KIMBERLY JACKSON WICKMAN Of JAX VINEYARDS, Napa Valley, CA. Here Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 Tasting " Current " Releases

This was a great impromptu visit with owner Kimberley Jackson Wickman of the JAX Vineyards in Napa, California and Matt of the Five Grapes Imports company that sells her wines here in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. I was both pleased and happily surprised as I immediately recognized the label with the wholes in it and the missing circles! What happens to them : and where do they go( " Where do they all go? All the lonely people? " from the Beatles' song " Eleanor Rigby ". I must be in a Beatles' mood these days as I keep referring to their songs of the 60's! I am an artist and so I ask you indulgence as I intertwine the arts together here along with the wine which is an art form for me, too. The circles : they must be lonely? Or are they all swept up and collected and together?!? Does anyone care? Should anyone? I do as I can see an app for them ( Apple's app anyone? Funny, the Beatles and their Apple records label, inspired Steve Jobs did it?!? ).




Anyway, I really did enjoy Kimberly's visit and it encouraged me to both share all these comments with her and show her the pictures that I have stored in a draft for of Alexis' earlier visit.

We had a great visit on both occasions and I shared things with Kimberly of that visit and asked her if Alexis had mentioned any of her visit and my questions to her?




I have just finished my blog and that first visit and it may turn out to be much longer than this one. I said a lot in that blog about all of the connections that I made looking at their innovative, creative, quirky, modern-touch labels; as well as from tasting the wines themselves.




I am going to go completely insane ( overboard here ) and become completely vulnerable to attack and ridicule and sympathy as I continue now my thought on " ... how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall ... " from the Beatles's album of 1967 (a great musical year ) with their release of the album : Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ". I just counted the holes on the JAX Vineyards labels and there are 21 full holes and six partial/half holes and one red filled-in area where another hole cold have been?

That means in the picture above that there are twenty six circles for each label or seventy-eight circles somewhere/ missing?/whereabouts unknown?/ that could be useful somewhere when found or seventy-two circles per case out there that could be represented/recycled and used to benefit somewhere by some enterprising individual wanting to help save our world and the destruction of more trees unnecessarily?!? I have suggestions for their use in the first blog when Alexis visited us so I will not continue here. Just go to our home page and scroll down ( you may have to click on the word March ) to get to that blog here.

Thanks for your indulgence here ; I really do appreciate it.




But now back to this visit of Kimberly's that I enjoyed so much. I remember how much Alexis spoke about loving her work working with both Kimberly and her husband that own the JAX Vineyards in Napa, California. Alexis could not say enough about their energy and enthusiasm and conviction. So, this blog is going to be about that as I and my Canon digital camera witnessed it first ( two hands ) as Kimberly spoke as much with her hands as she did with her facial expressions, eyes, mouth, smiles, and grimaces.

It was fun to watch all of this as it all happened quickly and I am thrilled that my Canon captured part of all this to enjoy now myself and to share with all of you. Kimberly, you have a beautiful smile.




I like being an artist and observing and enjoying and appreciating all of this as much as I am able. It's a whole lot to absorb all at once, really it is.




I captured Kimberly here pouring the wines and speaking with passion and conviction. She had a lot to respond to as I threw many comments her way trying to see what I would get back in return? She did not fail me : rather she delighted and charmed me and what man would not love / does not love that? One might ask later how much was true and real and personal and not just professional and business? I think that much of the responses were the former : do I flatter myself here Kimberly?




I like the blogging format because I believe that it allows for a more personal and direct approach that is both that as well as business where business and personal are relevant and needed : but not one trumping always the other. I like to express myself and tell stories that I hope will touch others out there in cyberspace in a positive way mostly? That is my intent anyway.




