Natura & Emiliana Sustainable Winery, Chile, Christian Rodriguez Tasting " New " Releases Including The Box Cabernet Sauvignon, Tues. Sept. 15th, 2009

It was great to try these wines ( of EMILIANA , www.emiliana.cl ) a couple of days ago with Christian Rodriguez the Commercial Director ( Av. Nueva Tajamar 481 Torre Sur, Of. 802 Las Condes, Santiago, Chile Tel : (56-2 ) 353-9129 Fax: (56-2) 333 27 28 , crodriguez@emiliana.cl www.emiliana.cl ), even the Cabernet Sauvignon in the 3-liter box that will sell for under $20. That's a good deal as there are four 750ml bottles in each three liter box so that is $5 a bottle or less.



We are always thrilled to sell organic wines at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel: 202-363-4265 ). We have already bought and sold the NATUA wines now for a year or more. We are currently out but will have more back in the store on October 1st, 2009.




EMILIANA has a nice color brochure with their stories and descriptions and pictures. On the back of the brochure it says : " Our Certifications " : 1) Eco-balance : " Emiliana's appliance of sustainable agriculture is certified by ISO 14 001. We were the first Chilean vineyard to adopt this certification, and seventh worldwide. ... " 2) Organics : " Wine produced with 100% grapes grown free from chemical products, certified by IMO Switzerland ... " 3) Biodynamics " " Grapes grown in accordance with biodynamic standards are certified by Demeter Germany. Impressive all of this, as well as the taste and the flavors of these wines.

All the wines that I tasted were sound and balanced and flavorful up to a point. They are not multi-dimensional in the broad sense though they have enough taste and balance to satisfy many. I also think that they are better suited to be enjoyed with a meal.




The NATURA wines are all very well priced at $10 and $11 a bottle - the price depends on how much we are willing to buy for our store at the time. We will buy five or more cases at a time to offer the better price of course.




Today everyone is counting their money carefully and being extra careful as they spend it. We are here to try and help them naturally with good, sound, balanced wine that is also healthier for you as a result of not using herbicides and pesticides. They have natural ways of dealing with these pests of the vines, roots and grapes with laby bugs,geese ( they eat lots of harmful bugs to the vines and grapes all by themselves ) as well as perhaps llamas? They look like llamas in the pictures, all different colors. What do they do / what do they eat? Or are they there more for show? I doubt that but I am sure once that someone reads this from EMILIANA that it will all be explained to me soon.




The white Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc all come from the Casa Blanca valley where the best white grapes are grown.

I also tasted the reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon and from the Carmenere grape ( both are made in Chile's Valle Central ) . As I have said : I liked all four of these wines and appreciated them for their balance and distinct flavors.






I have more to include here of course but want to get these pictures out now as they speak volumes for themselves/ by themselves. I will add more details, too : and more of the stories as I remember them. It was a thoroughly enlightening tasting and visit this week. That's why I took so many pictures ( a lot of them are not included because of time and space ). I like documenting these moments which I think of as special and my connection to the wines and those principles that are behind them, believe in them and can speak eloquently about them and how to possibly enjoy them - with what foods, at what times and places, etcetera.




I did discover in our conversation that EMILIANA also owns or is a part of CONO SUR wines which we have sold for a longer time ( five or so years ) at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. Danny Haas and Olivier Lotterie introduced them to us originally of Vineyard Brands with our local Bacchus rep Sal Furfari.

The NATURA wines were brought to Mike Martin and me ( Tony Quinn ) by our Republic/National/old Forman Brothers rep. Steve Cosimano more recently as I have already mentioned.




We have next door to us in Cleveland Park the YES Organic store that sells everything organic except for wines. It's nice that we sell the wines and that they sell everything else : it's a good match and I believe we share many customers because of this. I told this to Gary one of the YES Organics owners the other day and that seemed to please him as it does me.




At Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits we are all about the community and about serving our customers as best we can.




