The wine-tasting was at the Hendry House in North Arlington, Virginia for the very first time. I also was meeting her for the very first time though I have been selling her dry, indigenous Nero D'Avola now for more than a year as Brennan Downey has in the past tasted me on it at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 , Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com, www.clevelandparkwine.com ). It has sold well for us and I believe that at the time of the tasting that it was sold-out from our shelf. That's what I call good timing : and of course it is now back on our shelves along with the other two wines that I tasted here with the charming Giovanna Alesi.
I have to say that I love this deep, rich red Burgundy-colored t-shirt that Giovanna Alesi is wearing with the logo right there : " Get Down With Downey Wines ". If there was any doubt in your minds about Giovanna and what she was doing there at the Hendry House well this should clarify everything.
What follows is a series of pictures that I took after tasting the wines of Mauro ( owner of ANTICHI GIOCHI in Piemonte, Italy ) that was standing right beside her and that I already knew quite well. I have also downloaded the pictures yesterday of Mauro and will be adding that blog right after I finish this one.
This is bad as this wine-tasting occurred on Monday ( my day off ) April 26th, 2010 and I am just finding the pictures recently and downloading them into their " draft " state on my chatwine blog site on blogspot. I've got to really run like a madman to catch up to all the blogs that I have in their draft form and awaiting some text and info to accompany them before posting them. Yikes : it's a formidable task and challenge for me all of this.
Being an artist I am always looking for new and creative ways to take my pictures with my Canon digital camera and so I hope you like these odd and unusual pictures where many things are cropped-out and missing and yet as seen as a whole I think they all paint and piece together a larger/more complete, more compelling and true scene for us all to take in and digest. I also hope that they make us all want to go in search of a bottle or two or more of the Sicilian TERRA ELIMA dry reds and white to enjoy with our family and friends and meal?
That's one of my aims here, to visually through image and color and wine being poured and owner and wine-maker, bottle of their wine, label, wine glass - all coming together to stimulate us in pictures as much as anything can that is written. I'm a very visual person. I also like to think and do most things outside of the box. Come along please, follow me as we journey on here together with Giovanna.
I liked very much all three wines here that I tasted with Giovanna. They were flavorful, balanced, focused and had real character that spoke of where they are made and the grapes from which they come. That's all good for me : that's all essential for me. That's wine at it's very best, untouched, unspoiled, unadulterated : virgin and pure and fresh, lively and exactly what it is and not trying to be anything else. Bravo Giovanna.
It was a delight to start off with the dry white " Aceste " 2009 white ( $14.99 ) blend of indigenous grape varieties. it was so clean and crisp and lively with strong citrus and mineral overtones. It cried out for a platter of fried or better yet baked fresh calamari, something that I bet everything on that Sicily does really well if not better than anyone?
The " Aceste " 2009 is for me clearly a food one , or at least one that for me would taste better with a meal as I would start thinking about something to eat with the third or fourth sip of it.
Look at the color of the " Aceste " above? It simply emanates/radiates with pure, reflective, dazzling sunshine that was once absorbed by the grapes and now is being released just like champagne bubbles are to amaze and entertain ans enthrall the viewer/taster all in one fell bis whammy/swoop! I like it : I like it a lot.
I love this more artsy photo that I captured by almost total chance above : the juxtaposition of all the elements is a surprise and fun/intriguing for me. Do any of you like it as I do? Look at the rose hue of the grape cluster on Giovanna's Burgundy t-shirt? It's bleach-white in color in some of the pictures below. How is this?!?
I like the bubbles at the top of the wine in my glass as well. Where did they come from? Are they mirror images of the rose-colored grape-clustered grape orbs above? You bet they are ...
The 2008 Nero D'Avola ( $14.99 ) that we always sell was showing more fruit-forward than the previous time that I tasted it and that pleased me quite a bit as I found it before needing a meal and this time a lot smoother around the edges and more enjoyable on it's own. With this hotter, more stifling heat and humidity that is a good thing. It's medium-bodied-to-light-bodied, has a good solid center of flavors and it will hold it's own against many a meal off the grill whether it be grilled meats or vegetables, potatoes, mushrooms, whatever.
I like this series of pictures like the one above where I captured Giovanna with her wine and the wine bottle and the daylight as well as the one ceiling light above us : a more natural golden and soft light- nice. There's a lovely golden green hue to this picture as there is to a couple of others.
