ) Shiraz dry red blend 2004 ( $24 approximately ). It's always been a favorite because it's so velvety and lush and almost creamy and it almost always melts over the contours of my palate and fills my mouth so nicely with nothing but elegance and pleasure and richness of that Grenache grape that is really hard to resist when it is this seductive and alluring. I rarely can resist it and I know already that I will buy some from Matt and have him pour it as well sometime soon for all of our customers lucky enough to stop by during that time in our store in our nation's capitol!
Before tasting the FIVE GESSE Grenache/ Shiraz velvety-dry red blend I tasted this DOMAINE BAROSSA " Black Tongue " Shiraz 2008 ( $24 approximately ) and I liked it's heft and grip and darkness of color and earthier styling that with a meal would be positively brilliant with the right combination. It's more of a food wine and I really do want to try it once again as I rushed into, through and after it as I snapped madly away on this " photo shoot " of Anthea and he mostly " Wildflower " 2009 Chardonnay here. It was just a whole lot for me to absorb after an already really busy day of writing and sending our week's store email. So bear with me, cut me some slack and in the meantime before I return to finish all of this and dot all of my " i's " and use all the exclamations that I want to - well, for the moment enjoy these rather artsy and playful pictures that I took of Anthea holding her wine bottle.
It's amazing to me how I could have progressed so quickly with Anthea to this photo above when just moments earlier ...
I was getting pictures like these here above and below ...
and then pictures like the one above and below ( favorites of mine ) and ...
and then back to these just above and below. The spectrum of human emotions, movement and calm are pretty amazing. And it all just transpired so quickly. That's the amazing thing about a photograph or a series like this : it captures the changes and preserves them so that we may all better see just how many emotions and facial expressions actually occur so rapidly and show so much range? Thanks Anthea : and thanks Canon camera of mine ...
Having said all of this Anthea I hope that you, too will plant to come to Cleveland Park again and this time do an in-store, wine-tasting for our loyal and much-appreciated customers. Cheers and congratulations on all of your hard work and sticking to your guns and being faithful to these excellent wines now for so many years here in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region. Bravo, TONY
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