Scott Sherk & Tom Calder With Frenchmen/Woman : C.A. Hochman, Guillaume Goisot, Ann Gaillard, Olivier Morin / Jeudi 22.03.07

This picture below is of course, Tom Calder : but you knew that, right?


This was the first time in a very long time since I had seen Tom Caldwell that used to many moons ago buy the wines for Wagshall's Delicatessen on Cathedral Avenue past American University and down the hill and to the right in the small shopping center there.

Of course I had already known Tom for a very long time even before that as our paths had crossed many times over the years. And then Tom just up and left for France and that was the last I heard of him for awhile until Scott Sherk ( president ) came to sell Mike Martin and me wine at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and told me that he was working with his partner Tom here of Potomac Selections ( 8648 Old Ardmore Road, Landover, MD. 20785 , Tel : 301-583-8844 , www.potomacselections.com ) along with Tom Calder ( Agent Commercial en Vin, Export, 39, rue Benoit, Malon, 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, tkcalder@yahoo.fr Fax: 01 46 45 15 29 ) now living in Paris, France and finding them wines to import here to our Washington D.C. metropolitan region as well as others, too. So, it was with great pleasure when I got a call earlier this day from Scott asking if they could all stop by? I said as usual : " Of course, no problem, Bien sur! Venez nous voir au magasin ". And they did just that and here are the pictures that I took to prove it.




I will have to find my notes and sheets from this fun and impromptu tasting as I would like to give Scott some business and have the wines of some of these owners/wine-makers to sell in Cleveland Park. It's been awhile and I do want to get some of these wines now in 2010 and go from here as it's a completely new year and now at the store we have a new wine sales person in Chris Barker as Mike Martin has left to return home to Rochester, New York where he is originally from ...


I am embarrassed to say that it is now just Tuesday morning, January 25th, 2010 at 12:03 AM as I type this line and call it quits for the evening as I am tired and have a full week ahead of me including the task to post this blog that has lain dormant now for way too long!




I have my work cut out for me here as it has now been a number of years since this visit. I will have to check to see where they are in my group of pictures and trace back to the exact month and year this way : not exactly the best method but it does and will work.

As I recall there were at least one or two of them from Burgundy.




Wow, I just found my notes before going to bed and I see that this all happened on Thursday afternoon, March 22, 2007 at 17:18, 17:23 and 17:32. That's between 5:18 and 5:23 that these French individuals wrote in our guest book and dated and even put the time. I love this efficiency, really I do. How refreshing!

Their names are Olivier Morin of Chitry,Charles-Antoine Hochman ( Gerant ) of DOMAINE De MIRAIL, Lectoure, France, Guillaume Goisot of DOMAINE GOISOT, Saint-Bris, France, and Ann Gaillard of DOMAINE De MIRAIL.




I enjoyed trying these wines very much and of course some I liked better than others. Now it is time to step up to the plate and actually get some of them delivered to our store in February 2010 which is just in a few days. I will call Scott and arrange this now as I want to bring some true sense of closure for me to this wonderfully fun and fine wine-tasting of several of their wines. I will try for starters to buy one wine from each producer and get the ball rolling this way.




I'm going to post this blog now in it's very rough first-draft form as to share these fun pictures with you all. Stay-tuned as over the next two-three days I will complete this and post it in it's final version. Cheers et a bientot comme j'ai beaucoup en plus a ajouter ici avant que j'ai fini mon travail dans ce blog ... TONY




P.S. This picture above is of Scott Sherk that I have now known for a very long time. I've known Scott almost as long as I have known Tom. We three have grown up in the Washington D.C. wine business together over the years and on many occasions our paths have crossed. Funny thing about this : I even saw Scott once at the then " new " American Indian Museum shortly after it had opened two or so years ago as he, too was there seeing one of the exhibits. It's truly a small world, ours ... and paths do cross ... sometimes in the most unexpected places ...




As I said earlier everyone signed my guest book and this is what Scott wrote here : " Another great visit with the surprising Tony Quinn! More shops should take his approach with visitng winemakers ... Kudos to Tony : Scott Sherk, March 22, 2007. Thanks Scott, I appreciate this as I try very hard to make all wine-makers and wine owners comfortable and appreciated for what they have done/are still doing when they visit the store. They are like our rock stars : the Jim Morrison's, the Joni Mitchell's, the k d lang's, the Peter, Paul and Mary's, the Bob Dylan's, the Steve Winwood's, the Jesse Colin Young's and more that with their wine-making sing and play over our palates with as much passion and conviction and respect for time and place and weather ... all on their " way to find out " like Cat Stevens ...

But don't get me started because this also applies to the great artists like Rembrabdt and Kandinsky and Arthur Dove, Milton Avery, Monnet, Bonnard, Vuillard, Mary Cassat and so many more ...






