This was a totally serendipitous meeting of the young owner Armin Grassa of the DOMAINE Du TARIQUET wines and excellent Bas Armagnacs of Gascogny, France. I got to spend some real quality time with Armin, Julien of Bordeaux that represents them here in the United States as well as long-standing friend Antoine Songy the president of the Robert Kacher portfolio of mostly French treasures in wines.
You just never know what's going to happen, do you? Something always comes up, something always changes and we certainly do live in a very mobile and transitory and active time where sudden and quick changes seem now to be the norm and where expecting things to be a certain was ( as they once were ) seems to be a distant memory and a joke or almost-laugh now. I did like some regularity, it helped to ground and focus me for the serendipitous and the " moment " that I would hop onto as it passed by or through me pretty much continuously. It's nice to seize it and enjoy and add to it where and when and in often the most slight and humble ways and yet do it in a both a receiving and a giving kind of way that does not just speak to greed and selfishness.
But hey, I am getting way to deep and philosophical here now am I not!?! I just meant to help set the stage for the events of this day and how I embraced them quickly and readily as I have been preparing myself for moments like this it seems all my life and most certainly recently - almost with a determination and a vengeance, too : with an impish-boyish/seasoned-youthful sensibility.
I snapped quickly with my response : " Oui, si ca ne te derange pas trop?!? " to Antoine's question : " Tu viens manger avec nous? " Oh yes, I will come and have lunch with the three of you.
It was Julien that I had met before that had already come to the store and to taste the DOMAINE Du TARIQUET dry whites at Cleveland Park Wines Et Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwine.com , www.clevelandparkwine.com, also on Facebook at : Cleveland Park Wine & Spirits and on Twitter at : cpwinespirits ) a couple of years ago I believe. I blogged about that visit here at chatwine. Use the search engine above to find it with the pictures and the text of that successful wine-tasting.
Julien waltzed into the store with a nice, broad smile and with Armin Grassa trailing behind. Julien had been here just a year ago with more of the Robert Kacher troup of owners and wine-makers. They all come to Cleveland Park to see me. They know that I speak French and will stop and receive them with time and focus and the respect that they deserve. I love this part of my job and I love speaking French. This day just two days ago was no exception. I was more than ready and waiting for it. It's fun - it's engaging and we all smiled pretty broadly amongst ourselves : Julien, Armin, Antoine and me.
The other surprise was that Richard our rep for Elite Selections had just brought the rep for the Spanish Rueda white CASTELLA DI MEDINA wines to the store that turns out to be part Belgian from the French-speaking areas and so he immediately launched into the French when I asked him at first in English if both Julien and Armin could sample his two dry whites : a Verdejo and a " new " Sauvignon Blanc. We sell really well the dry white Verdejo and I explained this to him as we tasted his wines. I told him, too about our long history with his wines, how we had originally bought them from Tatiana Maria the then Vice President of Gemmex Selections/Trading. I told him how the bottle-shape then was like German wine bottle and that the label had now changed three or more times but that we had sold a whole lot of it over the last eight or so years.
Anyway, this was so much fun as we all talked and tasted and I got them all three of them ( not Antoine, he had not arrived yet ) to sign their family or the wines that they represented. Armin signed the bottles of TARIQUET Bas Armnagnac and TARIQUET Sauvignon BLanc, Julien signed the bottles of the Medoc dry red Bordeaux wine that his brother makes in FRance and the gentleman of CASTELLA DI MEDINA signed those bottles of the dry Verdejo that we have. It was great, what an unexpected series of chances and ideas and people all coming to a head and together like this!! Who would have ever thought this could all happen this past Thursday morning in our Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington D.C. on a drop-dead beautiful blue skies, breeze, clear and sunny and refreshing morning? And that we would the four of us : Antoine, Julien , Armin and me ( three French men and one American ) sitting outside of the Sequoia restaurant in Georgetown down on the waterfront of the Potomac river having lunch and smiling and enjoying a bottle of one of Armir's properties, the DOMAINE LALANDE dry and fresh and pretty 2009 Gascogny Sauvignon Blanc?!? Wow, this was almost too much for me. I was loving it. I had brought my camera and my sketch pad and I was taking pictures and doing quick portrait sketches of the three Frenchmen as the time rolled by and we had a leisurely and grand lunch and they chatted quickly in argot and regular French, too and I listened, sketched, took pictures and occasionally added to the conversation as well. What bliss, what a treat.
I have more to say but have to get ready for work so I will post this now and then add to it this weekend. By the way, I have both the TARIQUET and the LALANDE wines in the store. Just yesterday a " new " customer to us came to speak with me and inquire if we had any of the LALANDE Sauvignon Blanc that her had once tried and liked a lot ? I said that we did and he bought a bottle of that as well as a bottle of the TARIQUET Sauvignon Blanc. too as I explained my recent story to him - meeting Armin - and I also listened to this man tell me that no store seemed to have the LALANDE or know anything about it. I found that a bit hard to believe but loved our good fortune in having it for this man to buy. I think we have made a new customer of him and cemented the first sale yesterday quite well. He won's soon forget us now.
Cheers et a plus tard mes amis et merci Antoine, JUlien et Armin. J'ai bien aimer le moment que nous avons passe ensemble ce Jeudi au magasin de Cleveland Park et au bord de la riviere Potomac a Sequoia restaurant - vous deux jeunes avec votre viande rouge et Antoine et moi avec notre poisson . A la prochaine, TONY
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