CA. Wines @ CP Wines: MEYER Port/PROVENANCE Sauv. Bl,CALISTOGA CELLARS Zin, SHANNON RIDGE Sauv. Bl, PEIRANO P. Sirah, SULLIVAN " Red Ink " 6/16/2010

This was another big success for us with our continued series of " Big Theme " In-Store/ Wine-Tastings : this one featuring the wines of California. We had six of our wine resp and wholesale managers pouring thirty-two wines from California and many of our regular customers in attendance including many " new " faces that I did not recognize. We have been doing these tastings now for as many as seven or so years I believe. I will have to check my records and include those findings here at a later date.




We started with our " Big Theme " Champagne/ Bubbly / Vin Mousseux / Sparkling / Cava/ Prosecco / Tasting that was such a huge success that it spawned a series of others that have been drawing people to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008, tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com, www.clevelandparkwine.com ) ever since.




I take lots of pictures as you can see and this series that I started to download here from our Thursday evening ( 5:30-8:30 PM ) In-Store/Wine-Tasting with California wines I have focused mostly on our customers, including some of those holding wines that want to purchase at the end of the tasting.

In these few pictures that are here the wines included are : PROVENANCE Napa Valley 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ( On Sale for $14.49 and a big seller over the last four or so years, from the Pinnacle House of Washington Wholesalers, poured by Eric Platt and Kelly Bigel ), CALISTOGA CELLARS Napa Valley 2008 Zinfandel ( $18.99, relatively new here @ Cleveland Park but well-liked on this evening, poured by Mike Dee of BF Winner wholesalers ), SHANNON RIDGE 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ( $13.49, great value and very lively, bright and fresh - also well-appreciated tonight by many, also poured by Mike Dee ), PEIRANO Petite Syrah Lodi 2008 ( $14.99 , a wine that Mike Martin and I have sold for five or six years now, off-and-on really well that we bought from Tom Finnigan way back when ). Also featured in the " parting shot " picture here is a bottle of the SULLIVAN Vineyard's " Red Ink " 2006 Napa dry red blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon ( $27.99 ) that we also originally purchased from Tom Finnigan way back when. Tom still works for Washburn Imports. The PEIRANO Petite Sirah 2008 ( $14.99 ) was poured by Matt our new Washburn Imports rep.




I have known about SULLIVAN Vineyard's Cabernet Sauvignon for quite some time now I believe going back into the nineties? I know that I really reconnected with the SULLIVAN Vineyard Cabs back at Addy Bassin's MacArthur Beverages in 1999. That's when I got back into the retail side of the wine business and I am glad that I did leaving Forman Brothers distribution company that just after my leaving was bought by the much bigger National distributors.

MacArthur was selling some really good SULLIVAN Vineyard's Cabernet Sauvignon made back in the eighties and early nineties and I was able to sample some of these bottles. So by the time I stated buying the wines for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in April 2000 I was ready and willing to try the SULLIVAN Vineyard's Cabernet Sauvignon and the much less expensive " Red Ink " blend of theirs. Mike Martin and I bought both and of course sold more of the " Red Ink " because it was also very good and much less expensive. Thanks Tom, thanks Matt for bringing it back to our attention.




Happy customers as they check out at our front register counter in the front of the store. Love the big smiles everywhere.






Here we have Matt clowning around at the very end of the tasting after everyone left and he is helping me to clean up the store for tomorrow's business. Thanks Matt.

I'm also glad that you poured the MEYER FAMILY CELLARS N.V. port ( $43.99 ) this evening. I liked all the levels of old-world taste and history/place and setting, etc. that I found on my palate. It had breed and sophistication and earth and dried sweat and fruit and labor and love and life and living fully all wrapped up here in this liquid that was pressed lovingly from the grapes to produce such character and personality. Special and it will be fun to sell at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in August 2010. I hope to also get the Syrah at the same time.

However, I'm sorry that the bottle of MEYER FAMILY CELLARS Syrah 2005 ( $31.99 ) was corked. I still need to try it Matt. When are you bringing by a fresh bottle? I know that Tony Poer the National Sales Manager from MEYER FAMILY CELLARS wants me to try it. Get it to me this week before I head off to the Outer Banks, Salvo North Carolina for my vacation so that I may try it with my family in peace and utter enjoyment and relaxation where I intend to do lots of sea and beach scapes as well as quick portrait sketches as I am an artist as well as a wine-enabler!

I was contacted by Tony that works at MEYER FAMILY CELLARS the other late afternoon because he had read one or more of my previous wine here on my chatmayflower.blogspot.com blog about my experiences working for Aaron and Helen Millman's daughter Sidney Moore that owned together with them the Mayflower Wines & Spirits where I worked then with Sidney Moore and Michael Downey.

Turns out that when Tony went to study in Florence, Italy where the Millmans were living ( and buying wines for the Mayflower store to import, as well as sitting as a member on the Chianti Classico consortzio ) that Tony took a class there with Aaron through Syracuse University and that this class opened Tony's eyes to the many wonders of wine and that he attributes it to his being now in the wine business. Small world, he wanted to get in contact with Aaron that has sadly passed away several years ago. I look forward to meeting you Tony.

It's a small world after all ...




We have all of these wine currently on our shelves at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and Chris Barker and I are more than happy to get you all a bottle to try. I'd like to try them all once again as trying thirty0two wines all in one evening when I am trying to sell and be of assistance is a tall task indeed. I do remember liking many of these thirty-two wines. The PEIRANO Petite Sirah has been a favorite of mine now for years for quality, character and great value. We do have three other PEIRANO wines as well including the Viognier pictured here , a 2007 that we also sell for $14.99 a bottle. It sure was thick, bright and lush like a really thick carpet of seductive exotic fruit flavors running along one's tongue and palate and touching immediately many of my five senses ...

And as I said already the PROVENANCE Napa Valley 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ( On Sale for $14.49 ) has been hugely successful and I have brought it home to my wife and daughter here to enjoy outside on our deck out back. It's pretty amazing : very forward and balanced and pleasing and very nice either with or without a meal.

Enjoy these pictures and also the other blog entries I have already made here and will continue to make of this Wednesday Evening of California wine-gems here in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. our nation's capitol back on June 16th, 2010.

Cheers, TONY