Reconnected Last Night With Arturo Cousino of COUSINO-MACUL, Thurs. April 25th, 2013 In Front Of Ardeo Restaurant, David Of Winebow Imports Tipped Me Off : Thanks David!

This, as almost everything I love doing was serendipitous and something that I jumped on immediately! I was off early and walking down Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 in front of Lavandou restaurant and I spied David of Winebow Imports coming toward me, siad " hell ", then saw Florence the owner of Lavandou restaurant come out her front door and said " bonjour ", talked back-and-forth between the two quickly, remembered to introduce them ... and the three of us were off on a quick conversation. I like this sort of thing : fun community, sharing, receiving, all good and what keeps me going and loving what I do. ... ... ... ... ( These are earlier pictures when we had some snow, just want to give some sense of place here ) ... ... All friendly, some in English , some conversation in French, David told me he was getting married, then he told us both that he was marrying a French lady. At some point I asked him if he was visiting an account here? he said he was meeting some people at Ardeo for dinner. he then asked me if I knew Alfredo Bartholomaus? Then he mentioned that Alfredo was with Arturo Cousino ( the owner of COUSINO-MACAL ). ... ... ... ... That's when everything came to a sudden halt, a screeching stop for me. I was jolted here, I wanted to know more. I wanted to see both my old friends of Alfredo and Aruro that I have known for years! I asked more? A dinner tonight, at 7P.M. , " no ", they were not there yet , and I decided to stay and say a big " holla " to them both outside of Ardeo before they went in to dine. I called my wife to let her know my slight delay in getting home tonight and I was all excited to see them both again! ... ... ... ... I needed my camera back at the store, David needed to get something last-minute at the CVS and so we both met back at Ardeo, and before David got there I had a lovely conversation with my customer Maria that told me that she had just got engaged. What great news! I told her about Alfredo and Arturo as we waited and then Maria was on her way with her bottle of wine that she had just bought at the store a few minutes ago. Stay tuned for more. Cheers, Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn Hast luego, gracias Alfredo e Arturo!

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... ... ( Here we have Jody Jackman our fine rep from Winebow Imports doing an in-store weekend wine-tasting at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. Gotta love that, I do : CHEERS ! ) ... ... ... ... It was wonderful to stand there with my camera and to snap away and chat with you both Arturo and Alfredo. You both looked great. I love reconnecting like this. You were both surprised to see me. I'm just glad that I ran into David as I did. Talk about my great fortune! ... ... I was happy to be able to tell you Arturo about the " new " style of the 2011 Antiguas Chardonnay Sustainable-Farmed, and how I was surprised recently to see the leaner, less buttery style. You said it was a group decision to work on something that you could do really and I think with a meal that it will be excellent. We are happy to have it, we sell it for #14.99 a bottle. ... ... We also have the 2011 Sauvignon Gris at $14.99, the Merlot 2011, $11.99, ... .... the 2010 Sustainably-Farmed Antiguas Reservas Cabernet Sauvignon at $16.99 ; ... and the LOTA 2007 at $99.99 a bottle! This is a great cross-section of your wines Arturo, something for everyone. That works for me. .. ... ... ... More to come later. Have to get back to selling these wines. I'm here at the store now on Friday afternoon on April 26th, 2013 at 3:18PM and my lunch break is over now. Stay-tuned for more. TONY... ... ... ... When we were all speaking I mentioned that I also had the " little Sauvignon Gris " dry white and uou Arturo immediately corrected me and asked why the " little ", implying why not the " big " Sauvignon Gris? I immediately realized my mistake, smiled and said that it was one of my favorites, perhaps my very favorite these days of your wines because it truly offers a wine from Chile that you cannot find anywhere else. Really it offers a wine that brought back to life and gave identity and class and proper attention to a French Bordeaux grape that has virtually been unknown until you brought attention to it. Bravo Arturo! I congratulate you on this. ... ... ... ... ... ... I should mention that years ago with John Peters and with Jody Jackman and winemaker Matias Rivera of COUSINO-MACUL that we did an incredible Winemaker Dinner at Ardeo upstairs and we featured the Sauvignon Blanc at this dinner and people loved it and bought it, too. I have pictures of that. I have also blogged about it here before so you may all use the search engine on this page to find that if you like. ... ... ... ... I found my bottle that you signed for me Arturo back when I spent a year working at MacArthurs Addy Bassin's store in 1999-2000. It's a bottle of the 1997 Antiguas Reservas Cabernet Sauvignon ( it cost $12.99 a bottle then in their store ) and you wrote : " A great vintage for Tony " and signed it Arturo Cousino and dated it April 2000. Gracias amigo, I will continue this blog a bit later, gracias, gracias , gracias ... TONY Saturday morning, April 27th, 2013 - it's my son's birthday today. he's 20 today! My wife and I are so proud! Cheers! ... ... ... ... ( pictured here from ( left to right ) are John Peters of Billington Imports that sells the wines to Winebow Imports, Jody Jackman that works for Winebow Imports and sells the wines to me, Anthony Quinn at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits , 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. D.C. 20008 202-363-4265 , and Matias Rivera the winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL. We had just finished doing an in-store quick wine-tasting of the COUSINO-MACUL wines before walking down the to the end of the block to Ardeo Restaurant for our Winemaker COUSINO-MACUL dinner with our customers. ... ... That's where I was talking just this past Thursday night to both Arturo Cousino and Alfredo Bartholomaus and David Bonham. It was a lovely evening and I was asking Arturo about things and trying to catch up on as much as I could. I wanted to know how he was and the winery, etcetera? He told me that it was his nephew I believe that takes care of all the Facebook and social media activities. I look forward to hearing from him as I have already posted a story about the great impact that the very first Cabernet Sauvignon Antiguas Reservas had here in Washington D.C. and how it was the very first Chilean red wine to really open our eyes to the excellent quality of Chilean wines and at a reasonable value, too! ... ... I still have to download the pictures I took from Thursday evening here. I will do that shortly. Hope you have enjoyed how I have pieced together various photos from the past to show the relationship / the link that we all have in doing , and in having done well our jobs I believe to introduce, promote and sell the COUSINO-MACUL wines here in Washington D.C. Cheers. It's Sunday afternoon here now at home in northern Virginia and it looks like it might rain some soon on April 28th, 2013. Take care, hasta luego, TONY ... ...