In Dave McIntyre's Article : " A Bountiful Harvest Of Intoxicating Books " : Wine Write Matt Kramer For Wine " Is Its Conscience ". 12.1.2010

I read Dave McIntyre wine article/ review on wine books article this Wednesday morning, December 1st, 2010 entitled : " A Bountiful Harvest Of Intoxicating Books " on wine and I also really appreciate the wine-writings of Matt Kramer that I have read over the years in the Wine Spectator. Like you say Dave he is wine's " conscious " and we certainly need at least one if not many, many , many more to help balance the equation as it now stands in a rather dismal state I might add.

We get a copy delivered to the store every issue and when i get a chance to scan through it quickly the one article that I might indeed read from start to finish is Matt Kramer's article. I always learn something, it always makes me think and sometimes points something out that I am really glad to be made aware of.

I also liked to read the Jancis Robinson articles when she wrote for the Wines Spectator. Jancis and Matt were both anchors for me and that had me coming back along with the articles that tell more of the wine places, the travel, the settings and the actual places from which the grapes are grown and the wines are made. To me these are the reasons I find something valuable when I look at the Wine Spectaor which is also referred to by some as the Wines Speculator where you have to pay for your wines to be tasted and reviewed either positively or negatively.

So I have now read many of Matt's columns for years in the Wines Spectator and say : bravo Matt! I would enjoy meeting you Matt as I believe that we share many of the same points on wine and it would be fun to have a conversation unfold face-to-face. It might just go off in any direction and that would be entertaining as well as instructive I am sure.

I have not as yet read : " Matt Kramer On Wine : A Matchless Collection Of Columns, Essays, and Observations by America's Most Original and Lucid Wine Writer " ( Sterling Epicure, $20 ) but I will look for one or ask for a copy for Christmas. I am sure that much of what he has written about wine is still very pertinent and on-point today in this ever-changing quickly wine world of ours today.

So Dave and Matt : thanks for your writing and your valuable contributions to the wine world today. You both bring many valuable and insightful comments and points-of-view that respect the art and the integrity - the heart-dream-and the soul of pure wine-making and for me appreciation for the whole of the business and not just the things/wines that happen to be in vogue and constantly changing by the split moment these days it seems.

By the way Dave Alfredo Bartholomaus gave me a copy of Laura Catena's book : " Vino Argentina : An Insider's Guide to the Wines and Wine Country of Argentina " ( Chronicle, $27.50 ) that I have scanned through briefly. I missed the last Nicolas Catena/ Laura Catena ZAPATA release and event at the Argentina Embassy ( I was invited, ... and the time before I did meet Laura briefly as we were all dancing on the floor at the Argentina Embassy for the prior ZAPATA roll-out with my wife - nice, tango dancers and live music and all ...) but had a school function with my 17-year old son that trumped going this time. Oh well, Alfredo was nice enough to give me a copy when he came to the store after the event.

I think that that was just after he brought me Ernesto Catena ( Laura's brother and Nicolas' son ), the owner of the fine sparkling and dry reds of ALMA NEGRA that we have sold now for years and currently have on our shelves at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 , Tel:202-363-4265 , sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com and on Facebook at : clevelandparkwines&spirits, too ) to say " hola, come estas? " for the very first time ever. I quite liked Ernesto, the visit was much too brief for me to really get to know him but I enjoyed meeting him and looking into his magnetic and glowing, bright, sparkling eyes - captivating : what must the women think?

I have also blogged about that visit here with Alfredo and Ernesto Catena called : " Alfredo S. Bartholomaus Brings Me Ernesto Catena " ( 6/1/2010 ) on chatwine.blogsot.com. Check it out if you like. I got some good pictures , too. And certainly come by to try some of his wines , especially the three sparkling wines before the New Year. Also, when you come to the store ask me to show you the copy of Laura's book that I have there along with the CATENA wines on our shelves.

