Funny, I have a bottle here by my side now with some of the Sea Oats from North Carolina that I brought back of those glorious souvenirs of the weeks we have spent there as a family. I organized this with Ronald King that once worked with us at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits. Where are you now Ronald?!? I miss you.
I did the same thing with my art work on the labels, too of two other projects : 1) the first for the Mayflower Wines & Spirits when we did our House red Cabernet Sauvignon and our House white Chardonnay with the help of ROUND HILL Vintners. I even took a bottle once with me to France of the Mayflower Wines & Spirits Chardonnay and offered it as a gift. The 2) was a project on the cru Beaujolais wines of Dan Kravitz for his Hand Picked Selections wines. That was great, too. I used for all these my ink drawings and I will have to take pictures of them and include them here. I have a whole small box of them that I drew label-size to make it all fun and easy : all in black ink on white watercolor paper.
Wow, it's been a whole long time ago all of this : an era passing or ended as friend Paul Jameson just mentioned earlier. Anyway thanks to Sidney Moore and Michael Downey, to Dan Kravitz and to Ronald King I can say that I have had my own labels on wines that I have sold, bought and drunk myself. Cool.
I am still shook up quite a bit with Sidney Moore's passing this past Saturday morning, April 19th, 2011. It's now beautiful and warm outside here in northern Virginia on Monday, April 11th, 2011 and I will be headed outside in a few minutes. However, first I want to share this one story with you about the bottle that I took of the Mayflower Table Red California Chardonnay to France with me back in the mid nineteen eighties when I worked for Sidney and Michael at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits. I will include one picture above of our flowers as they are all starting to poke up out of the ground with many tender baby green cadmium colors that are irresistible, really.
I took the bottle with other American wines with me to give as gifts. I had intended to give the Mayflower ROUND HILL Chardonnay to my friend and business partner Philippe Melot of Sarlat, France. I met him as he had come himself to the Mayflower Wines & Spirits when he was working with D & M Imports owned and run by Barry and Kathleen Diamond with Martha and Al Moss partners, too. It was a great small company and we bought lots of wine from them eventually. Anyway, I had intended to give this bottle to Philippe when I arrived in Sarlat, France.
However, I was still in Burgundy, France and in Gevrey Chambertin and driving to my appointment with Pierre Amiot the owner of his own vineyard in Morey Saint Denis. I had just missed being with him the day before with Bobby Kacher and Bob Parker, Jr. My luggage was lost and I had to wait for it and so I did not get to the town of Gevrey Chambertin in time to meet up with them all. Too bad. Leo Fox was there, too. Oh well, I did get invited almost immediately by the Leclercs to dinner with them, Bobby and Leo. I gave them some of my gift bottles and then I offered the Mayflower version ( private label ) of the ROUND HILL CA. Chardonnay to Pierre because he had given me such a fabulous tour. I loved it - loved him. It was incredible and a beautiful day, too.
After the tour with just me and him I asked him if he had ever tried any American wine and he said just one, a rose. I asked him if he would like to try one? His eyes lit up and he smiled broadly and he said : " Oui ". I told him I had one in my car and I went in search of it. He, in the meantime, called all his family and workers and friends around to come quickly and together this small group of us tasted the Mayflower Private Label of this ROUND HILL, California Chardonnay and they were all quite pleased.
Pierre then went in search of a bottle for me and offered me his best wine as a gift, That became Philippe's bottle when I arrived at his hotel in Sarlat. I told him the story and he did not seem disappointed in the least. Rather I think he was happy to get this really good red burgundy to share with his family and friends.
More later on Moore and Sidney and all of this later. I'm off to join my wife now that has just returned from work. It's sunny and hot and in the eighties with baby blue skies and glorious and we have to enjoy it while we can. TONY
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