I love these pictures like this one above of Kimberly speaking both with her words and with her body/facial and hands ( fingers, too ). The one above is priceless for me. I captured a lot of he variables here with her holding a bottle of her 2007 Y3 Napa Valley Chardonnay. The Y3 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc is also a 2007 I believe? The y3 Napa Valley Syrah is a 2005 along with the JAX Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I will have to include prices shortly but I am at home on Sunday afternoon, April 25th, 2010 at 4:26 PM typing all of this and trying to get caught up with all these blogs I have now stored in their draft form.




Speaking as an artist here I also like the lighting that I captured and the shadows and the shadings and the stronger/brighter images sometimes and the more grainy ones with more darks, too. hey are all not Kodak moments in the most obvious/desired sense. But to me as an artist and a historian, too they are all essential to help tell a more complete story and fill in more of the " missing holes ".




I also love this picture of Kimberly above. I love the clenched hand and her focus. What were you saying here Kimberly?

Some pictures may be more flattering than others but I use them to tell this moment better. I could have let them fall to the floor, so-to-speak as the circles fell from the labels as they were punched and printed but then there would have been missing pieces to my story which by definition already has many as there are so many millions of things that make up each and every moment ...




So thanks Kimberly and Matt. You really gave me a great moment here to enjoy and digest and first chew on. I really enjoyed trying the wines and look forward to having both the JAX Y3 Suavignon Blanc 2007 and the JAX Vineyards Y3 Napa Valley Syrah at 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 have now managed the wine department for the last ten years here the first week of May, 2010.

Come by the store and buy a bottle of these and check them out really soon. You will be pleased as punch when you do. Cheers, TONY




I like this picture of you Matt. I don't think you knew that I was taking it at the time. What a fun time the three of us had here in Cleveland Park with these four JAX Napa Valley Vineyard wines ...












Enjoy, TONY ... I certainly did ...

Theresa Morrison Of Boutique Vineyards Tastes BLAAUWKLIPPEN Stellenbosch S.A. & KENNETH VOLK " Current Releases " @ Cleveland Park Wines

This was rather fortuitous tasting here recently both the 2001 BLAAUKLIPPEN Stellenbosch " Cabriolet " dry red Bordeaux blend as well as the KENNETH VOLK " Jaybird " 2008 Santa Maria Valley, CA. Chardonnay. I am sure that at the time I gravitated more towards the 2003 BLAAUWKLIPPEN Stellenbosch 2003 dry red as I tend to love that style. I'm not such a Chardonnay fan when it crossed over the borders of Burgundy, France and into " other " realms. That's not to say that I am not often pleasantly surprised when I taste a good Chardonnay made somewhere else in the world. It does happen and I am always more than willing to admit that I have a prejudice that shows it's ugly face more than I care to admit. That's life : c'est bien comme ca malheuresment mes cheres amis.




In the picture above I am continuing to explore the people behind the wines behind the bottles themselves. I am interested to see what the tint of the wine bottle - the glass - gives to the mood or the moment or the gravitas or levity, too. I never know quite what I will get? What the Canon camera sees is often a far sight from what I have seen. Of course, the camera's eye never really lies does it? And we as humans are often distracted quite a bit from what we wanted to be our focus and our concentration. Esta es la vida senor, senora!

I apologize to all the ladies and young women for these photos because often the glass and the glaring lights above are quite harsh on them : distorting, elongating, smashing and squashing and making art sometimes more reminiscent of Francis Bacon's gory paintings and Goya's black and white etching of " La Guerra ". This is not my intent at all. It's a collaborative work between me and my trusty Canon digital camera.





We have now for years at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008, sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel:202-363-4265 ) sold the BLAAUKLIPPEN Stellenbosch, South African wines. I loved my trip there last year with Theresa's husband John Morrison. They pulled out all the plugs and gave us a fantastic tour, tasting from the barrel and stainless steel, from the bottle and late again at lunch right there in their own restaurant. That was something else with both the wine-maker Rolf and the two export managers : two lovely ladies.