Of course this always makes me think back to when Nicolas Catena was just starting his business in the United States and Nora Favelukes that represented him with Alfred Bartholomaus asked me if I would mind joining them both for lunch ( just the three of us ) at Bilbo Baggin's in Old Towne Alexandria so that he could pick my brain for some ideas of how best to get into the U.S. market. I was more than pleased to be of service and I remember the luncheon fondly even today. So, I will read Laura's book this holiday season and maybe write about that here soon.

By the way the United States owes Nora Favelukes a big thanks for introducing us to Nicolas, his family and his excellent wines. She was at the forefront of this momentous series of events that grew and grew and grew and started all so very humbly with her, her foresight and her vision. How many of you knew this? It's important, really. Thank you Nora. Happy New Year 2011 to you and to your family.

Anyway, this was good reading this morning, Dave. Got me to thinking and I like that - need that each and every day. Thanks again and happy holidays 2010 and Happy New Year to you and Lili and you family. Cheers, TONY

June 2010 CHATEAU D'ANGLES Dry Languedoc Red,Rose & White Blends " Discovered " Recently @ Cleveland Park Wines When Our Local Rep Stopped By To Taste

I should have posted this blog by now. I'm overwhelmed with blogs in the draft form here and waiting some text. This is not a good thing as we in this case here have ordered these fine French wines from the CHATEAU D'ANGLES and sold them well as well as tasted them with our customers at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com on Facebook at : clevelandparkwines&spirits ) in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of northwest Washington D.C. our nation's capitol.




It's already Sunday evening here at home in northern Virginia at 5:31 PM on November 7th, 2010 and I was just featured on CNN oat 3 PM earlier on the show called " Your Money " on the topic of : " How does a small business compete and stay in business in hard, economic times? "




Well I/ we do it by finding excellent wines like these of France's CHATEAU D'ANGLES and bringing them to the store and selling and tasting them with our customers : either ourselves or with the help of our local wholesaler reps or the owners, wine-makers or the sales managers of the vineyards themselves. Everyone helps, everyone chips in and does their part and holds their own weight. That's how we stay in business us small businesses : we harness the help and the energies and the support of others like us that are all part of the chain that makes it possible to be fruitful, helpful and successful/ It's all tied together and I like to take this approach instead of the other approach which is to sell the points, the scores, the reviews and the hype that is abundantly available out there.




I want to sell the wines themselves and the people and the personalities behind them. That's what is real and what counts for me. It's hard work, it's the old-fashioned way of doing business. It's putting ourselves, our names, our reputations on the line each and every moment and everyday : falling and building on that - sink or swim, taking the responsibility ourselves and not on relying on the words and hype and the points of others. It's risky, it's scary, so be it.




I liked these wines : they are food wines to be enjoyed with meals. Come to the store and check them out. We still have some of the dry red and the dry white though we have sold through on the dry rose. We will get more of that later.




I hope that you all like my more artsy photos here. I am an artist and want to get you all inspired in a more visual/colorful way. I will include more notes soon on the pricing and the grape blends of these wines. Being home I cannot do it now.




I enjoyed this meeting/tasting/moment : we had fun, we had lots of fun - we connected. That means a whole lot to me.




The segment that we were on earlier today on CNN's show : " Your Money " was on our wine-classes that we offer and which I conduct myself. I could very easily have included one of these CHATEAU D'ANGLES French dry wines and may still as I conduct them on Saturday's from 11:30-AM-1PM in the back of the store : 6 wines and $10 a person, Call : 202-363-4265 or email at : anthonyquinn@clevelandparkwine.com to sign up for the. Read more about them on my recent blog of today : Sunday, November 7th, 2010.

Cheers and stay-tuned for more later here, TONY

Drinking Jed Steele's 2007 " Writer's Block " dry red Lake County, CA. Counoise From A Magnum On Monday Night, Martin Luther King Day : Nice!