Cheers and enjoy these photos. TONY




Oh I almost forgot to mention that in the picture on the front of the brochure above there are colorful wildflowers that are growing between the vines to attract the bugs to them and away from the vines, grapes and roots. These bugs are collected and studied to determine what is there and what they have to be aware of to get the best grapes possible.

I liked that story. I originally heard it many years ago from John Williams the owner of FROGS LEAP winery in Napa, California that said they used the flowers to attract the phyloxera bugs away from the roots with the tastier wild flowers. Great thinking here. FROGS LEAP is also producing organic or at least fighting-organic wines in California.




Stay-tuned for more ...




Christian just responded to my email and says he really likes this blog but that I got one piece of information incorrect. CONO SUR and EMILIANA are run as separate businesses even though the same family owns both. Sorry for the error.

















Enjoy these photos and words, TONY

Katharina Prum At Cleveland Park Wines Last Night, Wed. May6th, 2009 : Tastes Seven 2007 Mosel Rieslings/ Graacher Him & Weh. Sonn/Kab-Spat-Auslese

This was a great tasting : one of our best and most fun ever. Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy. These are at the tail-end of the three-hour tasting and the crowds had thinned at after 7 PM. It gave these people a better chance to really talk to Katharina one-on-one and that's a good thing as there's so much to say about these excellent German Mosel Rieslings. I included one picture of all the bottles lined up so that you may blow it up and see the various labels to know what we tasted. I will write more about the wines individually, too. I will add this as I have time.

In the meantime know that they wines were sublime and though I liked the whole lot my favorite yesterday was the Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2007 Spatlese. It just had everything for me and it was showing so beautifully throughout both tastings ( the one here at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits and the one before it for the wine trade up at the corner of Macomb and Wisconsin Avenue at Oenology Wine Bar ( the location of the old Zebra Room ). cheers, TONY

Katharina Prum of JOH. JOS. PRUM ( 5/21/03 ) Tastes Current Releases Of Her Family's German White Wines @ Cleveland Park / Returns Wed. 5/6/09 5-8 PM

It was great to have Katharina Prum of ( JOH. JOS. PRUM ) here on May 21st, 2003 at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel : 202-363-4265 ) tasting an assortment of her wines with our customers. Boy was that tasting well-attended : everyone was so full of cheer and joy to taste these J. J. PRUM wines and to meet Katharina Prum herself. There were so many of us all gathered around our round tasting table. The German Wine Society had a number of their members there and we had lots of other regular customers that knew and loved these wines as well.

Here are some of the pictures from this event. I am sorry that they are a bit blurry and the presentation is rushed. I wanted to include them here anyway before this tasting at the store from 5-8 PM ( everyone is welcome ) on Wednesday,May 6th, 2009. You don't have to call : it's free - just come and enjoy. We will be tasting the 2007 vintage and there will be some of the wine on-hand to purchase immediately. You can get those bottles signed by Katharina while she is at the store as gifts to yourselves or your friends. She can sign them to whoever you wish as a special touch.







Some of the 2007 vintage that Katharina will taste will be available when it arrives from Germany in another two months or so : maybe sooner. We can get that settled at the tasting this Wednesday. Everything will be at special prices for the tasting. The wines I will have here in the store have just arrived from California. This will be some tasting!

I took these pictures I believe before the digital cameras were really in much use. I still believed in the old-style and used mt trusty old cameras that were not digital. I am happy with the pictures and only wish that I had taken many more. I took pictures of these last night to include here from my book : along with Katharina's note to me after the tasting. It's in German and so you may all read it. I don't know exactly what she said : it starts : " To Anthony Quinn ! ... Thanks a lot ! " and she forgot to sign it I notice. Oh well, that's okay. I also looked at her card and notice only a phone and a fax number, no email or web page addresses back then. Wow, how quickly things have evolved. It's hard to keep up anymore.

