Sam our local rep from LVDH Imports tastes three French Loire valley wines : two whites and one red - all dry. He had a bottle of Muscadet ( Coteaux du la Loire ), Saumur dry Chenin Blanc and Saumur Champigny dry Cabernet Franc to taste this afternoon of Thursday, Mach 19th, 2010. It's always a pleasure to ave you come and taste your current releases with us Sam. You always bring something interesting to the tasting table when you come : always some great food/wine for thought, so-to-speak. This afternoon was no exception.
Sam has been doing a really good job recently bringing Chris Barker and me some of the LVDH wines to taste. As a matter of interest he has pulled some more wines that I want Chris to try with me as I already know them pretty well and would like to get Chris excited about them as well. Sam will have some Bordeaux wines as well as some from the Rhone and from the Beaujolais region of France as well. This will be good. We will also sample some Viognier that has been very successful over the last seven or so years at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 2010 , Tel:202-363-4265 , sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) where I have been the wine-store manager now for almost ten years! It's time to celebrate that soon. I will have to mention this to all our sales people as it is now almost a decade.
I generally have nothing but high praise for the LVDH selections but I must say that I am not that impressed with their Loire Valley portfolio. I am a huge fan of the Loire Valley wines and have been now for more than thirty years. These wines that I tasted with Sam just do not excite me very much. There is nothing really wrong with them but for my palate they are simply too safe and do not excite mine taste buds in the ways that I want them to.
We have sold both the Muscadet and the dry Chenin Blanc and some years as you would expect are better than others. Here they were both pleasant and bright but for me lacked enough punch and enough character. Having said this I am happy to admit that it is just my palate and my reactions here to these wines : others will probably disagree and that's okay, too.
I told Sam how I felt and described as best what I meant to him. He was both quite shocked and did not share my opinions here at all. He defended his wines and told me that he quite liked them. That's okay Sam : we do not have to agree on this.
In general I am always happy to see what will walk through the front door from LVDH when Sam comes to call. I am usually pleasantly surprised and encouraged immediately to give Sam an order for immediate delivery. This is my plan for tomorrow's visit if all works well. I will call him and ask him to come a bit later in the afternoon as Chris will just be getting back from vacation and we will have wines to put on the shelves as it will be Friday, April 2nd and everything will be arriving as our shelves and displays are quite empty now. It's always a delicate balancing act running an active and lively ( as well as creative ) wine department.
As you can see from these photos that I am up to my familiar and old-trying-to-be-always-new-and-fresh-each-time photos. Some work better than others. I am always trying to capture the moment and my mood and linking all the elements and the people together so that you may better see the relationship here that exists but that is not always recorded and easy to follow ( and certainly not always obvious ). I hope you like these artsy photos and that they may encourage you to come to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and ask to purchase one or more of these dry Loire Valley reds and whites and draw your own conclusions. I will be happy to order them for you.
I'm a huge Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc fan and the Loire Valley excels in these two grape varieties.
I like that in the photo below it says : " mis en bouteille a la propriete : put in the bottle at the property ". This is the best possible scenario for me.
I also love that in the photo above the word Saumur is distorted to look like the word " Sam " as in the name of our rep Sam! Fun.
I adore Cabernet Franc and I have heard that recently it has been permitted in the Lore Valley to add some Cabernet Sauvignon with the Cabernet Franc and I believe this to be a grave error of judgement. Don't fix it if it works - don't replace it if it works!
That's a beautiful color in the picture below of this Saumur Champigny. It attracts me something fierce to it - really it does!
These pictures celebrate both the color of the Saumur Champigny red as well as the labels and the dark green glass of the bottle as well as the Reidel tasting glass that I am using : the fine marriage of all of the above.
Sam. where are you in these photos? I must have forgotten to include at least one picture of you here. Sorry! I will check and see what I took on this day and add one or more in as soon as I find them. In the meantime it is important for me to post this blog now.
I wish that I could be kinder with my evaluations of these Loire valley wines. I do love them so : and it hurts me more than you know because my inclination is to want to love them all so that there will be more of them for me to enjoy.
Cheers and until tomorrow Sam. Thanks for all your hard work and for shopping at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits, too. I appreciate this more than you know. TONY
No comments:
Post a Comment