It all started when my wife called me at work @ Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in our nation's capitol on Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. asking me what she could drink as I was not yet home from work? I told her to open this magnum of Jed Steele's " Writer's Block " dry red Lake County California Counoise. She did and told me that she had enjoyed it much as she did Jed's last magnum ( she and our friend Denise really enjoyed it again one evening when I was busy at work ) I believe of Grenache or was it another grape variety? Anyway, I tried some when I got home from work this past Saturday ( two days ago ), January 16th, 2010 and that's how this all started ...

Read on for the rest of this fun story ...



Drinking Jed Steele's " Writer's Block " 2007 Counoise from California's Lake County on Monday evening ( 10:41 PM now ) here at home in northern Virginia on Martin Luther King's Day ( birthday celebration ) is quite the thing when you consider that I have thought of his " I've got a dream ... " speech all day on this my day-off. Couple and triple that even with the fact that this magnum bottle that you sent me recently is three night's old and that I am really enjoying it tonight more than the first two nights : then you may begin to get some inkling of the joy/rapture and warmth and pleasure that I am getting now.

I have had enough : I don't need anymore, thank you. But tonight the wine has been pure liquid red satin ambrosia and balm for my tired spirit on this most momentous and important day of days when I / we focus on equal right for every man woman and child living in the United States of America as well as the world.

Who made one person better than another ? Who gave one person over another the liscence to think of themselves as superior to that other? Live and let live : and that means in harmony and in peace as far as I am concerned. I know, I know : I am truly one of the lucky one born white and I do appreciate that, really I do. But I do believe in Martin's dream and I am willing to stand up for it and state my opinion on it and let the pieces fall where they may : so be it.

So, here on this important moment I have been able to reflect on all of this throughout the day and also enjoy now over the past two hours some of Jed Steele's " Writer's Block " 2007 Counoise : one of those thirteen and most obscure of the bunch of grapes that can and do go into the making of some Chateauneuf-Du-Papes as well as other red Rhone wines.

As you can see clearly from this that today and at this moment I have not suffered in the least from any " writer's block " and for that, too I am ecstatic, I really am. This is not a time to be indecisive in my life : it is a time to act and to be true and to be strong in my convictions.

It's great to see one from California Jed and I applaud you for making it and promoting it. I'd like to have some for the store. I will ask Tim Synder our local Republic rep if he has any to sell me. He does tell me Jed that he has some interesting single-vineyard wines of yours that he thinks would be perfect for us and he plans to bring them by soon for both Chris and me.

All the edges and the bumps and the highs and lows of this 2007 Counoise Jed have smoothed out over the last three days and the alcohol seems to be perfectly integrated ( 13.5% ) into the fruit and the spices here. There is no sign of oxidation yet in either the bouquet or the taste and that shows me that all this wine needs is to be aged some before drinking. Congratulations : I will sell it and advise people to perhaps keep it another year or two ( maybe three before ) drinking. Obviously magnums age more slowly and this is in fact from a magnum. Any thoughts on that Jed?

I have just taken some photos and will download some here now and the rest later as I want to post this blog entry while it is still Martin Luther King Day.

Cheers and thanks Jed and to everyone may you have and realize both your private as well as collective dreams... TONY

PS : Jed, come to the store : I miss you. I've already told Tim that I will buy more of your wine to floor-stack in February and I am looking forward to that very much.

The Art Of 2008 Picpoul De Pinet ( 2009 )White French Languedoc Wine In My Glass @ Home In Northern Virginia Out Back

It's Martin Luther King Day Today, Monday, 1/18/10 as I post this blog ...


The art of drinking a glass or two of the 2008 Picpoul De Pinet Languedoc southwestern French dry white out in my backyard with my wife on a day that I am off, usually either on Sunday or Monday afternoon on a beautiful day is pretty special indeed. It's an added bonus with good smoked salmon and crackers, too. This late afternoon as the sun was making it's majestic " adieu " here as you can see in some of the pictures of the blue sky sprinkled with puffy white clouds was no exception. It was glorious in fact and I was feeling totally inspired artistically as I sipped and snapped these pictures and poured for my wife and offered her bites of the tasty smoked salmon to accompany the 2008 Picpoul.




