Dirk Richter of WEINGUT MAX. FERD. RICHTER Mosel German Rieslings and more go back a long way : actually to 2001 or 2002 I believe? We have just completed the cycle here in May I believe 2010? It all started when Sotiris Bafitis with his own import company brought Dirk to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com, www.clevelandparkwine.com ) eight-nine years ago? I will have to check our guest book to see when it was exactly. Anyway, that's when I started using Dirk's various German Mosel Rieslings including the famous " Zeppelin " bottle that tells a great story along with the fancier Riesling of his that supposedly Thomas Jefferson thought was the best he had tried while he was alive? I loved selling both of these and telling their stories as best as I could. Dirk tells them the best of course and I should have made a video of him doing this.
Sotiris bought the WEINGUT MAX. FERD. RICHTER wines through the Langdon-Shiverick selections and has also brought Langdon Shiverick at least twice to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits back then when he still had his small/up-start import company.
Lots has happened since and now Olivia of Voila Selections ( along with her husband that are owners ) is representing the RICHTER wines. She's done this perhaps for two years? I started buying them again two years ago and I am currently out of them but will address this when they come back to the store for sale the first week of July 2010. Your visit Dirk has prompted that because I love to support great wine and I especially like to support it when the owners and wine-makers make it a point to visit us when they are in Washington D.C. It becomes my/our extended big family of wines and owners/wine-makers/customers, reps, etc. I can and am willing to sell this idea / this concept of the people involved in and behind the wines from those that pay to have them made, make them, sell them and drink them : now that's something real and concrete and that I can bathe my tongue, palate and all my senses in - as well as completely believe in. That's the only " point " or " score " that matters at all to me - the rest be damned.
I have more to say about these fine wines seen in the picture above that I tasted with Dirk and Sotiris but I will do that later. Today it is beautiful here in northern Virginia where I live and it's Father's Day so I am going outside to sit on our deck and be with my wife and enjoy reading the Washington Post Sunday edition of the newspaper ( I like holding it in my hands! ). Many of our flowers are out and I will enjoy gazing into our yard and garden, too.
I miss my father and of course will also think lots all day about him and all the wine trips that we made together into the California wine country ( RIDGE, BONNY DOON, RUTHERFORD HILL, STAGS LEAP WINE CELLARS, SILVER OAK, SIMI, CANYON ROAD, GEYSER PEAK, PARDUCCI and more ). I also drank with him and my mother while living in Paris some okay German white that I would buy a couple store fronts down from 63 Avenue Paul Doumer ( at Hediard ) in the 16th arrondisement of Paris , France while he was both the chief of the Visa, then Passports, then Visa sections before leaving to continue on to Panama. My father was an excellent Foreign Service career officer for the American Embassy. Memories, memories Dirk : if only I had discovered your excellent Mosels back in Paris in the very early 1970's!
Oh well, I know them well now and will continue to sell them. Thanks.
Stay-tuned for more in another couple of days. In the meantime enjoy these artsy photos that I have taken and enjoy Father's Day, too as well as the continuing Soccer World Cup. Happy Father's Day to one and to all fathers living and dead. Cheers, TONY
ALSO : go to : chatart.blogspot.com to see my even more artsy portraits of Dirk taken mostly through my Reidel wine glass.
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