This was an unexpected surprise this past Tuesday when Gaston Williams, the commercial director of FINCA El ORIGEN visited Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) where I manage the wine department in our nation's capitol.
This was just after we experienced first-hand our " snowstorm of the century " here in D.C. metropolitan area. It was something else and still we are reeling from it and there are still many evidences of it just outside our door that will probably remain easily for another two or so weeks and even more.
Steve our rep for Republic-National Distributors had Gaston Williams with him. Steve was bust talking up front at our register with Ravinder Sharma our spirits buyer and I was coming out of our offices in the back in search of things to include in our weekly store email that I write and post each Tuesday late in the afternoon when I spotted Gaston looking carefully at some of our bottles of wine. He was looking rather intently and I also saw Steve up front and putting two and two together I figured that he might be someone from a winery that Steve was taking around on his daily calls? I was right. I introduced myself and we started-up our conversation pretty much immediately.
Gaston told me who he was and I said that I would love to try his wines. I also mentioned quickly that we had just recently sold out of his FINCA El ORIGEN the past week with the snowstorm and everyone being off from work as well as the " wee little " fact that it had just been written up in last week's Wednesday wine-review in the Washington Post's food-section by writer Dave McIntyre.
Ours was the only D.C. store listed as carrying it and so we simply had to have some and we got it into the store just before the snowstorm hit us hard on that Saturday and then again on the following Wednesday. See, all this ties-in together and makes for an interesting story.
Gaston liked the fact that we already represented the Malbec and I quickly took him over to our shelves with the Argentina wines and showed him the Torrontes white. After this we were off up to the center of the store where our tasting table is and I asked him to put whatever he wished me to try there. I cleared off quickly my desk in our office and rejoined Gaston with my Reidel tasting glass and my trusty Canon digital camera that i used to take these pictures.
Pictured above is the store front earlier on this sunny Tuesday morning here in the Cleveland Park neighborhood where we have a block-long row of store fronts. I will have to include a couple of the snow outside before I really conclude this blog entry of mine.
Being an artist I take many pictures and some are really planned and fine-tuned while others are quite accidental as this one above that I like anyway looking up to the front of the store from our tasting table. I like it : it give some urgency and vibrancy of colors - all of which speak of action and energy and desire-fire ... hope you enjoy it and think of it when you next visit our store.
I believe that this may be the very first picture that I took of Gaston after he poured for me some of the Reserva Torrontes 2007 white ( we have the 2008 on the shelf now but tasted the 2007 ). He quickly jumped into his spiel of the wines and spoke about the region fro making the Torrontes being another ( Valle Del Cafayate, Salta ) and not the Mendoza area that is so famous now to many of us.
I listened and I snapped away at my digital pictures here. I enjoyed this 2007 Reserva Torrontes. I thought it was focused and well-balanced and quite fresh and bright on the palate. And for $10.99 a bottle I found it to be a sound value as well. I am surprised that they forgot to open the 2008 for me to taste as they borrowed a bottle of it from our shelves? You should have let me taste both Steve, even if the wine was not chilled for the comparison.
I like having new arrivals like these FINCA El ORIGEN that Steve tasted first with Mike Martin that worked with me at the store for ten years before just leaving on Christmas Eve, 2010 to return to Rochester, New York where he is originally from.
Mike bought both and it being cold and the winter the red dry 2007 Reserva Malbec sold a lot and the white 2008 Reserva Torrontes just a bit. Wait until it starts to warm up and we will begin to see this situation even-out if I am not mistaken.
I like the color of the Reserva 2007 Torrontes white here in these two pictures that frame Gaston through my Reidel tasting glass. I like taking these types of pictures that show the various hues of a wine's color as well as those that are involved with it's sale whether it be Gaston the Commercial Director or the owner or the wine-maker. I also like getting pictures of the wine with the wine labels on the bottles from which it just came.
