I hit it off right away with Kevin O'Connor ( 11151 Missouri Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. 90025, 310-717-1892 Fax: 415-358-4000 kevin@liocowine.com ) founder of LIOCO, California wines. I came out with my Canon digital camera and began to take some photos - quick snaps here and there and pretty much everywhere around Kevin and the bottles of LIOCO California wines and my Reidel win-tasting glass. It's a routine that has no boundaries really. I work away at finding inspiration both in the wines, the principles gathered around and the infinite possibilities that are not always apparent but are always there when combining everything together to see what will result. I have a vague idea at best as to what that will be : that's why this works. It's completely of the moment and of the participation and the working order of these principles that I enmesh myself in. Very artsy and ballsy and a bit off-putting I am sure at first and until I explain and show what I am up to.
To many I am sure that my antics are something to be dealt with and to others I think that they both get and appreciate what I am trying to do as I quickly snap away and take sips of the various wines ( occasionally I also take notes if I am given a sheet with the wines listed. I like the list as it helps me organize, refresh and remember for later use ). It's quite a production that I get pretty self-involved in but in which I also welcome the active participation of those owners/wine-makers and sales managers, reps, etc. I like to have feed-back on all that is happening.
This picture above is of one of the owners of JWSIEG WINES ( Mark Congdon is our sales rep and can give you more info as well at : mark@jwsiegwines.com ). He gave me his card once we were introduced and I am sorry that at this moment I cannot remember his name. I have to find it card and include it here soon. I like the picture.
I liked these LIOCO wines and have already sold the Chardonnay at the store. Years ago Chris Pigott my rep for the Country Vintners brought me some and I sold it. I have not bought it since but have every intention of buying some now as I liked very much what I tasted. They are well-made, balanced and focused wines that never lose track of the grapes from which they started - keeping them front and center stage always. That's the way all wines should be in my humble opinion that I readily admit is only mine and no one Else's.
The thing that caught me completely off-guard is when I showed some of the very first pictures that I had taken to Kevin and he understood immediately ( appreciated, too immediately ) what I was doing. Thanks Kevin, I appreciate that more than you know, really. I think you said that some of the pictures looked sexy? Is that correct?
Anyway things started really well as we spoke and I tasted and we started to talk and bounce things off one another about wine. life, art. labels, etcetera. We also spoke of family, place and concepts behind both living and making wine. I wish that I had taken notes : I wish that I had written this earlier as it is already July 11th, 2010 now here at my home in northern Virginia at 2:32 PM and I have already forgotten many things that transpired during this hour or so that you stood in the store by our tasting table and I tasted around helping our customers in the store. The customers always come first but I try and spend as much quality time as I can with the wine-makers/owners.
I am always torn in various/many directions as my art calls me first and the customers second and the wine-makers/owners third. I don't know if this is really the order that things should be in but alas for me it seems to be tried and true and probably not likely to change. I just hope to pull all three things together and to make it the best for all concerned each and every time. It usually works out pretty well. I do want feverishly for the owners and the wine-makers to have a grand time and visit with us here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ). I want them to remember the experience as one of the very best that they have ever had anywhere. That's a tall order to fill and I try to do everything in my power to accomplish this, really I do.
Before I talk about the wines I did want to comment on the label and the way the letters " C " and the first " O " intersect. Kevin had things to say about this and the meaning that his family attributes to this. I don't want to get it wrong so I will leave this point open for you Kevin to finish and describe in the comment section at the end of this blog. It's important, I remember that so I don't want to say the wrong thing. Fill us in real soon Kevin as I intend to post this blog in this rough state tonight as too much time has elapsed since your excellent and most serendipitous visit with Mark Conglon of JWSIEG WINES Imports back on late Wednesday afternoon on June 16th, 2010.
Now about the wines that I sampled : there were at least four, maybe five or six. I will finish adding the pictures to this blog this week as I know that I must have taken a picture of the all the wines lined up on the tasting table. I love to do this because when I enlarge it on the monitor here or at work I can see the wines, vintages, names of single vineyards, etcetera. That's really helpful to me when it gets to be time to write these blogs later. I almost always download the pictures within a day or two of the events so that all I have to do is gather whatever information that I have to write them. It's a labor of love and one that must be worked on daily for any hope of staying caught up on the number of visits that we have each week at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits.
I love this picture above of the rich and clear bright red color of the 2008 LIOCO CA. Pinot Noir as well as the bottle neck reflected in the color of the wine itself. There's something very appealing to me about this image and I capture it as often as I can. What do you think?
There were at least three Chardonnays that I sampled along with at least one Pinot Noir 2008. I think that there was also another dry red blend as well as another dry white : was it a blend? Was it a Viognier? It's terrible not to remember everything, really.
