This was quite the lineup with Daniel Hubbard that brought Chris Barker and me eight " current " wines from his excellent portfolio of mostly Austrian and German wines : though he also has excellent wines from both Italy and France that I know of as I have bought some of them in the past. His wine selections of SELECT Imports based in New York is sold through Bacchus Imports and I have in the past called my old friend and colleague Sal Furfari to order them for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel: 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ).
I liked this current selection of Daniel's wines so much that I have asked him to organize an in-store/wine-tasting of his picking as it will be his first in our store and he knows his wines so thoroughly inside-out that I think it would be a big mistake on our part not to let him " run with it " so-to-speak and see where he gets : far I believe.
As you can see from the picture below ( especially if you enlarge it on your screen ) that from left to right Chris and I tasted these following eight wines : 1) PETER JACOB KUHN 2007 Theingau Trocken Riesling, 2) LETH Gruner Veltliner Stein Agrund 2009 , Lagen Reserve from Austria's Wagram region, 3) ALBERT SELTZ 2009 Alsace Gewurztraminer, 4) AC A.CHRISTMANN 2008 dry red German Spatburgunder/Pinot Noir from the Pfalz region, 5) DOMAINE DE LA TUILERIE " Celebration " dry French rose, 6) MAS DU GOUDAREAU dry red Cotes Du Rhone, 7) Domaine PATRICK MAGLI 2009 dry red Cotes Du Rhone, 8) Domaine PATRICK MAGLI 2007 Chateauneuf-Du-Pape.
This was quite the lineup and very impressive and took me quite some time to get through as I always have to take my artsy photos as well as those to help recollect the " moment " and to piece it together later when I have to write something about it.
I had a great time : it was a great and revealing and very informative wine-tasting for me. Daniel knows too much and it rolls right off his tongue and into my ears so quickly that I only retain perhaps twenty percent of what he has told me. He knows the producers, the areas, the micro-climates, the histories and the grapes so very well that I think it would be quite hard to stump him on any of these eight that he tasted us on on this afternoon of June 10th, 2010.
That's why I taste and concentrate both on the flavors in my mouth at any one time as well as on the " moment " and the people and the photo opportunities that I see happening and that spur me onto making " other " photos of my own making. It's all such a wonderful experience that I dive into repeatedly head-tongue-first and don't look back much as I let the tastes and the people and the dialogues, etcetera carry me along both of their own volition as well as of those of my own making : piggy-backing and jumping out and away in part from my comfort zone in part so as to have greater experiences with more appreciated/cathartic and epiphanal highs and lows with all the rushes and the scrapes and the teases and pleases and guttural " wows " that are for this one human " humanly " possible at any one given point in time...
It's a rush man, really ... that's the sixties in me coming out just there ...
As I said I very much enjoyed all the wines for their balance and authenticity/typicity of flavors of the grapes and the soils and climates in which they are grown. They are all better food wines than sipping ones in my opinion. The balance of the components is there as well with the whole range of flavors from highs to lows. They also represent value when you consider their small productions and what they offer the palate in multiple flavors and charms.
This is an overview and I will add specific notes here to each of the wines once that I get to work where I have my notes. I am home now here in northern Virginia at 10:31 AM and about to get ready to go into work in Washington D.C. on this hot, beautiful Wednesday morning of June 23rd, 2010 when the U.S. gets ready to play it's third soccer match outside of Cape Town, South Africa at the Soccer World Cup. Besides that I get to enjoy lunch with my son later after he and his friend leave the National Zoo. All nice.
So stay-tuned for more really soon.
I will say about the ( AC ) A. CHRISTMANN 2008 German Pfalz Spatburgunder ( Pinot Noir ) that it was medium-to-light-bodied, dusty-dry and the fruit married well with the oak, spicy, pithy and earthy and very much a wine to be slightly chilled and enjoyed with a meal. I was actually expecting more ripe and red fruit here : a more easy-to-drink Pinot Noir.
I thought that the Pinot Noir grapes were ripening more these days with the global warming. So anyway this was the big surprise for me of the bunch. I would like to enjoy it with some food the next time that I taste it as I think that that is when the wine will work it's magic on me. Cheers, TONY
Enjoy these artsy photos of mine. I am an artist and take an artist's approach to my work and photos that I hope add something to what is already readily available.
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