I have known Eddie Ofori now for many years and he has worn different has like I have over the years representing different brands.
When I first met him I believe was when he was the wine-buyer for he Wisconsin Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. location of the Rodman' Drug Store. I sold to him then and I was with Touton Selections and pushing my red and white Bordeaux wines on him that Laurent Vonderheyden of Laurent Selections bought and sold in unison with Guillaume Touton was back when sometime in the late nineteen eighties I believe. That's when I worked for Laurent and I remember going to see Eddie and taste him on the various wines in my portfolio that started with French wines and then later included a range from Italian and Californian and even some excellent German wines of the Rudi Weis California portfolio. Those were some really fun days.
Eddie was always fair with me and would tell me whether the wines I brought him fit into one of their stacks on the floor or onto his shelves there. He'd tell me whether the particular wine represented a good value or not an we arrived at a point where I had a number of the Laurent Selection wines on the shelves and also some of them floor-stacked. Thanks Eddie.
I left Laurent Selections when Laurent Vonderheyden returned to France to his home at Margaux' Chateau Monbrison to take over where his brother had left off that had just died an untimely death. I did not care to work for Guillaume and so I moved to Wines Limited and was quite happy and quite amused later when Guillaume came looking for Marvin Stirman and Alfio Moriconi to take on his wines. It never happened as we already had an excellent selection of French wines that Alfio had been amassing for a number of years.
Eddie went on to represent the Hennesey cognac and other wines and spirits under their umbrella. He came to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits where I manage the wine department to taste me on some of his portfolio of wines and I always promised to carry some but things always seemed to slip away and or fall apart and I don't think we ever made it a reality and for that I am sorry. I would have bought some Eddie but there was never enough follow-through to make it all happen. I take part blame for this.
Most recently in the last three months or so Eddie has returned wearing the Castle Brands hat that represents a pretty broad range of excellent spirits, many of which I have photographed and included here from the Jefferson bourbon to the Goslings rum and ginger ale, an Irish cream called Brady's I believe and some excellent Irish whiskey as well. We have represented many of them already and have just most recently included two of his very smooth, polished and refined Tierras organic tequilas ( silver/blanco, reposado and anejo ).
This coming Friday we have arranged for the master distiller of Jefferson bourbon to be in our store to pour a selection of his bourbons ( Fri. May 21st, 2010 from 1-3 PM). I am suggesting again in tomorrow's store email to many of our customers to take a long and leisurely lunch break on this Friday so as that they ma come and meet Trey and taste and enjoy and get the full story and specifics on each and every one of these fabulous Jefferson bourbons. For example I would like to know where and how the name came about?
We do not charge for these tastings so if you read this and are interested and can make some time please come and join us and bring a friend, neighbor, family member or business associate. WE will have fun : I promise you that. Trey will be happy to sign a bottle or more as a gift and don't forget that Father's Day is just around the corner.
I enjoyed this tasting with Eddie as he made us a " Dark & Stormy " drink with the Goslings rum and their own ginger ale and then proceeded to taste us on the other seven or so products of his that he had brought along with him in his " goodie " bag.
I learned a whole lot from this mini tasting that Chris Barker and I had with you Eddie and it sure has made it a whole lot easier to sell your products now as I have had a first-hand/ up-close tasting of many f them. I think that it was Chris and I that recommended to Ravinder Sharma ( our spirits purchaser at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ) tat he purchase these new " organic " tequilas. And " voila ! " : there they are now on our shelves much to my surprise and joy.
It makes all the difference when someone has tried a product when it comes time to recommend it or not. For this Eddie I thank you as now I feel that I have that many more spirits products of quality under my belt to recommend when it comes time as it always does.
I have more to say about all that Chris and I tasted a bout a month ago with you Eddie but I am home now trying to catch up on all these blogs in " draft " form and so will have to add more things later this week. I will post this in the meantime as I would like people to know about our Jefferson bourbon master-distiller in-store tasting this coming Friday.
Sic Eddie's first visit to see and taste with Chris Barker and he his mos recently brought us John S. Grover his boss. He's the Chief Operating Officer and I think it was the second or third time that we have actually met.
We did not taste anything with John and Eddie on this visit but it was great to get more of the details hammered out for our upcoming Friday bourbon tasting with master-distiller Trey Zoeller of Jefferson bourbon. I remember really liking the regular bottling, even more than the 17-year0old one as I felt with the hot weather upon us then and now that it is even more appropriate. I did like the 17-yea-old but found that it needed colder weather and even more bottle age to smooth/mellow it out even more as it is so much more hearty and complex and powerful than the regular bottling.
Being an artist I take many of these pictures with an artist's eye and want to add to the equation of pictures and text that is already is available and not simply duplicate it. I hope that you enjoy these photos and my turn of the word or the phrase. For more of this you may go to : chatart.blogspot.com as well as chatpoetry.blogspot.com. Cheers and stay-tuned for more that I will add here later today once at work. See you Friday Eddie. TONY
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