It was great to have Gabriele Rausse of his own Virginia wines visits Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and surprises me and everyone else at our Big-Theme American Holiday Wine-Apple Cider-Homemade Washington D.C. Chocolate Tasting ( 5:30-8:30PM ) Wednesday November 16th, 2011. Lots of people showed up even with all the rain and drizzle that started yesterday morning and continued into the night and throughout our 3-hour tasting. Thanks to you all for coming. Thanks to you Gabriele from driving all the way up from Monticello, Virginia to be with us.
Even though it was totally unexpected and I was completely caught off-guard with very little of Gabriele's wines in the store ( they had all sold and I needed to order more! ) Gabriele was the perfect guest and we tasted his current dry rose ( $14.99 ) and his special Reserve Chardonnay ( $22.99 ) and sold them well. He also tasted a half bottle of our NICOLIS 2000 Amarone Della Valpolicella ( On Special for $17.99 ) and his other wines in the store : his regular Chardonnay and his special-bottling of Nebbiolo. I've already ordered more of his wines to come to the store with our Margaux and Company rep. Dawana as some of our customers paid last night for these bottles that we were sold out of. All good, all fun, all instructive. What a great treat, too!
Gabriele is without a doubt one of the founding figures, grandfathers of the Virginia wine business that started was it in 1968 with the FARFELU VINEYARD and their wines. It has since been sold not to many years ago. We bought wines from the last owners of FARFELU VINEYARD : Caroline and John. Caroline used to come to the store and she tasted her wines with our customers years ago. What a fun memory that is. I blogged about that here many moons ago at chatwine. Check it out.
Gabriele started making wines all the way back in Virginia in April of 1976. That is when I graduated with a BA in English literature from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia where Country Vintner Imports is now based. Small world, really it is. Country Vintners represents many fine Virginia wineries like BOXWOOD Vineyard in Middleburg, Virginia ( Amanda poured those wines for us last night of the 2008 and 2009 vintages of the " Boxwood " and the " Topiary " of both the dry reds and the dry roses - thanks Amanda, you really helped us out when Rachel could not come at the last minute ).
Last night we also had Carol the owner of ELK RUN Vineyard ( 3rd oldest Maryland winery , Carol was back for her second time ) in Mount Airy, Maryland, Lawrence of BREAUX Vineyard in Purcerville, Virginia, Dawana of FOGGY RIDGE Dugspur Virginia apple ciders and sommelier Andrew Stover of Vino50 imports ( Hawaii, Michigan, New York State, southern Oregon, Idaho ) , as well as Chris of International ( California wines ) and Regis of Roanoke Imports ( Oregon Pinot Noirs and the FORIS Gewirztraminer ), and Bailey of her own Washington D.C. homemade chocolates pouring and tasting.
This was Gabriele's third visit to our store. I have already blogged about him now twice I believe. I just wanted to say that it was a treat to have him back at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwines.com, also now on Facebook at : Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and on Twitter at : cpwinespirits ). I look forward to having him many more times to tell us about the wonderful history of Virginia wines. I did record him with my Flip camera recently and want to include that here sometime as well as get more footage of him speaking of his many years in Virginia. He has also been responsible for the Monticello Thomas Jefferson gardens I believe for years now? I want to hear more about that. We speak English and French together. Thats' really fun as Gabriele comes originally from the Veneto region of Italy.
Gabriele has told me that he would be pleased to come to our store anytime to taste his wines. I will have to look at our calendar and organize something quickly so that we can taste a number of his excellent wines with our customers.
We will have the unoaked/stainless-steel Cabernet Sauvignon, the Reserve Chardonnay and the dry rose in the store soon to sell and in time for Thanksgiving and the rest of our holidays of 2011. Give us a call or email me and let me know if you want anything specifically of his. Thanks Gabriele for tasting last night. You made our evening truly special. Bravo, grazie, merci, thanks, gracias ... Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
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