I manage the wine department at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( have now for almost ten years ) and this wine that importer Fran Kysela himself came to sell before my time at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( he tasted and sold it to both Peter Anastopolos and to Mike Martin ) is perhaps still the best-selling dry white wine in the store : and for good reason. It's amazing, crisp, dry, fresh- lively and bright and always a great deal at under $8 a bottle. Now in 2010 I think we may have to sell it for $8.50 a bottle but that's still a pittance for all the wine and the flavors and the wonderful consistency of a dry white wine with liquid French sunshine infused in every fiber of this wine.




Couple all of this with the fact that the Inn at Little Washington has served it for years and you get to see some of the " big picture " that at least here in Washington D.C.'s metropolitan area a whole lot of us people know and love and buy and drink the 2008 Picpoul De Pinet from the Languedoc on a regular basis.




As you can also see I like to take lots of artsy photos and I hope that you enjoy them. I think it's fun with pictures to paint a wide as well as minute view of the specific as well as of the general that surrounds it. Let's see some of it all to get a better sense of the whole for my wife and me on this glorious late afternoon outside in our back yard on the weekend...




Look at the beautiful rich, golden color of the wine in the glass. Don't you just love it : and the frost from the coldness of the warmer glass outside on our deck?




I will always love taking pictures of things and people through the wine glass filled with whatever wine I am enjoying at the time. I love capturing the setting golden sun as it slips below my view and under the cover of this lush canopy of dark green and browns with the leaves and all the branches eventually hiding it from our sight ...




Look at that smoked salmon ? It has a wildness look to it : wild and mad and frantic and gasping it's last gasp before we eat it and chase after it with some of this yummy dry 2008 Picpoul!



I also really love looking at the light that comes through the canopy of leaves and branches and trunks of the many trees that almost surround our home in the back providing us with such a sense of privacy and isolation that is only partly a reality but seems so true when we sit out back sheltered and comfortable and feeling like the Lord and the Lady at our country manor ...




Look here at the eye of the 2008 Picpoul in the glass as well as it's wonderful golden liquid flesh - stunning with the cobalt blue-skied pillow cushions from the deck that are both blue and white , mimicking the sky above I notice now for the very first time : clever ...




Nice background with the flowers blooming in our pots, the dull, matted washed and sunshine-stained and dried color of the planks of the flooring of our deck. I also like the reflection in the shiny red brick/burgundy wine-colored big pot. Is that the sun's " adieu " reflected in it? And don't miss the cement pussy cat licking it's paws : priceless ...




And here above in this photo it's almost as if we are all submerged in the liquid golden-green color of the 2008 Picpoul grape with all the reflections that it holds inside : nice : I like it.




I'm wearing a t-shirt that I bought at the Outer Banks with all kinds of funny innuendos about mosquitoes that are found there at certain times of the year ...




It's interesting how my fingers come through here in these pictures seen through the liquid wine of 2008 Picpoul. The frost on the glass and the underwater/under wine impressions with bands of curving patterns and colors and bubbles and shades of dark and light ...




You can see by all these pictures that I am always on the quest for another " defining " picture of the many moments that catch my eyes at some point. from some vantage point or the other at any given time.... how to capture and live them all and not miss any of them ? Impossible task but that's what keeps life and living so captivating for me ...




Ohhhhh yeeeessssssssss ..... the whole frontal Monty of a sip : so gustatory, so alive and spontaneous and gratifying ... I'm ready for one now here on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 6:42 PM at home inside now awaiting my wife and my daughter. We will soon be celebrating the fact that we also " had and still have a dream " and are pursuing it individually as well as collectively as a neighborhood and community and country and world for equality for all ( at least I believe and want this very much ) here on earth. Go Martin Luther! You said it and I do certainly buy into it and agree with what you were then fighting for and which unfortunately we will all have to fight for for the rest of our lives I am sad to say. But that doesn't mean we should stop. As Dylan Thomas said : " Do not go gentle into that good-night ... " No way ....