The Reserva Malbec was again well-focused and balanced : medium-bodied, not too tannic, some nice toasty berry fruit in evidence with some elements of spice and texture and again well-worth the money at $10.99 a bottle. I can see why our customers have already asked to buy it by the case in the previous weeks. I guess that it has been 3-4 months that we have now sold the FINCA El ORIGEN.
I take lots of pictures : these are but just a few. I want to capture the moment artistically as well as help to frame a time shared around wine that tells a bit of the story of the wine along with that of those involved in the moment. It's a bit like being a historian as well for me. It's a reference that is visual and that may speak on other levels apart from the many written reviews of wines that already exist.
These pictures are there to add to the existing written prose and reviews and hopefully to inspire people interested in wines to come to our store to buy them in Cleveland Park as well as to their own neighborhood stores. We all share you customers out there and these pictures showing the brilliance of the color of the wines will maybe encourage you on your next visit to inquire about them - even by name ...
I also like there to be pictures for the individuals pictured ( it shows them hard at work ) as well as for the wineries to enjoy now and later as an addition to their already existent visual and written sales tools.
As you can see from the picture above Gaston likes to talk with his hands. I have included several of those here for you all to enjoy. I do like the composition of this one above which has both the larger images outside the glass as well as the smaller ones within. My hand holding the glass is also there as well as the reflections from the Reidel glass. I think there is some really good energy in this picture as well as the shadings of lights-to-darks.
This picture of Gaston above with the color of either Reserva 2007 Malbec or Reserva ( was it a 2006 or a 2007?) Cabernet Sauvignon above also captures his watch with the time on it and for us thus providing another piece of the puzzle once the picture is enlarged on your screen.
Gaston's on a roll here as he speaks some more with his hands about this red. Was it the Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon? Was it the Reserva 2007 Malbec? I know it was not a Reserva Bonarda or a Reserva Sangiovese or a Reserva Merlot as he did not have any of those with him to taste.
The picture above is a completely orchestrated one by me where I hope the cork reveals the name of the winery as the label is not visible here. I do like it on our wooden tasting table and all the richness of the wood-strips that vary in shades of tans and browns and cheery woods ...
I did not correct the picture above and straighten it out so as to stimulate the brain /a waken it/ make it question the direction that the wine is being poured?!?
Here I am listening to Gaston explain the philosophy of his winery. I think that the owners are from Italy and not from Argentina? Is that what you told me Gaston?
Sometimes the flash should not go off and I forget to turn it off and yet I still get some interesting compositions like the one above.
Again Gaston is speaking strongly and with animation of hands here above. I take them not knowing exactly what will turn up. I lower the camera and point it upwards towards the subject and the strong ceiling lights above. This was the subject ( Gaston ) is not self-conscious and aware that I am recording a moment with him and the wine/ glass / bottle all being my prime objective. Point and click and I just hope for the best. I always get some fun and original and un-staged photos this was : some working better than others and yet almost all of them revealing something interesting and completing a bit more of the puzzle of the moment...
Too much reflection and dilution from the flash and yet interesting as the picture above falls into distinct and separate areas that are all held together here and still draws one into them. You cannot easily read the wine label as I would have liked and the idea of the crescent moon and the bright sun are all here along with a blurred garnet red color-light-infused ..
I love the picture of the red wine in the glass above by the bottle of wine. It almost looks like the wine's earlier fermentation as the grape juice started to become wine. All those large bubbles on the surface are so inviting, aren't they?!?
Here in the picture above Steve did not want to be recorded for some reason. I am not sure why. I liked his suit, tie and jacket - herring bone, I believe and told him so ...
I always like to get a picture of myself with those that visit and taste their wines with me. Thanks Gaston. Come again sometime and let's have you do an in-store wine-tasting for our customers : perhaps on your next visit to Washington D.C.?
I can't remember what I thought of the Cabernet Sauvignon? Many times I prefer it to the Malbec. I like selling the Cabs from Argentina. After all, it was the Cabs that put Argentina on the international radar screen way before Malbecs were ever mentioned or known.