I think that we might be out currently of the 2001 BLAAUKLIPPEN " Cabriolet " dry red, classic-style wine that really reveals more of what it has to offer ( which is quite a lot ) with it's meal. I usually want an aged properly-cured steak to enjoy with type of red : however, anything well-seasoned and marinated ( whether a meat dish or not ) will do really nicely here. That also includes some good cheeses.




Just recently on a Thursday evening we had the sales manager from KENNETH VOLK come and do an in-store/wine-tasting with our customers before heading over to DINO our Italian restaurant on the corner to meet with his good friends and owners of DINO : Kay and Dean.




I was very pleasantly surprise at this tasting because we tasted and excellent red wine made from the rare and very obscure French Rhone grape : Negrette. I sell a French wine from Fronton, France : DOMAINE BOISSEL that includes 50% f the Negrette in it ( $14.49 ). This was an excellent dry red California wine and I am very happy to have it in the store now.

We also tried and excellent dry white and I am scratching m head now to try and remember what grape it comes from : is it a white Malvasia? It's something unusual like that and when I am back in the store tomorrow ( I'm home now on my day-off and enjoying myself immensely now having cooked dinner and sitting here drinking some of the excellent Kiwi New Zealand 2002 ESCARPMENT Pinot Noir ).

We also tasted the Chardonnay on this Thursday evening and it did very well as it very well-balanced and focused with a lot f our customers that love a good Chardonnay.




Look at the beautiful shade of the 2001 BLAAUWKLIPPEN red reflected through my wine glass onto the white label behind and below it. I love that delicate shade of red : so refined and soft.



As you can tell from all the pictures of the BLAAUWKLIPPEN 2001 " Cabriolet " that I was feeling more in " my element " here. Oh well, I simply like drinking red wine more than I do white. So be it.




I leave you with this last image of Theresa Morriso as seen through the olive-green color of the glass/bottle of this 2001 BLAAUWKLIPPEN " Cabriolet ", Stellenbosch, South African dry red. I could just as easily be sitting here typing away and drinking some of this " Cabriolet " trying to catch up with all the photos and tastings that I have had recently at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. It's a monumental job as now I take pictures of everything that I do and taste and record who I meet whether wine owner/maker or local rep, distributor, national sales manager, regional sales manager, friend, whomever :you are all important to me.

And as you may have figured out by now : I am determined to try and share as much of all of this with all of you out there in cyberspace that are interested and willing to look at and read what I have written.

Cheers, a bientot, a presto, hasta luego , until we next meet. TONY

Owner Of CONSILIENCE, CA. Wines Here W/ Jody Jackman Of Winebow Imports ( Six Reds : 2 Pinots, 3 Syrahs, 1 Petite Sirah ) May 2009

As you can see by these pictures my artist side/eye was clearly leading me along this marvelous trail as I tried six reds from CONSILIENCE, CA. : Pinot Noirs, Syrahs and one Petite Sirah. I was totally caught/wrapped up in the moment : partly I admit freely of my own making.

It's very much like when I paint , sketch, draw and make collages : I listen to music sometimes and I let moods/fancies and heaven and devilry mingle and touch and work their forces and guises and surprises through me and my mind's fancy and my hand's and fingers and body strength's energy : harnessed to/ on some level surging through me as if I were the conduit placed there by me to see what would/could transpire at ant certain moment. This one was no different and I must apologize that sometimes this means I take fewer mental/actual notes of the wines that I am tasting as I am multi-tasking and thrilled to be doing just that with my artist's bent!




I just listened to Tom Waite's singing in a semi-movie of him. I was blown away by the more tender/gut-murmuring song with the lines along the lines of the train that could not take him home. Between his facial expressions that run the whole gambit of the circus and the accordion music and the bass violin and the moments I think I'm listening to Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman and Bob Dylan ... blow me away.

I was inspired to write and I stumbled upon this blog that I should have written and posted a long time ago. Sorry!