That's so pretty looking at the last orbed rays of sunshine before this ball of sunshine disappears for now behind the canopy of green and brown on our horizon ...




Ahhhh, more 2008 Picpoul please ... what a sight : I still have more to enjoy here. Want to come over and have a glass with us? Bring a story for us like Robert Redford did in the movie " Out Of Africa " for Meryl Streep and you are most certainly welcome anytime ...



My balding head : so many great wines, so many great stories, so many great people and most of all such a great wife to have shared most of this over the years with ...




I leave you now with a beautiful evening here and tonight on Monday, January 18th, 2010 to enjoy the rest of Martin Luther King's Day. And below I have a glass to toast you and to wish you well and health and success : as well as to say in French " Merci a Picpoul De Pinet dans le Languedoc et tous quis sontent responsables pour le production de cette vin blanc incroyable et pas chere .... merci et Bonne Annee a vous ...




Hasta la vista baby - until the next time we meet. Maybe Fran Kysela will come by sometime to say " hello ", too ? ...

We will be opening a bottle soon this week to taste with our " new " wine member addition at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits , Chris Barker that asked on Saturday morning about the Picpoul? He's curious about it and does not know it yet and wants to taste it.

What do you say Fran and Jeremy - should I open a bottle and get Chris behind the Picpoul along with the rest of us?!?

You bet I should .... cheers, TONY


P.S. : My wife, daughter and I just shared a bottle of the CHARLES ORBAN Brut N.V. dry rose champagne ( On Sale for $47.99 a bottle ) and as we got our daughter ready to start her first day tomorrow as a 1st Grade elementary school teacher we spoke of Martin Luther King and celebrated his birthday and special day in remembrance of him and all that he stood for then and still does today.

The CHARLES ORBAN dry rose from the small village of Troissy ( I'd never heard of this until recently ) was superb and showing wonderfully : full and filling and creamy and bright and silky as silk can be without any disturbing nuances and accents or exclamations or hyphens or dots ot any other things out of place. It complemented pretty well, too both the regular and the herbed goat's cheeses that i served along with it before we gathered for our dinner.

By the way this CHARLES ORBAN is marked : " RM " which stands for " recoltant-manipulant " which ensures the greatest control over the whole process of making grapes into champagne as they both own their grapes and vines and also use them to make their own champagne without having to buy grapes from other growers or vineyards. These are all really good things when you want to ensure the highest quality possible.

I did not like the dry rose champagne when I tried it two months ago with the owner ( check here on the search engine for that blog posting ) as much as liked the regular. However, it seems fuller and less edgy and more as it has settled down from it's trek from Troissy to Washington D.C. We have some in the store. Come check it out along with some of this excellent Picpoul de Pinet white for only $8.49 a bottle. You won't be disappointed I assure you ... cheers et a votre sante Martin et tous les autres hommes et femmes du monde entier ...

GERARD METZ, Alsace Winemaker Visits Cleveland Park In 2009 With Dan Terasa Of William Harrison Imports

This was the second or third time that I had met the winemaker of GERARD METZ from Alsace, France. This difference was that in the first two meetings back in 2002 was it ( with importer Roger Turner back then ) that he was the assistant winemaker : now he is the principle winemaker.




We used to buy and sell the GERARD METZ wines back then when Roger would sell them to us. I am pretty sure that Roger also came to the store at least once to do in-store/ wine-tastings and that at least one or more of the GERARD METZ wines were tasted.

They sold well for us and we have been out of them for quite some time. Once that Roger got out of the business I lost track of these wines and was very pleasantly surprised when Dan called me and asked me if he could come by with both the winemaker as well as the United States rep that sells them to William Harrison? I said naturally : " Of course - come on by ". That's pretty much my standard response to a request involving either a wine owner or a wine-maker : they are always welcome unless my life is falling apart just then for some ridiculous reason.