Tom Calder writes here : " Ce qui'il y a du bon dans le vin est qu'il faut tres peu pour faire du bien et beaucoup pour faire du mal ". Amities, Thomas

Then Tom added in English : " Best wishes to Tony Quinn an American with his heart in France. From Tom Calder an American in Paris. Ton's good work here allows me to work over there. " Thanks Tom, I appreciate these sentiments very much as I think you got it right about me. Good luck to you in Paris and in France and keep up the great work.






Olivier Morin of Chitry, Burgundy writes : " Merci pour votre gentillesse, et votre humour ... amities, Bourguignonne, " signed, Olivier MORIN, Chirty, Jeudi 22 Mars, 2007 17H 30.


Charles-Antoine Hochman ( Gerant ) of the DOMAINE De MIRAIL writes : " Bravo pour votre selection et votre competence, grace a vous l'avenir des vignerons qui cherchent a enprimer dans terroir est assure dans la belle ville de Washington! " ( EARL du Domaine de Mirail 32700 Lectoure, France, Tel: 05 62 68 82 52 Fax : 05 62 68 53 96 mail : c.hochman@wanadoo.fr.




Guillaume Goisot writes : " Special thanks for your participation to the French Tasting. Votre magasin se ressamble pas a ma cave mais vote travail est fabuleuse! " Merci pour tous, Guillaume Goisot , Saint-Bris, FRANCE 22.03.07 17H 23

And Ann Gaillard writes : " Merci pour votre gentillese, votre dynamisme. Bravo pour votre cave, vous etes un excellent ambassadeur de la France. Au plaisir de vous recevoir chez nous ". Domaine de Mirail Le 21 Mars, 2007 Ann Guillard






As I said I enjoyed tasting these wines and will call Scott later today, Tuesday January 25th, 2010. I'm excited. It's always nice to have these souvenirs of the many visits that are made to the store. I get a whole lot out of them and I enjoy looking at all these smiles in these pictures, including mine.




I will probably add more after I speak with Scott. Stay-tuned ...





I'm especially glad to have this picture with both you Tom and you Scott .... we go back a long way, so many stories, so many memories. We should get together sometime outside the store and over some of these good bottles of French wine and share more of our individual stories here in Washington D.C. and elsewhere : starting with wine and going off from there ...

Happy New Year / Bonne Annee mes cheres amis .... TONY ( 1/25 /10 Mardi, 9H 42 )

Steve Schattman Of Touton Selections Tastes His " New " Releases Here At Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits In February 2009

I have known Steven now for many years indeed and here he showed me some really nice wines that are in the Touton portfolio owned by Guillaume Touton that I once worked for indirectly. We had a falling-out that left a really bad taste in my mouth for years afterward as this happened back in the mid to late eighties I believe.

Couple that with someone else named Steve that I also had a disagreement with and no business occurred between us for years until Stan Katz and Steven Schattman came on board and smoothed out enough of the ruffled feathers to at least start a dialogue between me and the two of them.

I still have no readily available kind words for either Guillaume or Steve because they called into question both my honesty, my loyalty and my word about certain matters that will remain between us. Having said this I would say to both of them if I ever saw them again : " Don't you dare question my honesty,loyalty and word sirs! I value those the most above money and success and pomp and circumstance and almost everything else. How dare you both! "

I will probably never get this chance and that's okay. I can live with this. I tell Steven almost every chance that I get that it pains me to buy these wines of his because of my reasons. He always says that I am only dealing with him and no one else.

I buy the wines because they do represent some pretty extraordinary values in these tough economic times. They are great values for our Cleveland Park customers and so I bite my tongue and mostly suffer in silence. Am I selling out?! I suppose I am to a certain degree. I am, however doing it to bring affordable wines to our Cleveland Park customers that deserve all the deals that can be had and that I can bring to them.

I also do it for old times' sake when I once worked for Laurent Vonderheyden the owner of CHATEAU MONBRIZON in Margaux, Bordeaux , France. Laurent hired me away from Burka's Fine Wines years ago to come work for his wholesale company called Laurent Selections. He was a partner of sorts with Guillaume Touton and I never ahrdly ever saw him.

We made a great team with Alan Cohen and Pascal Salvadorie and Laurent : with back-up in the office from the talented and beautiful young blonds Susan and Linda that also were smart and very good at running the office back in Brentwood, Maryland many years ago. We were the successful team of six and we sure did sell a lot of wine together back then. We all worked really hard to do it, too. We could all be ( and still should be ) really proud of all that we accomplished back then as a team of six.

To all of these people I say " Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! May you and your families be safe and healthy and prosper.