I'm home now on Thursday night here in northern Virginia on December 3rd, 2009 ( 10:52 PM ) and I am also moved by these pictures that I took and now eager to find my notes to complete this blog,




Jody Jackman of Winebow Imports came calling with the owner of CONSILIENCE and I am sorry to say that I have forgotten your name sir and must find your card and add it here really shortly as to save as much face as possible before it is entirely too late.




We tasted six res together this day at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ). I was intrigued and trying to really get myself invested thoroughly in these six wines. I wanted to understand them as fully as possible and so I not only tried them once but went back to try them all over again. I wanted to know them as well as I could through my own palate and I wanted to evaluate them carefully on price, style, level of alcohol and overall balance of components as well as on price versus level of value?




As I have said I want to find my notes as it has now been some time since I tasted them.

I tried them in this order : 1) CONSILIENCE 2005 Pinot Noir , 2) CONSILIENCE Bien Nacido 2006 Pinot Noir, 3) CONSILIENCE 2005 Syrah, 4) CONSILIENCE Rodney Shull Vineyard 2005 Syrah, 5) CONSILIENCE Camp 4 Vineyard 2005 Syrah and 6) CONSILIENCE Petite Sirah 2005.

Stay-tuned for more about them soon.




As you can see I experimented a lot with shot, angle of camera, position of camera, not being able to see the bottle or the glass or the person being snapped by my Canon digital camera : it's all rather a bit/slice of a brave new world/vision that I hope imparts something bordering on original with images that add to our world of wine/wine-owners ans winemakers' images already around.




I do find a real lack of pictures to document winemaker visits and the wines that they are showing at any one specific time. To me they are still the wine world's rock stars though they may be shy and quiet and very humble and down-to-earth people.

I like seeing together the bottle, the label, the wine in a glass and those people responsible for making/paying for them to be made/bringing them to me and to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits with the hope that I will fall madly in love with them and sell them eagerly very soon to our customers.




Cheers and stay-tuned for more. Happy Holidays 2009 to one and to all. Have you had any CONSILINCE lately? What did you think? Did you enjoy any recently with your family and friends over your Thanksgiving meal? TONY






Enjoy these photos, cheers, TONY

Oded, Winemaker Of LONGBOARD Vnyrds, Russian River, CA. 4/24/09. Cleveland Park ( 12-3 PM ) Tasting Our Customers On His Merlot, Syrah and Sauv. Blanc

I'm sorry Oded that this has taken me so long to post! I started by downloading these pictures the very next day, Saturday April 25th, 2009 and somehow dropped the ball completely after that. It may be because I did not have your business card in front of me with your last name and other information that I usually like to include here on these blog entries in case others want to contact you for more information.

I always write the bits that interest me and they are usually more in the form of stories and vignettes and less about more technical notes and evaluations of the wines. So many others already do that so well and I want more of a visual and artsy blog that delves into the people behind the wines that either make them or pay for them to be made ; or both. There is a vision somewhere often to be revealed : a dream, a set of circumstances all leading up to this moment, an epiphany or catalytic event that resulted in you being there in California at the right time and perhaps by chance meeting the right people to start a venture like this? A venture where you can be as happy as possible and combine your new love of wine with your already existing passion to surf?

From what I remember you originally came from Israel and you were going around the world surfing and discovering things as you went along? You did not end up in South Africa surfing but you did end up in Europe? Is this all correct so far? Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself here.

It's already Monday early evening at 5:18 PM here at my home in northern Virginia and I am trying to finish up my posts that I started on chatwine.blogspot.com and realize that I had downloaded all these pictures of your visit with Tom and Jody Jackman of Winebow Imports that was back on Friday, April 24th, 2009. How is it possible that I had forgotten to finish this? What could have come up that would have distracted me? Perhaps some great waves in California and southern Brazil, South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Australia : not to forget New Zealand and Tasmania and anywhere else there might be great waves?!?