The 2005 " Cerene " dry red Sicilian blend ( $42.99 ) is one that I am happy to have for a really nice, special occasion. I think it is again excellent, focused and firm and with a really nice regional character that speaks volumes all by itself without so many references to other wines made in the world. It exists nicely and independently all by itself. That's a great thing. I do feel that even though it is from a great vintage that it still needs more time in the bottle to age gracefully some more. I also think that it's an excellent food wine and that it may be enjoyed now with a good meal that will help to extenuate and elongate the flavors and the character of the wine as it fleshes it out.
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As you can see I had a lot of fun taking these pictures of you Giovanna. You warmed up to all of this slowly but by the end I think that you were enjoying some of this unusual and sudden experience that I was subjecting you to. Am I correct in saying this? I hope so : it's supposed to be a meaningful and rewarding experience for the both of us. It was a great one indeed for me.
Here's Mauro in the picture above. I asked him to tell you in Italian that I always take lots of pictures and to relax that it is just my way. I wanted you to feel more comfortable about it all.
The red wine and the red Burgundy T-Shirt : Get Down With Downey Wines " works really well in the photo above, don't you agree?
Somehow I got a red hue to the picture above? I like it : it's a great contrast to the earlier ones above with the golden green hues.
I like this picture above as you may enlarge it on your monitor screen and see all the bottles that both Mauro and Giovanna were tasting us on here at the Hendry House.
The dry white " Aceste " above seems to be like a reflective and beautiful lagoon here with some of the larger stars above in the sky reflected in it with the big whole moon reflected down at the bottom and holding everything in place like an anchor to all the boats/stars above? Like the grapes anchored here before becoming this translucent/reflective golden green hued Sicilian wine from TERRA ELIMA?!?
Look at the beautiful red color of this red indigenous 2008 Nero D'Avola in the glass above that Giovanna is pouring. From bottle through bottle neck into wine glass - a cascade/waterfall of red wine down into the waiting empty bowl below of the glass that will soon be tipped enough to flow gently onto one's awaiting tongue and palate : what a lovely vision - what a lovely idea.
I think I'm ready for another taste of the 2008 TERRA ELIMA indigenous Nero D'Avola ( $14.99 ). May I please have some more Giovanna?
Above and below : two lovely pools of TERRA ELIMA wine : one red and one white. I won't chose here , I'll just ask Giovanna for some of each now that I may relax and enjoy more the experience here at home in northern Virginia where I am writing this now on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 8:53 PM. Join me Giovanna : I'll introduce you to my wife and to my daughter that are both here with me now.
I wrote what was below earlier as I was in the process of downloading all of these fun pictures of the wine-tasting at the Hendry House with Givanna. Sorry to repeat the information but that's okay as there are so many pictures here to absorb as well.
I tasted here the TERRA ELIMA " Aceste " Sicilan 2009 dry indigenous white ( $14.99) , the TERRA ELIMA Sicilian dry red indigenous Nero D'Avola 2008 ( $14.99), and the TERRA ELIMA " Cerere " Sicilian dry red 2005 (42.99). We carry all three here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits now on Saturday, July 24th, 2010. Come check them out.
I perhaps should not have included this picture above? I hope you do not mind. It's still a nice picture for me.
You see me raising my camera in the picture above to take it Giovanna.
Thanks for humoring me and being so patient as I took so many pictures all in such rapid succession here. That's a beautiful smile of yours in the picture below.
I like the white grapes on the red Burgundy t-shirt : such perfect grape orbs of flavor and taste that promise to become wine in the future. Here they tease us with their future and create desire in us to taste them before they become wine in their full-fruited/non-alcoholic state and then later once they have been transformed magically into wine.
For more technical info go to : TERRA ELIMA Vini Di Sicilia Giovanna Alesi ( 339 5690873 ) Viale Europa, 53 92020 Poggioreale ( TP ) Sicilia Telefax : +39 0924 71013 www.terraelima.it .
It was nice meeting and tasting with you Giovanna. The next time you come to Washington D.C. and northern Virginia please consider coming to the store to do an in-store/wine-tasting of your excellent wines with our customers? That would be really nice and much-appreciated by us as well as our customers that largely by off of tasting and our recommendations and hardly at all from the points and scores that the wine-writers give some of the wines.
Cheers, Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
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