It was a real treat to get Trey Zoeller Here to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.om www.clevelandparkwine.com ) to taste his three that were currently available to us : 1) the regular bottling that is 6-12 years old I believe and that we sell for $40 on sale ; the 2) Reserve bottle that is 10 to 15 year of age I believe again at around $55 or so? ; and the 3) 17-Year-Old that we sell for around $90 a bottle I believe. I'm at home typing this now as it seems to be the only time for me to do this and so I will have to check once back at the store and include the exact prices once there.
I only have a few pictures that I have downloaded of the many that I took. I will include more later as there are some really good ones. Here Trey is tasting with Larry and someone that I do not recognize that may be a " new " customer to us? Cleveland Park has people coming and going and so it's always fun meeting ? new " customers and welcoming them to our store on a daily basis. It's fun : I like that part of the job very much.
It was great to get Trey to our store ( the last person to come a year or so ago was Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey and his pictures are included here in one of my earlier entries at chatewine.blogspot.com : check it out as well ) because he lives and breathes bourbon and makes it all come to life as we listen to his responses and to his observations, too. I enjoyed very much as he was looking at our bourbon selections there just a couple of feet away on our shelves to his right and commenting on them and the people that made them/were behind them/how one was connected with another/etcetera. I wish that I had had this on video because it would make for an interesting story. Sorry Trey, I'm not quite set up for doing videos much to my disappointment. That will be my next big frontier and I can hardly wait for that. In the meantime I have to content myself with the pictures that I take and the stories that I have that are mine or that are others and that I can remember to tell later.
The problem is that I am not just doing this : I have a full wine shop to run and that is my principle obligation : this is fun, a bit of history and a connection of sorts that I find invaluable to being in this grand business of ours whether it be wine, beer or spirits.
The other complication of course is that everyone is welcome here at Cleveland Park and all the reps and wholesalers know this and so we have frequent visits from people in the business.
I was delighted at the chance to host this brief JEFFERSON'S bourbon tasting with master distiller Trey Zoeller the other afternoon here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits, N.W. Washington D.C. just down the street on Connecticut Avenue from our National Smithsonian Zoo ( featuring now the Sloth bears! ) and across the street from the Uptown movie theater ( which has one of the old large remaining " big screens " in our area ) and where many of the movie premiers are held.
Eddie Ofori my old wine acquaintance came to taste both Chris Barker and me on a series of his liquor brands ( the " new " TIERRAS organic tequilas - $33 for the Bianco and $39 for the Anejo ; and the GOSLINGS rum and ginger ale from which he made a " killer " Dark and Stormy for us , and more ) and that's what got the whole ball rolling. We talked about having Trey Zoeller come and set this tentative date back in late April 2010 was it? I have to check. Trey was only able to be with us for a couple of hours between 1-3 PM and that is not a good time to get people to come and taste during the work day. People still showed : some had read the store email, others had heard from us in the store or read the sign in our window up front. We tasted and we sold and people got bottles signed by Trey. All good and fine and so it was a big success accounting for it's time schedule.
People lingered and tasted and listened and asked questions and we sold some of all of these three excellent JEFFERSON'S bourbons. Larry, for example did not need a bottle but was delighted to taste and two weeks after this tasting asking about them and ready to purchase one : the Rserva I believe? Is that correct Larry?
I don't judge the success of any event simply by what we sell t the time it occurs. Too many people do not need what we taste at the time : but many remember having tasted and liked a bottle and come back for it when they do need it. That's smart business as far as I am concerned and I take great delight and pride in having been the one or the store to make the vital connection between the customer and the product.
Putting people into contact with the products themselves through the principles that either make them or pay to have them made ( or both ) is about the best thing that I think we can do as merchants. Our customers can exchange cards and later make plans to visit these people on their own home turf : all good stuff, really.
Eddie Ofori has been back since and done another in-store JEFFERSON'S bourbon tasting. Father's Day is coming up soon and so I have been speaking about this a whole lot lately and recommending that many of our wines including these excellent three JEFFERSON'S bourbons would make great gifts? You bet.
The name Pappy Van Winkle was tossed around quite a bit as the 17-Year-Old is made from barrels purchased awhile back from them. It sells for a fraction of the price, too of Pappy Van Winkle and that's great news for as long as it lasts.
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