AS I have already said from the previous blogs that I have entered from this same time and place here at chatwine.blogspot.com this Tuesday late afternoon of June 25th, 2010 was a hopping place here at Cleveland Park Wines % Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-36304265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ). We had three other sets of suppliers in at the same time with my two great friends Lee and Leslie here wanting to buy wine all at the same time. I had lots of scrambling to do and yet miraculously everything worked out quite well and everyone seemed reasonably happy.
Owner Andrea Englisis of Athenee Imports had a whole series of wines for us to taste as you may see from the picture above and many of them we have sold before. I already knew the wines of DOMAINE MERCOURI ( dry red and white ) as well as those of ATLANTIS ( all three types from dry white to rose to red ), H-18h, and the retsina PHTINITHE that is considered the Rolls Royce of retsina's.
The ones that I did not know yet were HIGH PEAKS ( not a very Greek-sounding name I must say immediately in surprise! ) and NOTIOS. There's also another domaine wine there that is DOMAINE something OPOULOS that I cannot quite make out here in these photos so I will have to check that out a bit later at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits when I get to the store. I am here at home now on Friday morning at 8:03 AM July 30th, 2010 trying to catch up on all these blogs that I have in their " draft " forms saved here and needing the stories written before posting.
I want very much to post some form of this blog today as later on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits we will be hosting our next Big-Theme In-Store/Wine-Tasting and this one will be on the wines of Greece. Jody Jackman of Winebow Imports that sells these wines of Andrea Englisis of Athenee Imports will be here to pour some of these and that is exciting indeed. I will invite three other specialists in Greek wines to pour as well. Everyone is welcome to come and taste these 25-30 or so Greek wines with us on this Wednesday evening between 5:30-8:30 PM. Bring family and friends, neighbors, business associates and have fun and learn all at the same time. Everyone is welcome to share in this experience with us.
We have sold these Greek wines at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits for fifteen years or more starting first with my predecessor Peter Anastopolos that bought and sold the wines for at least five years in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. before me. Thanks Peter. The DOMAINE MERCOURI dry white was on the shelves when I arrived in April 2000 and when Sotiris Batfitis saw the wine on the shelf he went into all kinds of expressions of praise and adulation. He loves these wines. I already knew the white was outstanding.
I had opened a bottle to try with customers and could not believe the multi-dimensional flavors and tastes, excetera. It just kept on giving and giving and giving. It's an old-world style of wine like a great white Rhone. I loved it : it had bottle age and was showing no signs of decline. This was a good thing, too as I believe we had three or more cases of the dry white DOMAINE MERCOURI on hand. Peter must have both loved this wine as well as there having been a good deal on the wine at the time.
This bottle perhaps was the beginning of a new chapter for me in Greek wines as before that I had bought my Greek wines from Aris Zizzis that brought me the INO wines as well as a selection of the Nemea dry reds and I believe even one dry rose?
I started buying these wonderful Greek wines back in the mid eighties when I managed the wines department at Burka's Fine Wines. Seems like several lifetimes ago now. But that's where I got my feet wet with Greek wines, even going on two or more times to the Greek Orthodox wine and food festivals just a couple of blocks away close to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Wisconsin Avenues. I went with my wife and we had a marvelous time at this same Greek festival, even saw Aris there on one occasion pouring his INO wines.
The quality level is really very high with these selections of Greek wines today. They are all made from so many indigenous Greek grape varieties and it just takes a little bit of time ( seconds ) to get one's palate acclimated to their various unique tastes and flavor profiles but once that one does this the rest is pretty smooth sailing. Really, trust me : come taste for yourselves and be your own judges.
I have much more to say but will post this now and add to it later today and tomorrow. I want you all to be inspired by the pictures, labels and colors of the wines to come see us or go to your local wine store in search of these really fine Greek wines.
I was just drinking some Greek whites with my wife and daughter this week and I was again really impressed by them and will have them poured at our Big-Theme Greek Wine-Tasting on Wed. August 18th, 2010. I will write more about them really soon. They were both samples given to me my Danielle of Dionysos Imports that will be pouring her selections as well alongside Jody Jackman, Marcie Weinstein of Constantine Imports, and Sotiris and Nikolas of Nicolas Imports.
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