All the wines were good that I tasted on this afternoon at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. They should have been : they had the money of Ernest and Giulio Gallo behind the : or Gina and Matt Gallo now, the children that is. That's a whole lot of money and clout and influence and experience and pretty much everything else. Especially when you stop and realize that much of what GALLO has done is already with successful and good vineyards all around the world that already have a history, track-record of excellence and perhaps just a bit of money issues like so many businesses in the world today whether wine-related or not. These are tough times and everyone knows it.
As I have said many times to people that visit the store I am most interested in supporting GALLO with their California efforts ( as in helping LOUIS MARTINI and MIRASSOU Vineyards that had already made very fine wines and been in business for many years before GALLO took them under their financial wings ). To me that makes perfect sense to support GALLO in these efforts as both of those wineries really did contribute to the pageant which is now a colorful California tapestry of wine flavors, styles and soils and regions that have been a big part of the recent American wine experience.
At Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits where I manage the wine department - now for more than 12 years ( 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 ) we have had both Michael Martini and David Mirassou come and do in-store wine-tastings of their wines and that has made them in my mind part of the broad but very real Cleveland Park Wines' family that I readily embrace anytime over abstract points and scores and artificial hype to sell more boxes of wine.
We had all better watch out by so readily promoting points and scores as we will soon put ourselves out of business as our worth and value the wine equation/ experience become antiquated and no longer worth subsidizing?!? That would be a tragedy : people need people to come and see and be able to look square in the face and ask advice and help from. That's real : that's a connection that you can hold onto and that can lead to meaningful exchanges.
So, all the wines showed well that were shown to me of GALLO, LAS ROCAS, FREI BROTHERS and the Spanish white Albarino, too from MARTIN CODAX. They were all winners in their own right and styles and genres. I liked some more than others : I have sold them all at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits over the years at one time or another. It just has depended on what was going on and if we had had a chance to taste them and what deals were being offered at the time. Selling GALLO itself is not a priority for me at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. I do a cross-section partly because of the values that they offer from the SHEFFIELD, LIVINGSTONE and TISDALE brands on up. Buying-power does have its advantages and in today's market people are often counting their pennies to make every one of those stretch as far as possible. That's smart business on the consumer's part as it is on ours of the retailer.
Pictured above is Matt and his boss that came to make a presentation of these wines to us a month or so ago. They brought wines with them to taste Ean and me on and that is what I ask and expect of them if they hope to get a product into our store and onto our shelves. Don't act simply as order-takers : earn your keep with us and help us to do a better job with our customers. They did their part and we tasted and evaluated these wines carefully and bought the GALLO Pinot Noir made by Gina Gallo herself immediately : especially when I heard the price that we could sell it for. I was very impressed with the elegance, finesse, polish and overall breed of this wine. I loved it's focus and it's balance and the price of $32.99 is very reasonable to me as it easily tastes more expensive than that. I also believe that it easily beats out many compeptitors that are a whole lot more expensive but not nearly as balanced and enjoyable to drink as this one is. Congratulations Gina, I have never met you before but I complement you on this bottle that we are selling now and happy to have on our shelves.
Bravo to Gina Gallo's GALLO Santa Lucia Highlands California Pinot Noir 2009 : I loved it immediately and went back to re-taste it at least two or three times more to be sure that my first impression was supported again and was not simply a fluke. It was not : it was the real thing, the real taste impression : where my taste buds and my sense of smell all rallied in praise and appreciation of the bouquet and the flavors offered up to me in my Reidel Austrian wine-tasting glass. I was a fan of this 2009 limited-production GALLO Special-bottling of Pinot Noir from California's Santa Lucia Highlands : a very solid offering indeed and one that can easily be enjoyed with or without food and which I do believe will still improve in the bottle with another 2-5 years of cellar age. No need to rush through this now. Buy some and put some away and perhaps drink a bottle every six months ot every year? That sounds about right to me. Buy a six-pack and enjoy over time.
Matt came in later to do the wine-tasting that he had signed up for while in the store tasting here with his boss. I think that it pretty much came up actually at the last minute as we had had a cancellation and Matt was free to step in and do a tasting with our customers. Thanks Matt : that helped to get the MARTIN CODAX dry Spanish white Albarino back on our shelves along with the 100% Garnacha dry red black-labeled LAS ROCAS dry Spanish red on our shelves as well. We already had the GALLO 2009 Pinot Noir that we had bought immediately. It turned out to be a good weekend in-store tasting and we sold some of each of the three wines that were sampled. We did not taste or buy for the store the FREI BROTHERS Chardonnay or their Sauvignon Blanc. WE may buy those at a later time when we taste them again or need them for the store as they fit the category and the price? We cannot afford to buy everything and I really want to bring back the LOUIS MARTINI and some of the MIRASSOU Vineyard wines that our prior rep Bill Cook used to sell us from Republic-National distributing.
We still need to get some of the regular everyday LAS ROCAS Garnacha Spanish red ( it's in the tall Bordeaux-bottle shape and not the squatter Burgundy bottle shape ) onto our shelves. We will order that and floor-stack it : perhaps five cases with four for the stack and one for the shelves? That sounds about right to me. I will talk to Matt about that the next time that I see him.
So all is well and we start fresh with Matt that clearly is doing all that he can to get some new business with his wines to our store now in 2012 and we thank him for that. On his end he is doing everything to make it as easy and smooth to work with his extensive portfolio and so Ean and I will taste and we will decide what we need and want for the store as we get into March 2012.
Hope you enjoy these pictures. Being an artist I am looking for ways to bring some new perspective to the wine-tasting experience. I want color and bottle and wine and action and composition all help you all to decide that you might want to taste and buy some of these wines pictured here.
It's all about temptation and making things look irresistible to you all. Have I succeeded? I hope so : that is my intention.
Visually things can play such an important roll in our wanting to buy a wine and taste and enjoy it with our meals. Everyone already knows the power of the wine label and how that can make the difference in whether or not to buy it or not?
Looking at the color of the wine, it's clarity and it's brilliance, too can make a big difference in whether or not we want to buy and taste it. I like to show some of that and I want to offer up images that " add to the equation " as I like to put it. Hopefully you see and witness and are made aware of something visually in a creative, appealing and stimulating manner? I certainly hope so. That is what I can bring to the table as an artist. So much has already been done with words and packaging. Now it is how do you present them to the buying/ tasting public? There are many ways and I hope that I have touched upon a few of them here. Let me know : I would love to hear your comments? Gina, what do you think? Please comment and let me know below. Thanks.
Anyway, come to the store and get some of these wines. We still have some of the GALLO and of the LAS ROCAS, as well as of the MARTIN CODAX. WE can buy more of the two Spanish wines. I believe that all of your wine Gina the 2009 Pinot Noir is now sold-out? I will check with Matt. We still have four or five bottles perhaps at $32.99?
Golden-tinted white on black, nice combination in the picture above. I like it, I like it a lot. I also like how I got reflected in the bottom of the Reidel wine glass that the bowl sits and rests on the lovely golden hues as well ... lovely extension - continuation ...
Look at the swirl, look at the motion of these white and dry FREI BROTHER'S California wines : brilliant, especially with the ceiling lights above bright and strong shining through them.
Thanks again Matt for everything and we will go over these and other GALLO wine selections when we meet again soon. Cheers and enjoy Valentine's Day tomorrow all of you. These would make some excellent Valentine's Day wines for tomorrow , especially the GALLO 2009 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. You can call Ean at the store today ( as it is my day-off ) and ask him what we still have left of Gina's 2009 Pinot Noir? Call : 202-363-4265. Cheers to you all, Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
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