It was great to reconnect and to talk about old times and about Roger Turner. We both smiled quite a bit as we spoke in French.




This was a very animated and enjoyable reunion for me as well as tasting. It is always a treat for me to see someone from the past and to catch-up on all that has transpired in both our worlds since we last met. That's how this moment felt for me. I was enjoying it, really even though as usual I was helping customers while I was tasting or answering the phone as is usually the situation. That never changes : multi-tasking I call it.




Gaby and Lane, two of our oldest customers came to buy some wine while all this was going on and so I naturally invited them to taste with us. They enjoy these impromtu tastings very much and I know appreciate that I include them. It's always great to get our customers' opinions of the wines that we taste. You never know if they will want to purchase one or more of them right on the spot now do you?




As you can see by the labels that there is a musical series here with the musical sheet and it's notes to be played : very much as if the tastes were like the notes here playing for you over the expanse of your tongue and palate. I like this : I always have. We have always bought some of both in the past.




I will ask Dan Terasa of William Harrison what is available for us to purchase in March of 2010. We are completely out of the GERARD METZ wines now and it will be fun to get the Pinot Blanc here once again : or perhaps the Gewurztraminer or Riesling. We tried on this day all of them : Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling , Gewurztraminer and maybe a Sylvaner or a Pinot Auxxerois? My memory is a bit foggy now so once again I will confer with Dan about all of this. Depending on what they cost and what we need on the shelf will determine what we buy.




It is now Monday, February 15th, 2010 and I am home on my day-off on President's Day at 5:36 PM. When I get to work tomorrow I will call Dan and go over this with him.




WE here in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area are currently digging our way out of the " storm of the century " and more snow has fallen already today and more is intended to fall tonight. It's touch-and-go right now and a bit like living back in the days-of0old when we were less in control of things and had to roll more with the flow. I like it : in some ways I like it a whole lot.




In this icy, cold yet serenely beautiful landscape where the clean snow as well as the mixture of salt and brown earth-turned-to-black all mix now at the sides of our roads in piles like those we make at the beach when we sand-drip from a bucket onto a clean surface - yeah, something like that ; it's a juxtaposition of beauty and ruggedness now and we are all just trying to survive and get around safely - and I could use now a glass of either one of these GERARD METX Gewurtzraminers or Pinot Gris to sit back and sip and watch the snow fall.




It's also now the time of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada and I'll bet all those watching the Olympics in the cold and snow of Vancouver would love a glass of any of these excellent Alsace whites from GERARD METZ?!?




Yesterday when they won their first Gold Medal on Canadian soil : I'll bet that at that moment and for hours afterward one of these more hearty and flavorful GERARD METZ wines that is also thicker, denser, more colored and beefier would have done the job admirably to both celebrate this wonderful victory of theirs as well as ward off the cold and the bite and the chill of the Canadian winter elements that look pretty formidable on camera/t.v. as we watch all the individual races outside from Luge to snow board to skating, etc. I'm brain-dead, or feel a bit like it now from all my shoveling and cannot remember all the names of the sports.

We also have to take a moment to mourn the accidental and tragic passing of the young man that died before the Opening Ceremonies on the new Luge track that was the fastest and most modern - and in this case sadly very deadly, too. We learn regrettably too late from these tragedies of things that could have perhaps been done before to prevent them ...




I raise my glass to this fallen young and very promising athlete and to all those that remain that toil and sweat and push themselves to the limit for Olympic gold. Here's to you all : I have a glass of the Musical Series white in my right hand as I toast you all. Actually, this is all symbolic as I do not have a glass of that wine right now. But later tonight I will toast with my family over a lovely leg of lamb to the bravery and the commitment of all the Olympians that inspire me so much to want to do my very best in everything that I do. Cheers, TONY