Vittorio Zoppi Of MASTROJANNI, Montalcino, Tuscany @ Cleveland Park With Current Releases, Nov. 5th, 2009 : Excellent Across The Board

It was great to meet Vittorio Zoppi on November 5th, 2009 with our Grappoli rep David Enright. Vittorio is the Brand Manager for MASTROJANNI of Montalcino, Tuscany and we had already bought some of Vito's wines. Their visit was more a courtesy visit according to them as I had already bought some of the wine.



I beg to differ : it was a vital visit as I like to make associations between the people and their wines. More so, I like to taste the wines. I bought them as I recall vaguely now on this direct import basis because Alberto the owner of Grappoli had told me about how excellent the wines were and are. I agree, they are. I did not find one wine in the bunch that I tasted that I would not be pleased to put on our shelves at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 www.clevelandparkwine.com anthonyquinn@clevelandparkwine.com ). You were correct Alberto.




Also, I hit it off immediately with Vittorio. He had waited patiently with David for me to try the IGreco wines of Cariati ( Cs, www.igreco.it ) in southern Italy. He had observed my interaction with Giancarlo Greco, one of the owners ( one of the seven brother? ) of IGreco. Actually, he had been invited by me almost immediately as he walked through our front door to taste Gancarlo's extra virgin olive oil with white truffles. I was just tasting this delectable extra virgin olive oil and I wanted to share my joy over it with both David and Vito. They both pretty much accepted my invitation immediately.




This thus started a open dialogue between all of us as well as one in Italian between both Giancarlo and Vito. I think that the bonds were forming between us all and that is the way that I like to run Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. Everyone is welcome: everyone is welcome to join in. Let's make our moment memorable and a real treat for everyone fortunate enough to be gathered around at any one time in our store. This is our moment and I want it to be both special and one that we don't forget immediately but rather carry with us as we continue. I want it to nourish us later as well as of the time of our meeting.




It will be good to get these new MASTROJANNI wines into our store. I know we need more Rosso di Montalcino as well as more Brunello. You can never really have enough of either as they are pretty amazing and do help set both mood/melody/madness divine/mayhem mastered wel and marvelous mighty moments - memorable.





I will write more about the individual wines and vintages that I tasted when I return to work on Tuesday. I forget to bring all the notes and paperwork with me.

I just enlarged on my screen here the one picture of the three wines that I sampled with Vito. We tasted the 2007 Rosso di Montalcino, the 2006 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon that the call San Pio ; and the 2004 Brunello di Montalcino. Both the Rosso 2007 and the Brunello 2004 will be in the store next week. The San Pio 2006 old-vines Cabernet Sauvignon will be available in December or possibly January 2010> I can't remember : they were taking pr-eorders with the open bottle.

I found the San Pio to be quite excellent : old-world and tasty, balanced and with lots of unique character. I liked it quite a bit and it will be fun to introduce to our customers as something special and unique and well-worth trying when they want to treat themselves to an original experience and a memorable one at that. It's a food wine : not a casual sipping wine. It's earthy and spicy and speaks of the warmth of the summer and fall days before the grapes were picked. It tells stories of the nutrients that these old Cabernet Sauvignon roots had to dig deep for : of the sweat, toil and efforts that they had to go through to stay alive and get the water and nutrients that they needed. It speaks of the wrinkles and the groans, the moans and the squeals of joy and the peels of nervous laughter and relief when they made it through another day to develop the flavors in the grapes just that bit more that would eventually become this delightful 2006 that I was drinking with Vito in David Enright's company.

This was quite an turning point for me as I had never had this experience before and I learned from it. I liked that quite a bit and it really made me focus my thoughts on it as I realized this. Even after forty years of experience enjoying wines I still learn things - sometimes really exciting and memorable to me - each and every day that I allow myself to be open to new experiences. This was one.






All I have are Vito's wonderful words that he wrote for me before leaving to continue on his journey with David. This is what he wrote: " Tony and Vito, We could be two characters of a Scorsese's movie. Instead we are two wine lovers. We love wine and the beauty of life. Thanks Tony, thanks for the business and even more for your passion for Italy. Do it again Tony! " Vito




Thanks/ grazie Vito. It's been quite the experience tasting with you your MASTROJANNI Tuscan wines. Our meeting will make it all the more enjoyable and meaningful to sell your wine here at Cleveland Park Wines.

Next time you come to Washington email me and let's plan on you doing an in-store/wine-tasting of the MASTROJANNI wines. That could be a grand success, really and we could sell lots of the MASTROJANNI wines. In the meantime Mike Martin and I will do our best to sell your wines. We might even get David to come and taste them as well with our customers.

It was great to meet you just after my return from Montalcino, Tuscany. It's funny to think that we were both there at the same time the week before and that we both came to the United States probably around the same time?

Cheers and by the way Vito I really liked Martin Scorsese's movie/documentary done on Bob Dylan's early years leading up to just when and after he released the electric version of " Like A Rolling Stone " that upset the entire folk music scene here in the United States. I love the song : it's pretty amazing, just like the MASTROJANNI wines.

Caio, TONY

Piensa : Movie Being Filmed, Beautiful Morning, VERBENA W/ Elena, Luca & Alessandro Furlan, Olive Oil & Wine!