I learned from Gaston that by law there only has to be 85% of the Malbec in the bottle if it says Malbec on the label. What was the other 15% here? I cannot remember.
I also hear that Argentina is bottling more Malbec than they are producing? If this is true what are they using? I expect that it is the Bonarda grape as that was until recently the grape I was told was the most planted there? These are all interesting questions at a time like this as the Malbec grape of Argentina has soared to international popularity and recognition with most of our customers asking for and saying that they enjoy Malbec very much. Are they indeed drinking Malbec or Malbec with Bonarda or Sangiovese or even Tempranillo? I say this because it does make a difference as what you use to make a final blend dictates the final taste and flavors.
My point is not to create trouble here but to help those tasting a wine to better understand what it is that they like and what the grapes are and in what blend and proportions? With everyone interested today in the grapes used and less in the regions from where they are coming I find these to be valid points of conversation.
I also like letting everyone know -reminding them - that the Malbec grape comes originally from France and particular the Lot region where the town and area of Cahors is ( the famous Cassoulette stew of white beans and either pork or lamb comes from this area ) where they were once called the " black wines of France ". That's when they were really tannic and in need of many years of cellaring before being drunk. When we had more time to wait and were rushed less I suppose?
Purists of France tell me that the only " real " Cahors are those made from 100% Malbec. I respond : " So then the Cahors with mostly Malbec and some Merlot and some Tannat are not real Cahors "? That's interesting to me and I would like to know more about this. I have tasted both styles and like them both. I think that they both may be called Cahors wine and that it would simply be nice for the back labels of the wines to tell us more information about what grapes are inside each bottle.
I also think that there is plenty of room for both French and for Argentina Malbecs. There are already some from California and there may be more soon from South Africa, too. Unfortunately the French ( and I love most all-things French ) have been very slow to realize just how much wine business they have let the rest of the world steal from them as they forgot to play this more modern game of enticing/alerting.informing and pleasing the international world of thirsty wine consumers that has been enjoying wines now for many years - and nor French as they have simply to their detriment failed to keep up. Sad and they are now trying to change this as in another week or so there will be a French Malbec trade show here in Washington D.C. I hope to go, really I do. But my added thought about all this is : " Is there a show for the Public, too"? There should be if there is not. Get the public excited about French Malbec : there is no time to lose and lots of ground to make up quickly!!!!!
I told Chris Barker that now works with me that I am proud that we have sold-out all our French Malbec and need to order more for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits this week. It's now Sunday, February 21st, 2010 and tomorrow when I am back in Washington D.C. at our store I will order some more French Malbec as we cannot be out having really gotten a good flow going with our customers that will surely be back asking for more really soon
The only Mabec from France that we do have is the " Rolls Royce " version of the 2004 DOMAINE LE CEDRE " LE CEDRE " that I believe we sell fro $67.99. I've already sold some : come and experience the ultimate in France as well as the ultimate in Argentina : especially while Malbec is so hot!
And to the Argentina producers I say : " Please put on your back labels that the Malbec grape came/comes from France and Cahors and that it is blended together in Bordeaux French reds ( even though the percentage may only be 3-5% ). For that matter also tell the consumer that the Torrontes grape comes from Spain as well as the Tempranillo : and let them know that the Bonarda grape comes from Italy.
Promote the history and " origen " of the grapes as well as the current situation. We may live in the current but we are all sums of our past and history and origens ...
Gaston wrote in our guest book before leaving : " Antonio - Congrats for your special spirits, hobby ans sense of humor!! Cheers!! " Thanks Gaston, it was a great pleasure to meet and to taste with you.
For more technical info on FINCA El ORIGEN go to : Washington 225, Dorrego, 5519 Mendoza, Argentina ( 54 261 ) 45 27769 / 4524902 gwilliams@fincaelorigen.com www.fincaelorigen.com ).
Cheers, TONY