I love this picture above of Kevin captured inside and outside the Reidel wine-tasting glass of mine. It shows two levels or more of Kevin here. By the way I think that I captured some expressions of yours here Kevin that are really true expressions of yours. By looking at them now after almost a month it really helps to bring back the moment more vividly for me. I'm glad I have them : glad that I may share them with others, too. Faces behind the wines : now that's something exciting and memorable and worth capturing and having. Give me them any day over some abstract points and scores of wines. That and a bottle to taste of the wines so that I may make my own educated/well-informed opinion based on my own tasting and on my meeting with the principles involved that bring me these wines.
However, I distinctly remember tasting and really liking all three Chardonnays. One, the least expensive with the delicate yellow 2008 was a delight that grew on me. I began to really like it once that I went back to it after trying all three in a row. It took me some times as it was late in the afternoon and many customers were coming through at this time and I had to take care of them before continuing to taste. My tasting was thus as usual quite fragmented here and for that I am very sorry.
I liked the third and last Yellow-Label Chardonnay the very best. It was the deepest in color and the most complex and profound. It had layers of flavor that took time to wrap around and process : I like this kind of challenge, I have to work harder to get the full flavors. Sometimes I have to run hard to catch up to the flavors. There were also more discernible highs and lows with that safe mid range to hand my tongue/ perch my tongue on before dropping low or soaring high.
I will have to get the full names and the vintages all recorded here shortly. I.m sorry not to have them now. The mid range Yellow Label Chardonnay was also quite pleasing and yet it did not have as much diversity that I could discern. That's okay : given the right meal and the right time it will be perfect. This means Kevin that I will simply have to try all three once again and with food the next time to write about them with even more authority and conviction.
The least expensive Yellow Label Chardonnay that is also the lightest in color is the easiest to enjoy all by itself with the least amount of effort. It's smooth and bright and completely balanced and lively. The wonderful thing was that it still tasted really fresh and bright and pleasing even after the other two more complex Yellow Label Chardonnays. I like that : that's the true test of a really good wine.
When I first saw the labels all together and was actually able to focus on them the artist in me came out and I immediately exclaimed the words : Robert Motherwell, they make me think of, the labels that is about his art and the Elegy triptych that hangs on the entrance hall wall of the East Wing Smithsonian Museum Of Art in Washington D.C. Kevin immediately perked up and said : " You mean Mark Rothko." I said that I did, that that's the name that I was thinking of even though I said " Robert Motherwell ". He immediately said something about my knowing art, used the word " artist " and we were off speaking in art terms and references. This started with visual art and then progressed naturally for me into music.
I liked the 2008 dry red Pinot Noir and know that we will be buying some of Kevin's wines for the store soon. Perhaps I can get some on our shelves beginning in August which is just another couple of weeks from now. I know that we will have the Chardonnay and perhaps this Pinot Noir 2008? I will ask Mark for the prices this week and determine how to proceed after that. Mark will be helping in the store for the first two weeks of August when I am on vacation and it makes sense that we have the LIOCO on our shelves during this period of time as he knows the wines even better than Chris Barker and I.
As I said earlier Kevin really seemed to appreciate these pictures that I was taking and I did here towards the end of our shared time together begin to take some close-ups of him with the 2008 Pinot Noir here in my Reidel glass. As I often say I love to unite the wine, the bottle, the label, the wine glass filled with the wine all together to show visually their relationship and dependence to one another.
These close-ups of course distort and import different things to the final image. The faces become extended and elongated, sometimes there are drips of wine on the upper glass as well that bloke the view. I never know quite what I will get but I am always happy with a number of the pictures especially when shown side-by-side as I have done here.
The bright white ceiling lights from up above always add some delineation and definition to my wine-makers and owners. I like this : it always adds an accent or a point and a break in the whole picture to give it visible parts to enjoy and study : almost like having various sips of wine and not just simply one big gulp?!
Kevin, it was great to meet and taste your wines with you observing and commenting. I look forward to seeing you again and really chewing the fat/ stripping the wine into it's many layers sometime soon I hope? Come and do an in-store/wine-tasting here on your next visit? Just email me at : anthonyquinn@clevelandparkwine.com and let's set a date for that earlier than later. What do you say?
I asked Kevin to sign our guest book and this is what he wrote : " Thx for the memory! May you live forever ... "
We will have to talk art and wine some more ...
By the way, my blogs are always more about the moment and those gathered together sharing it. I am a visual person and so I am always more interested in sharing that and the pictures and my impressions more than detailed wine descriptions. That's why I always try and include the emails and the web page addresses so that you may all go those for more details about the wines.
Cheers and bravo to you and your family for making such excellent, balanced and focused California wines where you never lose sight of the grapes from which it all started : with them always being front and center stage. I like this : I like this a lot. TONY
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