Tomorrow May 5th, 2008 Marks The ONE-YEAR Anniversary of Chatwine : What a wonderful Adventure Down Memory Lane & The Present It Has Been! Cheers, TQ

Wow, I can't believe that it is almost one year now that I have been blogging here at CHATWINE.BLOGSPOT.COM. As you may or may not know I have also a number of other blogs. You can reach them all by going to down on the right of this page till you see the words : View Complete Profile : you click that on and scroll down until you hit the various blogs and then click those on. I have them from all the countries that I have been to ( that I have had the time to make pages for, that is - I still have to do one for South Africa ), one on art ( I'm an artist ), one on poetry ( I write pretty much five days of every week giving myself my two-day weekend to relax ), one on general interest called Qynothna ... and there will be more.

My first blog title actually occurred on April 22, 2008 entitled : " Blogging Is Crazy / For The Patient ! " and it was on : Qynothna. I was encouraged by our good customer and my friend Steven that kept saying I should blog. I got instructions from him and one day ( April 22, 2008 ) finally got the nerve and courage and muddled myself through setting one up : wow! That was quite a turning point for me. Thank you Steven for your help : you know who you are.

It started slowly and I had to get my feet wet at first. It was mostly writing and then the pictures started to come, too. Now I have on CHATWINE around 1,700 visits each month with about 400 of those being return visits. I value all the visits but am thrilled to have around 400 or more returns. This will continue to grow I hope.

This is my way of finally sharing with everyone all the pictures, memories and stories - mostly all positive , that I have been saving and collecting over the years. Fortunately I have many pictures. bottles signed and sheets of virgin white paper filled with many of these amazing people that have come into my life either in a store or outside at an event or a restaurant. I have many menus signed, too. It's a wealth of specific trivia that I love marking the moment exactly that have occurred and where I have been lucky enough to have been included.

I hope to add video clips soon that I have started taking : a number in South Africa and I hope at least one or more when Katharina Prum of Joh. Jos. PRUM , Mosel Germany visits on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 from 5-8 PM at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine www.clevelandparkwine.com ).

So thank you all for reading along with me and looking at all these pictures that I have mostly taken myself : there are a few with me in them that I did not take.

I will leave this now with a few comments written on the bottles tasted and left afterward by the winemakers/owners/principals at the various wonderful wineries around the world :

Arya Campbell of LAUREL GLEN Vineyard in Graton , California wrote on her bottle of 2004 Old Vine Zinfandel ( Lodi, CA ) : " What's not to like about Cleveland Park ? " signed with a drawn heart and Arya.

Nick Stacey of WEST CAPE HOWE, Denmark, Western Australia wrote on a bottle of 2004 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc : " Hey Tony, Sem Sau Blanc and oysters. Perfect match! Cheers " signed Nick Stacey, 2006

Mike Radcliff of WARWICK Eatate Wine wrote on a bottle of 2004 Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc ( Simonsberg, Stellenbosch ) : " Lekker Wijn " signed Mike ( 10 / 13 / 04 ).

Anton Beukes of MORESON Winery, South Africa ( Franshhoek ) wrote on a bottle of 2004 PINE CREST Sauvignon Blanc ( Coastal Region S.A. ) : " Tony's nose, pallet it's not failed yet ". Anton drew a picture in profile of a dog with an extended nose. I like it. Thanks Anton!

Both Nicolas and daughter Laura Catena of the CATENA winery in Mendoza, Argentina wrote on a bottle of the CATENA " Zapata " 1999 ( introduced at the Argentinian Embassy this evening to the Washington D.C. public/audience for the very first time : this vintage that is ) : " Con Todo Afecto Para Anthony " and signed Nicolas Catena. Laura wrote : " Para Anthony " and signed it Laura Catena.

Andrew Peace of the PEACE Family VineyardIn Southeastern Australia wrote on a bottle of the 2003 red blend of Shiraz ( 36% )/Cabernet ( 35% )/ Grenache ( 19% ) and Mataro ( 10% ) : " Peace Off " and signed it Andrew T. Peace. He then wrote on a bottle of 2003 Shiraz : " Peace On You " and signed it again Andrew T. Peace. I like both.

Dominique Haverlan wrote on a bottle of his Benjamin de Vieux Chateau GAUBERT 2002 red Graves ( $19.99 ) : " Thank you for my first trip in USA " signed Dominique Haverlan.

Trish Rodgers wrote on a bottle of her Pregon Pinot Noir 2004 " Big Fire " : " Go Tony ". and surrounded it with lots of silver points . She signed it XO Trish.