I'm glad that I take these pictures of the wines, the bottles and the labels and hopefully also the pricing as I have difficulty remembering so much as there is always a whole lot to digest and then regurgitate later for further nourishment and knowledge/contentment of body and soul and also needing that to quench one's own thirst, too for a good bottle of wine? I'm thankful to have this photo above as it tells me that Oded sampled the LONGBOARD Vineyard's 2007 Russian River Sauvignon Blanc ( $22.99 ), the 2007 Russian River Dakine Merlot ( $24.99 ) and the 2005 Russian River Valley Syrah ( $25.99 ).




All three wines were very well received and we sold them pretty much equally well during these three hours from noon to 3 PM. It was an off-period of time in our store 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 yet we had a number of our customers stop by and taste and buy and that's all good. Oded signed a number of bottles and we had a very fun, energized and animated time with Oded and Tom at the store. You can see by the smiles that we were enjoying ourselves.




I was busy snapping pictures right and left and especially some looking at Oded and our customers through the Reidel wine-tasting glass that I like to use to taste and also to get these pictures as the bright ceiling lights of the store and the glass distort and morph and sometimes enlarge or make smaller the images and people and it's fun to see them side-by-side.




As I said the wines really showed well during this time and I think I was most pleased with the Sauvignon Blanc as it was showing so well all by itself. The reds could have used some tapas or something to bring them out just a bit more as they were all quite flavorful, especially the Syrah 2005. If memory serves me well I would first pick the Sauvignon Blanc 2007, then the Merlot 2007 and then the Syrah 2005 as my favorites as I am always looking most for the wines that show the very best when I am tasting them.




I realized a long time ago that our customers are generally buying the bottles to drink the day they purchase them or within the week of purchase. As a result I want to show and sell them wines that will not only drink well now but also hopefully shine and bring them back with big smiles for more.




The wines come from Winebow Imports and Jody Jackman brought me Tom from LONGBOARD Vineyards that is their national sales rep. I have already blogged about that visit here at chatwine.blogspot.com. You should use the search engine to find that earlier piece if you are interested.




I think that the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc ( $22.99 ) from LONGBOARD Vineyards was our first at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits of the three? I also think that Jody included it in one of her Friday evening ( 5-8 PM ) in-store, wine-tastings for our customers.




I am sorry to say that we are currently out of all three LONGBOARD Vineyard wines at Cleveland Park and that we will have to address this sad state of affairs Jody tomorrow as they have sold very well for us. Help to remind me to order some so that we may finish the year off in our nation's capitol with some LONGBOARD Vineyard wines.




Oded, how are they showing now and what vintages are available for me to purchase from Winebow Imports now? Tom, any thoughts? Please contact me and let's start a new open dialogue once again.




I loved your broad, brimming smile Oded and your stories. What are the surfer words and greetings that you use constantly? Let me know and I will include them here. I have since forgotten them I am ashamed to admit.




How are things this year? How was the harvest/fermentation and how is the wine faring from 2009? As you can see I have so many questions for you.




Please let me know when you will be back in Washington D.C. next and we can organize another tasting with you : hopefully later so that we can have more of our customers stop by to meet and taste with you.




Thanks again for this tasting and a Happy New Year and holidays for your families Oded and Tom. This was a great moment that we shared and I hope that the pictures reveal some of this.




Cheers and until the next time. TONY














It's pretty cool how all the different grape varieties of LONGBOARD Vineyard wines have different color stripes running up and down the length of the surfboard ...





I also love your gray t-shirt with the longboard surf board on it with red stripes.



I love these pictures of you Oded and what the Reidel wine-tasting glass does to your features enlarging and making them smaller - depending : distorting, too ...





I love this reflection in the Reidel wine-tasting glass above.





Look at the brilliant color of ruby satin red in the glass in this last picture posted with the ceiling light of the store making it so clear and warm and welcoming/dazzling?!? I love it, really I do!

Looking forward to trying some LONGBOARD Vineyard wines really soon as we need some badly before 2009 comes to an end ...