I have been meaning to post this draft blog entry now for many weeks and am embarrassed to say that I am just now getting around to typing it here. It's so easy to not connect and to make excuses and not follow through on something once that the edia occurs to me. Something else takes it's place so quickly and so the thing does not get done. Oops!
Anyway, no more excuses now! It's time!!
Elyse and Jennifer came to call on me the other day at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com on facebook at : clevelandparkwine ) where I have now managed the wine department here for over ten years.
Elyse used to call on me years ago. It was just around the time that Chris Blethen used to call on me : the time that Kendall Jackson had become it's own company with brands from California as well as from Chile and Argentina and then now as Monument Fine Wines which also includes really fine wines from Italy, too. I think that Chris Blethen was the first to call on me and then later it was Elyse who is the general manager I believe of operations for Monument? Do I have this right Elyse? You also told me on this visit Elyse that you once worked for Beitsel Imports back in the early day : is this correct, too?!? How time flies, how great you look Elyse. It sure was a great pleasure for me to see you again after so many years of having other sales people like Andrew and Doug and more. I always asked about you, each and every time that I got a chance.
And so here you showed up with our new excellent sales rep Jennifer on Wednesday, July 7th with the wines of both CAMBRIA and FREEMARK ABBEY. Talk about more history! I remember selling the wines of FREEMARK ABBEY way back when in the eighties. Times sure were different back then. I did love those times : formative years of so many personal dreams and aspirations/attempts to make things work - get things right - realize one's smaller, personal dreams with less money and less corporation and less push and shove to simply move and make more units and boxes of wines with fewer reviews, wine-writers and points and scores and artificial hype to accomplish all of this ... before the computer and the cell phone ... remember anyone?
Back in those days in the mid eighties I was in charge of buying the California wines for the Mayflower Wines & Spirits on M. Street and New Hampshire Avenues N.W. Washington D.C. and run and owned by Sidney Moore and Michael Downey. Ironic that I had this position as I had just spent the seventies in Paris, France with my family ( my father was a career officer in the Foreign Service and worked at the American Embassy in Paris , France first as the head consul for Visas, then Passports, then Visas again ) and so you would have thought that I would have been buying and selling French wines? Nope, not at this moment. Believe me, I did buy some French wines such as those of D&M Imports that I just blogged about recently here in September, 2010 ).
Anyway, that is when I discovered the wines of FREEMARK ABBEY, way back then. The wines of CAMBRIA I did not discover until the nineties sometime. I have to scratch my head to remember when? Oh well, today they sell beautifully and with little or no toil. Everyone it seems almost knows them and loves them and asks for at least one of the Chardonnays or one of the Pinot Noirs. There is very little effort on our part needed to sell them : they sell themselves. That makes this part of our job just a little bit easier and for that I am thankful in part.
One part of me thanks them, one part of me steps back and wonders if that just not make me and my part that I bring to the table of selling wines just a wee bit more uneccesary? Does it not make me a little bit more antiquated/ less important,too? Like only selling the points that a wine gives and less the wine itself? Aren't we all putting ourselves a bit closer to being out of a job and less relevant when we simply sell the points that a wine scores? I think so and that saddens me greatly. If we don't use our minds and express our own opinions more how can we expect our customers to do so themselves without our examples?
Just the past weekend or so Jennifer was in our store pouring some of the CAMBRIA and FREEMARK ABBEY wines to great success. We had both a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay open and everyone that tasted pretty much bought at least one of the wines that Jennifer was tasting. Thanks Jennifer.
Then the other day Jennifer brought me a gentleman that works with her selling both the CAMBRIA and the FREEMARK ABBEY wines, I had a great visit with the two of them as well as a great tasting. So : anyone that thinks or imagines that Monument Fine Wines is not doing all that they can to sell and to place these wines of CAMBRIA and FREEMARK ABBEY is simply not doing their homework.
I like these wines, some more than others. I still have an old-world/European palate and some of the wines are simply too highly-extracted and alcoholic for me : others are almost just right. That's my own personal palate and I know this and I always try and buy what I think offers a great value and that will please a number of our customers. This is what is important to to me : to serve the needs and wants and taste palates of as many of our customers correctly as we can - and be courteous and respectful and friendly, too.
I'm also an artist and so while I taste - while I tasted here with both Elyse and with Jennifer I was having fun taking as many of my artsy digital photos as I possibly could. I succeeded pretty well here and still have many more photos than I have downloaded here. I think these are some really good ones : some that I am quite proud of.
We tasted 4 wines today : the CAMBRIA Chardonnay as well as the FREEMARK ABBEY Chardonnay, and the 2005 FREEMARK ABBEY Merlot Napa Merlot as well as the FREEMARK ABBEY 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. I quite liked the FREEMARK ABBEY Napa 2005 Merlot and will ask Jennifer more about that for October delivery.
It's time to post this now and add more comments soon. Cheers, it's now 11:06 AM on Wednesday morning here at home in northern Virginia on September 28th, 2010 and I've got to rush off to work. Thanks Elyse and Jennifer. TONY
In the meantime enjoy the rest of my artsy digital photos taken with my Power Shot Canon camera ...
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