It's been awhile as I look back on this wonderful event ( almost six years exactly as she came on May 21st, 2003 and we are now May 3rd, 2009 as I type this ) and try and remember all that I can. I do remember , of course, the excellence and the awe and admiration that these wines inspired ( as well as the rush of excitement ) and of course the grace, the refinement, the gentleness and the elegance of Katharina herself. I believe she told me that she had been studying law like her father before here : and that she was in one of our universities in North Carolin a was it? I just can't recall exactly.

Like so many of our guests at Cleveland Park she warmed quickly to us and to her surroundings as she I hope began to feel both welcome and comfortable. We were all gushing over her wines and their intricate and divine flavors and not over abstract points and scores. We sold a whole lot that day and that was not surprising if you had been one of the lucky ones of us to be there and to taste these wines.

I remember asking Katharina what she recommended that I buy for the store? I asked her about older vintages available to buy? I asked her what she and her family drank daily then at home? She responded that they were still enjoying very much some of the Kabinett wines from the 1070's and that they were still drinking beautifully.

I didn't have much of a chance to talk to her though as there were so many of us clamoring for that opportunity. That's okay : my job is to bring her into contact with our customers as we / I promote the people behind the wines and not the scores they receive. I do look forward to talking to her a bit more this time. We'll see.

I was trying to remember exactly how Katharina came to us on this visit? We do sell lots of German wines at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. I love them, really I do : they are amazing on so many levels. My problem with German wines because of the high quality they represent across the board is : how many can I afford to buy/ afford not to buy?!?

I think the wines were available through Valkenburg and through Billington Selections at that point. I know that I had bought some from our local Billington rep Tatiana Maria at that point. I also once had an amazing Valkenburg rep : he was so appreciative of what we were doing at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits. I cannot remember his name just now but I will also find the page he signed in our guest book and include it here. I think he soon retired after our last visit but I did appreciate him and his style very much. It's nice when you meet someone that's in the business because of the pure love of wine and not swayed over to the lure of the money and the extra boxes to be sold as if it was simply just about units. I could see that he still had very much the love of wine that he carried with him. What's your name sir?!? I hope your interest readers is stirred as much as mine now?

I received recently an email from Master Of Wine Jay Youmans asking about J.J. PRUM as well as saying that he recently started to represent them. He asked a number of questions : one being whether we would like to host a tasting in our store with Katharina? It's all a bit sketchy now as I type these words. I'll have to read it again later.

What I know for sure is that we are thrilled to have Katharina back at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. We have always sold her wines before and after her 3003 tasting in the store. We were almost out recently because one of our customers loves the wines so much and bought most of what we have now, leaving us with just a few bottles.

I read Jay's email and scrolled down and saw that Katharina had emailed him and mentioned our store to him as being a big supporter of them. I loved reading that, made me feel really good. That, of course was the link that I feel brought Jay's email to us. Again, I love that. I love that Katharina remembered us and our tasting at Cleveland Park. I'm so pleased that with even the passing of time ( here about six years ) that our name should be remembered.

We have known Jay for years and supported him as he has supported us. It's been a good relationship all around. We also know owner Gus of Constantine wines ( we've bought Jay's BOGLE CA. wines for years from Constantine ) very well and do a whole lot of business with his portfolio because of his excellent sales rep Marci Weinstein. She has taken good care of the store and supported us when we ask her to be at the store and help us.

So : NOW we have a whole " new " chapter to write with Katharina Prum and her fabulous wines of JOH. JOS. PRUM. I can't wait to see her and to taste these 2007 Rieslings. For the time-being enjoy these photos. I think they give some sense of the great event this was back in 2003.



For more information go to : Katharina Prum Weingut JOH. JOS. PRUM Uferallee 19, D-54470 Wehlen, Mosel ( Germany ) Tel : ( 0 ) 65 31/30 91 Fax : ( 0 ) 65 31 /60 71.

I'm sure that now there is an email address and a web page. I'll include those soon. I do like the simplicity here of just an address, a phone and a fax.

Cheers, TONY

PS : I just wrote a poem inspired by Katharina Prum and her family's wines. Go to " chat[poetry.blogspot.com. Hope you like it. TONY ( It's 8:22PM now on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 ).