And DAEDALUS, JEZEBEL, CHATEAU BIANCA, EVERGREEN and More the headline should finish as we sampled twenty-four wines I believe ...This was a very successful tasting and we sold lots and had a great attendance to come taste with many new, fresh faces, too. On all levels it really worked as we poured I believe a total of twenty-four wines like the ACROBAT, BELLE VALLEE, FORTIS, CHATEAU BIANCA, ERATH and many more.
We had six people pouring this evening ( six tables that is ) and all the price ranges from around $13 with the excellent ACROBAT Pinot Gris to the fancier wines like the DAEDALUS Pinot Noir ( around $50 ). We did not go insane with this tasting : I think that the most expensive wine was around $60 a bottle. After all, we wanted to show the range of styles, grapes and price ranges : and focus on value wherever we could and not so much on limited-production and availability that can make the prices go out of most people's reaches.
We tried to include things besides simply red Pinot Noirs and white Pinot Gris. Thus we had the FORTIS Gewurztraminer as well as the BELLE VALLEE Gewurztraminer, some killer Dijon Clone Chardonnay that was very reminiscent indeed of the greater French white burgundies. Of course the prices matched those or came close to those of fine white Burgundy!
This tasting featured Al the owner of Nice Legs Selections ( Dimitri came to pour later and is seen here in these pictures pouring in the last hour of the tasting when thing had wound down quite a bit and most people had already tasted and made their purchases. Al and Dimitri poured many successful wines like those of DAEDALUS and of JEZEBEL. I will list everything when I am back at work with my notes. It's Sunday here in northern Virginia at 10:55 AM on a hot, humid, sticky and sunny June 6th, 2010 and I am way behind on posting many of my blogs. Too many things interest me : too many things deserve my attention, too.
This is just the first blog entry on this excellent Oregon " Big Theme : Wine-Tasting that I asked Chris Barker to organize and execute for us and he did quite an excellent/competent job having worked for two years at Dean & DeLuca where they specialize on California and excellent American/West Coast wines I believe. Thanks Chris.
The group of people above represented our last wave of customers having come to taste and learn about these excellent Oregon wines. They were with us for an hour or so and made their purchases minutes before 9 PM when we closed the store.
At this point four of our pourers had left and so that left Dimitri of Nice Legs and Chris Lanning of Republic-National to pour the remaining wines. Chris worked on the ACROBAT Pinot Noir and ACROBAT Pinot Gris and Dimitri worked on the DAEDALUS and the JEZEBEL wines.
All the wines showed beautifully on this evening and were in many cases quite well-balanced and fruit-forward and appealing : even charming in many cases.
In the picture above Chris Barker leaves to go join his friends at Palena restaurant as it is probably 8:30 PM or later by now and he's off the clock and ready to relax and ask his friends how they enjoyed our tasting?
About two weeks before this tasting I had attended the Wine Spectator's GRAND TOUR Wine-Tasting here in Washington D.C. at the Ronald Reagan International Center ( which I have blogged about : check the blog entries on ERATH, DOMAINE DROUHIN and DOMAIN SERENE )and here at this event I met the wine-maker of ERATH and got quite inspired/fired about our up-coming Big Theme Oregon Wine-Tasting. This was a good beginning as the current release of the ERATH that I tasted this evening and included here at our tasting was showing really well and made me think then as on this evening that it would make an excellent companion to a meal like a lamb dish for example.
Here in the picture above Dimitri is holding the bottle of the excellent just off-dry white blend of the JEZEBEL and about to serve it to our guitarist friend and customer that he is speaking with. I really liked both the fullness/richness and concentration of the white blend of JEZEBEL. We've sold it before for the last three or so years along with the dry red Pinot Noir that they make as well. Both have sold really well here at our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) where I have now managed the wine department for ten years.
Perhaps five or so years ago a young man named Steve came to the store. I recognized him as we knew each other already. He had worked in the Washington D.C. retail market here and our paths had crossed just as they were once again.
Steve was now the wine-maker of FORTIS and this both surprised and delighted me and we started to carry and sell his wines once that I tried them with him. Thanks Steve.
So then comes along Regis working for Roanoke Imports located in Virginia and here he had the wines of FORTIS for Chris Barker and me to taste. Once we did taste and heard the prices we immediately asked Regis if he was free to come pour them and he was! Talk about a small world : I was really happy to have your wines poured Steve and they sold quite well. I especially liked your dry table red blend that sells for under $15 a bottle. That's the one that I would have taken home myself to enjoy on a weekend here outside in my back yard while my wife and daughter enjoyed your Gewurztraminer.
Sofredo that works with us tries one of the Nice Legs selections here behind Dimitri. He's learning about wine and very interested in it and is always asking me questions so that he may better help our customers when they come.
Our tastings are always casual and informative and we welcome everyone to taste with us. I also often introduce people to make it easier for them to talk as they are always gathered tightly in a circle around those pouring wines. This helps put everyone at ease and make them feel more welcome and more a part of what we are doing here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits.
In this picture above as everyone pays and gets ready to leave the young brunette lady on the right ( standing next to Chris Lanning ) is Portuguese and from Brazil and we had a wonderful time chatting about that and I shared with her my story that as a young boy of seven or eight I was climbing over and around the famous buildings/monuments of Brasilia as they were building them ans the city - the " new " capitol of Brazil as may father was a career officer working in the American Embassy at the time. She loved my story. I hope to see here again sometime. It was her first visit to the store and that's one reason we do these : to attract new customers.
I can never resist an opportunity to get some of these group shots with both Chris and Dimitri and old and new customers, too.
I am sure that I have forgotten things and I will have to include them here or in the following blogs that I write on this excellent evening here in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C.
I need to get them all posted before Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 which is when we host our next Big Theme Wine-Tasting : this time on California. It will be from 5:30-8:30 PM and everyone is welcome to come and bring some friends, neighbors, business associates, visiting family members, etc ...
The next bit of writing below I wrote earlier on ...
By this time things were definitely more relaxed and casual as everyone got ready to make their purchases at our register and get onto the next stage which was probably dinner around here at Palena ( for Chris Barker meeting friends )or Dino, Lavandou, Spices, the Cleveland Park Bar and Grill ( Dimitri went there to catch the scores of some game ) ... I went home myself as I was exhausted and wanted to spend a bit of time with my family before we all went to bed ...
Cheers and until the next time that we meet! TONY
PS : We still have many of these wines here in the store : come check them out and enjoy them in these warm/hot/bit-sticky/sunny days now and that lie ahead for us here in Washington D,C. our nation's capitol.
Jeremy Sutton of Kysela Pere Et Fils et Fille ( he has one of both ) was also pouring for us on this evening along with Theresa Morrison ( Boutique Vineyards selections ) and I will mention them and the wines that they poured in one of the following blogs ( CHATEAU BIANCA, EVERGREEN " Spruce Goose " and more ) ... thanks to all of you for pouring for us this evening : Chris, Mark, Dimitri, Theresa,Al, Regis and Jeremy. We could not hold these tastings without you support, good humor, knowwledge, good people skills, time, effort and care and samples of bottles poured. Cheers to you all as well as you ensure that our Big Theme Wine-Tastings are the grand successes that they always are - BRAVO!
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