Matias Rivera the winemaker at COUSINO-MACUL, Santaigo, Chile signed a sample bottle of the 2001 " Finis Terrae " : " To Anthony, The last bottled of Arturo's tasting in March, 2003 " and signed it Matias Rivera, Sept. 2003.

Bruwer Raats the owner of RAATS Vineyard in Stellenbosch, South Africa signed his bottle of RAATS Cabernet Franc 2002 ( $31.99 ) : " Enjoy my passion " and signed it Bruwer Raats ( 12/10/04 ).

Carol Wilson of MOON MOUNTAIN Vineyard, Sonoma County, CA. signed a bottle of her 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County ( $17.49 ) : " To : Tony the Tiger , Cheers ! " and signed it Carol Wilson

Wolfgers, the winemaker at H.LUN, Neumarkt, Egna, Alto Adige , Italy signed a bottle of Pinot Grigio Sudtirol, Alto Adige 2005 : " Por il grandiessimo Tony " and signed it Wolfgers , 2006.

Alberto the winemaker at LA GERLA Brunello di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy signed a bottle of Brunello Di Montalcino vendemmia 2002, $54.99 : " Tony, Thank you for your great job! " and signed it Alberto

These are some of the many bottles I have asked to be signed and left as a souvenir of these many visits with owners and winemakers over the nine yaers that I have spent as the wine manager of Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in our nation's capitol.

I will take pictures of the bottles and include them later.

In the meantime thanks again for following along with me on this incredible journey of wine and food and beer/liquor, too as I have added those here as well. Cheers, TONY

Yannick Paquet of DOMAINE de FUSSIACUS / LES VIEUX MURS/ DES GRANGES Tasting His Wines At Cleveland Park Wines Et Spirits November 16th, 2005

Yannick's parents Jean-Paul and Monique Paquet (viticulteurs/recoltants ) had already come to taste their wines with us on September 26th, 2005 and so it was a great surprise to meet their son Yannick when Laurent Givry, importer/president of Elite Imports brought Alphonse Mellot of Sancerre on November 16th, 2005 to taste wines with our customers. I was expecting to meet Alphonse Mellot for the first time this evening. I had also scheduled Arya Campbell 9 the LAUREL GLEN Winery, CA, ) to come taste with our customers as there would be no conflict between the two owners tasting their very different selections. Alphonse would mostly taste whites from Sancerre in the Loire Valley and Arya would taste her CA. reds as well as her one Malbec from Argentina. This would be a good fit for all concerned.

Then in walks this young man with Laurent and in all the hustle and bustle of setting-up for both tastings I inquire of Laurent : " Who is this other gentleman? " Laurent then explains and says that he is just there to observe. I immediately go in search of some of his family's excellent white burgundies from Pouilly Fuisse and Saint Veran : DOMAINE DE FUSSIACUS and DOMAINE LES VIEUX MURS. I find only the Pouilly Fuisse and open a bottle immediately so that he may also pour one of his wines.

Again, I saw no real conflict of interests as the Saint Veran white burgundy was a Chardonnay while Alphonse's wines were made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape. I'll never know if this was alright with either Alphonse or Laurent but since I manage the wine department I made a split-second executive decision and I believe all in all things were a resounding success and that all three owners had a wonderful time pouring their wines and our customers had all the more to take advantage of if they happened to be lucky enough to be in our store ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington D.C. 2008 Tel : 202-363-4265, sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ) at this moment in time.

Before Yannick could leave I asked him to sign our guest book and this is what he wrote in French :

" Merci De Mavoir recu dans votre shop - ce fut un plaisir de vous rencontrer. A bientot. " He drew a picture of his house under the note - all written with our silver pen for signing the bottles as gifts for our customers.

For more technical information about Yannick, Jean-Paul and Monique's wines go to : 71960 France, Tel : 03 85 27 10 06 Fax : 03 85 27 10 07 , email : fussiacus@wanadoo.fr - wines made in Macon-Fuisse, Saint Veran, Pouilly Fuisse and Pouilly-Vinzelles.

Yannick Paquet and Arya Campbell represent the up-and-coming / the future of these vineyard's wines. They will carry on the tradition that their families have already started for them. I'm sure they will eventually bring " new " things to the table and if this one tasting was any example at all I see a bright future for both.

Thank you all Yannick, Alphonse, Arya et Laurent ... merci infinement for coming and pouring/ d'avoir verse vos vins for our customers/ pour notre clientele.

Here are a few of the pictures I took this evening during the tasting. I hope you enjoy them. Cheers, TONY