I just saw Steven today and bought some more wine from him to bring to a close 2009 in the Washington N.W. D.C. Cleveland Park neighborhood that means so much to me. Bonne Annee Laurent en Bordeaux ... viens me voir la prochaine fois que tu es a Washington. Nous pouvons parler de nos jours dans les annees quatre-vints ici en vendant le Chateau Saint Laurent et les liters de Domaine Caton et tous le reste ... Cheers, et sante et salute ... TONY

Celine Guemnie-Tafo Of VINTAGE 59 Imports Pours Selection Of Wines At Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits Friday Night ( 5-8 PM ) Nov/ 28th, 2008

It was great to get Celine back to taste some of the Vintage 59 selections. We picked some of her favorites that were perfectly suited to this cooler/sometimes downright colder whether that we are enduring against our own wills! That's okay, it is December 2008 and it should be cold now.

The CHATEAU DE CALADROY 2005 Cotes de Roussillon Villages " Cuvee Les Achistes ", $17.49 is a wine that Celine told me really appealed to women : that each time she would taste it women would buy it. I bought it without even tasting it, believing Celine. I knew that I would get a chance to try it. In the meantime I took her word and ordered some for the store.

Each time that I would recommend the CHATEAU DE CALADROY I would quote Celine and I get some really positive feed-back from customers after they tried it. That made me feel pretty confident about it and wanting to try it all the more.

Well, I got my chance when Celine was due next to do an in-store wine-tasting and I proposed immediately to her that this would be one of the wines that she would pour. We also decided to pour some of the CHATEAU HAUT-MONPLAISIR 2005 Cahors red 100% Malbec, $19.99 from the Lot region, just south of Bordeaux, France. This Cahors I was quite familiar with already having sold many prior vintages of it. Roy Cloud, the president of Vintage 59 Imports had introduced me to it years ago and we have done really well with it each and every time that we buy and put it on our shelves.

This Cotes du Roussillon Villages is amazingly smooth and almost creamy elegant. It has accents of so many things but the core of it is full, supple and pleasing on the palate. I think almost everyone will enjoy it, male or female. This is one bright red wine star and very versatile. It's especially nice as well with all this cold air coming our way : sure to warm the cockles of one's palate even before sliding/dipping down into one's throat! Smooth-sailing for one and for all!

I was especially interested in selling it because it's made with 100% Malbec and I want our customers to realize that this is where the Malbec got it's start and not in Argentina. I'm just tired of people not knowing this and I want some Cahors to sell these days as I truly believe that many of our customers would really like them. I seem to be correct, we are always selling out of Cahors.

Of course we sell so much more Malbec from Argentina than we do from France. I do hope that our small effort for the French Malbec does mean something in correcting this misconception. It has. It is a bigger, more spicy, more gutsy and rustic wine than the Cotes du Rousillon Villages and best when served with food. Enjoy with almost anything piping-hot/steaming from the grill.

We opened this Mathias et Emile ROBLIN ( Vigneron a Maimbray ), 2006 Sancerre white, $30.99 when one of our customers Regi asked what else Celine offered in the Vintage 59 portfolio. I mentioned this Sancerre immediately and opened it within a minute of this question being raised. I thought that Regi would buy it immediately and was just the wee bit disappointed when he did not. Oh well, chaque un son gout ( to each his own ) and that's okay. We found other things for Regi that evening to buy. I was thrilled to re-taste this ROBLIN Sancerre. It reaffirmed my first impressions of the wine : that again here was another 2006 white from France of elegance, breed, concentration and amazing richness and versatility of flavors. Wow. This is certainly worth buying at least one bottle. We do have it now in stock at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 2008 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel: 202-363-4265 ).

We also tasted an excellent unoaked white burgundy MACON LA ROCHE-VINEUSE ( under $20 a bottle ) which I will write more about a bit later. Stay-tuned for that.

I took some pictures during the tasting. Here they are : I hope you like them.

Thanks Celine for tasting with our customers. All the wines showed well and we had a very successful tasting in part thanks to your enthusiasm and big smile and warmth. Cheers, Happy Holidays to you and your family and to all our customers. TONY

UPDATE : As is my usual fashion I got this typed, proofed and posted just after midnight ( Wed. December 10th, 2008 - actually Thursday Dec. 11th, 2008 ) and now it is Thursday, December 11th, 2008 ( at 8:08 AM ) and I realize I forgot to mention Celine poured at our Annual BUBBLY tasting yesterday.

It was a blast! We had ten people pouring over 40 bubblies in the store and the store was so filled that hardly anybody could move with so many of us there trying to get from table to table and enjoy these various bubblies.

Celine poured two Grand Cru champagnes that shone last night : the " new " to us BARRAUT and the ever-popular dry rose SOUTIRAN. They both showed fabulously and we sold a number of bottles of each. I think that in fact the BARRAUT will be used shortly to celebrate one of those really special moments in life that comes just once for most of us. I can't wait to hear more soon! Stay-tuned.

Celine also poured an inexpensive bubbly from the Loire Valley which people loved that sells for under $15 a bottle called BOVE. Thanks Celine, merci et a la prochaine. Viens nous voir quand tu veut et bonne vacances a Paris avec ta famille. TONY