These are some of the pictures that I took as my daughter and I started our marvelous Friday morning, October 30th, 2009 in Tuscany. We left TENUTA VALDIPIATTA just outside of Montepulciano and drove towards Montalcino and VERBENA winery. My good friend Alessandro told me that he would not be at VERBENA until 10:00 -10:15 AM at the earliest.




He suggested that we stop along the way in the town of Piensa and park outside the ancient part of it and then walk around inside. We had to stop first along the way and take some scenic photos and then we found ourselves just outside Piensa where we found parking easily. We paid and walked up into the beautiful old town and saw a movie being filmed. I will include those pictures soon.



Then we drove over to the bottom of the hill of the town of Montalcino to the local gas station Eis is it ( ? ) and waited for Alessandro to show up. He took us to VERBENA which we had passed on our right side as we approached Montalcino. I pointed this out to my daughter as we did and it was good to know that we were so close.

I have lots more to say but want to post these photos now. Enjoy them and stay-tuned for more really soon. Cheers, TONY



I like this more thoughtful picture of Elena above as she ponders something that you must have said to her Alessandro? You two would speak and then you would translate and it worked beautifully this arrangement on a beautiful, warm, blue-skied late morning/ early afternoon just a mile or two from the base of the town of Montalcino.

It was great to walk into the vineyards as we crossed the street from their home and winery into their sweep of rows and rows of beautiful vines that were first of the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and then of the Sangiovese ( Sangioveto Grosso ).

We got to taste both these ripened grapes that had been missed as the pickers quickly worked their way down these rows of vines. I liked the sweet taste of both and it pained me a bit to see her drop the cluster to the ground of these delicious Sangiovese grapes.

Seeing this Alessandro quickly grabbed some from the bunch in Elena's hands as he also liked very much their taste. I should have done the same. Oh well ...



You said just before leaving us around 2 PM Alessandro that this gas station was a famous meeting place for many that come to this region. I am glad to have been there, too as I can just imagine all the famous and not-so-famous that have pulled into this gas station over the years to conduct business or just be shown one of the greatest adventures and experiences of their life time!




In this picture above are shown one of the plastic green containers for the just-picked olives. I love their myriad of different colors. This is visually beautiful and makes me wonder how each olive in it's different colors ( are they all the same kind of olives? or are they many kinds that are later blended? or simply at different stages of ripeness ? ). I don't know these answers and forgot to ask although these things did occur to me at the time.

Both my daughter and I were really caught up in this experience of the olives being picked and made into olive paste and then oil just two days ago. It was a great experience to be able to be on the spot at the right time and get to taste such fresh extra virgin olive oil.




Don't get me wrong : the wine experience of the Rosso's as well as the Brunello's ( including the Reserva 2004 and 2006 ) were also quite the experience. We tried the vintages of 2004 and 2005 primarily. I liked them all of course and did linger for some time on the 2004 Reserva Brunello. I believe that is the one that I took with me back outside into this beautiful day as Luca and his team of pickers returned with a fresh batch of olives that had just minutes ago been picked.

My daughter described the taste of the two-day-old extra virgin olive oil as tasting " so good, so light ". I agreed : there was a real elegance and delicate, fresh brightness without hardly any edge or burn at all.
We just continued to dip our bread into it and smile and sigh in satisfaction as we put these pieces of golden yellow tinged with green to our now awaiting lips and tongues. Wow ...

It was my first meeting of Luca and Elena as neither of them has been to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 anthonyquinn@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) yet.



We are currently selling quite well the 2007 Rosso di Montalcino at the store On Sale for $27.99 a bottle and I will have to order more as we are almost out. I will also have to order bottles of the Brunello from Brennan Downey next time that he comes to the store, probably this week I think. Both will be great to have as I am all excited about this trip and visit to these wineries and so of course I want to have ample supplies of their wines to share with our customers that in many cases seem to love Italian and Tuscan wines.




I was also thrilled that my daughter could cut her teeth so to speak on such wonderful red wines as these : some of the greatest made in the world today. She seemed to really like them and that pleased me very much.




As you will see from these pictures that follow that I took many of my favorite types of pictures though the wine glass that I held and often swirled around to capture the transparencies of the red Sangiovese grape in all its wonder and regal, royal splendor of intense color variations, moods and magic.




Both the glass and the red Sangiovese wine as well as the reflections of light and image reflected on and off the wine glass do things to change the final image that the lens of my Canon catch in the less than a split second of time.




Looking at some of these images takes both time to get used to and to appreciate and understand. Sometimes the obvious is hidden and replaced by the unexpected that each viewer either welcomes or not depending on their mood or reference of the moment.

Of course I like all of this as it is often a bold challenge to the people looking at them. I want something new to show through. I want something " of the Moment " to be the focal point attaching people to the place and the time of the experience. This all helps to better define the moment and experience.




I will include more soon as I have a chance. Enjoy this so far as it has been developed ... caio, TONY ( Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 3:15 PM )






I'm glad to have this picture of us together above as well as the one below with Luca speaking as much with his hands as with his lips. I took many of these and will probably include them later in my blog spot called : chatart.blogspot.com. They in themselves speak volumes along with the facial gestures.

Luca was speaking a mile-a-minute to Alessandro as we looked on. He was getting ready to head back out to pick more olives and I don't know exactly what he was saying? Fill us in Alessandro : what was Luca so passionately speaking about here?