with the owners and wine-makers ( or both ) when they visit us at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue, Washington D.C. N.W. 20008, www.clevelandparkwine.com, sales@clevelandparkwine.com Tel: 202-363-4265 ). This is how I felt pretty much on the spot when rep and friend Sotiris Bafitis of VOILA Collection ( Olivia et Oscar owners of Voila Selections/Imports : 301-326-2056 osloenterprise@gmail.com ) brought owners Vittorio and Roberta Navacchia of TRE MONTI wines, Romagna, Italy to our store this past Monday. I loved them and their wines and warmed to them right away as I tasted their wines and took my usual pictures to record and preserve the moment so-to-speak.
Above Vittorio poses with his quick portrait sketch that I did of him and gave to him. It's my way of saying a personal " thanks " for these fun moments that we share and which I enjoy enormously. The only thing that I ask is that they pose with the sketch or sketches so that I have a copy to look at myself and also share with the wine world as I am an artist as well as a wine-enabler. That's a term I gave myself ten years ago when I started managing the wine department at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits and one of our favorite customers Kathie Kemp asked me how I saw myself in my wine role? I thought a second or less and responded : " I'm a wine-enabler."
For information on Vittorio and Roberta Navacchia of TRE MONTI you may go to : TRE MONTE sri, Azienda Agricola, Via Lola 3, Loc. Bergullo 40026 Imola ( Bo ) - Italia Tel: +39 0542 657116 Fax : +39 0542 657122 vittorio@tremonti.it www.tremonti.it. I like to include this kind of information so that it is handy in case you plan to go or have more technical questions to ask about as my blogs are more about the stories and the people and less about the exact specifics ( if, in fact there are ) about the wines themselves. I want to capture more of a " complete package - image " of my meetings with these, what I like to refer to as our wine " rock stars ".
Sotiris Bafitis that works now with Olivia Bombart( VIOLA Selections that she runs with her husband ) had emailed and asked if he could stop by with Vittorio and Roberta and I immediately responded : " of course " as all owners and wine-makers are always welcome here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits. I don't care if they have an appointment or not ; I don't care if I have never heard of them or not - they are equally welcome and I am almost always thrilled to meet them. I can only vaguely now recall the one or two times that I met with an owner or a wine-maker and was non-plussed. That was a long time ago and who knows : it might have just been a bad day for them.
This was certainly not the case with Vittorio and Roberta. I started taking my usual pictures and exchanged cards and as they organized their wines on the tasting-table. I caught them off guard as I do most of our guests as I quickly snapped away some posed and many un-posed shots. I want both : I want to capture as much spontaneity as I can in these moments that I am fortunate enough to share with them. It may be my only moment and so I have now for ten years decided to preserve on film or digital format as many of these moments as possible. They are all important as they all tell a story about a wine-moment in my time. I do it with reps as well as wine-makers and owners as I just blogged and posted recently one about my old wine colleague and friend Sal Furfari.
Above Roberta is adding some of the foods to the list of wine telling me which foods they like best with which foods. I will add this here shortly as I think it is really important. Wine and food and family and friends, neighbors and new acquaintances and business associates - all combined may spell a wonderful moment in time : all in their places with not one overshadowing the other : balanced just as in a great wine. The " magic " that they refer to when you combine food and wine together and get a " new " taste that did not exist without the two. The same " magic " is true when all the above elements are added together and you create your own " unique moment " and happening.
Realizing that my style is sudden and a bit unusual I try and draw everyone in and put them quickly at ease so that they may enjoy and share in our moment together with me. I show the pictures that I am taking to let them know what I am hoping to capture and show later. I explain that the pictures with a story and text will be written, downloaded and posted as soon as I am able. This sometimes takes some time as I decided a long time ago not to take many shortcuts if any. These blogs all deserve my full attention/energy/enthusiasm and time and so some nights I simply cannot work on them as I am too tired. As it is now I am sitting on perhaps ten that I have here already in draft form and which I will finish and post as soon as I am able. Wish me luck : bon courage!
Sometimes as with the picture above the image I am searching for is more art than anything else : or perhaps 60% art and 49% historical and wine-business. That's okay. In this picture I was playing with the Reidel tasting-glass and it's shape as well as the intense yellow color of the wine and of Roberta, too. She's a bit in the shadow here and I like having here captured here in a more art-style composition that makes the viewer look harder and perhaps longer to realize for themselves what I have instantly captured with the help of my very handy and excellent Canon camera digitally.
When Roberta saw the pictures that I had taken she got quite excited and immediately spoke to her husband Vittorio about how they needed pictures and how that some of these might work for their promotions and information. Hearing all of this I smiled and said that it would be fine with me for them to use the images as long as they let people know that they were taken by me. They had no problem with that and I continued to taste, take quick notes and snap away as the moments flowed quickly one into the other into another and on.
I like this burst of bright golden wine-sunshine and and hues on honeyed warmth and vanilla splendors that focus on the name of their winery/fattoria called TRES MONTI. It's all about atmosphere and mood and brightness and warmth and glory?
I spoke about my trip to Italy to them where we were in Tuscany for a week. I mentioned that it was more than a wine visit and I said that we had to go to Florence. The minute I said this ( they were all smiles, eyes and ears as I spoke ) they added with pride and conviction and promotion that Florence was not far at all from where they were located and that I should visit them next. I agree and hope to do so sometime. My daughter and I loved Tuscany and my daughter has already mentioned more than once that she wants to return to the town of Il Borro so that we may see it and not just Salvatore's family wine estate by the same name. I agree. When can we manage this? I hope sometime sooner than later.
I loved hearing all this warmth and pride and strong feelings from both Roberta and Vittorio about their area of Romagna. I know that I have enjoyed some of the wines already and even sold some if not many. I don't find as many of them available to us here in Washington D.C. I will get some of the next chance that I get as they were excellent. Olivia was just in our store yesterday as a matter of note tasting some of her country's French wines : two reds and two whites from 3-6 PM. That went really well and I promised here that we would continue to work with her wines and that Sotiris was doing an excellent job representing their wines to us.
But now it's time to speak about some of these excellent wines of Roberta and Vittorio of TRE MONTI. I tasted six wines in all : 1) 2008 " Camp di Mezzo ", dry red Sangiovese di Romagna DOC Superiore ( 13.5% alc ), the 2) 2008 Vigna Rocca, Albana di Romagna DOCG ( 14.5% alc ), the 3) " Vigna Rio ", dry white Trebbiano di Romagna DC ( 13.5% alc ), the 4) "Petrignone ", dry red Sangiovese di Romagna DOC ( 14.5% alc ), the 5) 2007 " Casa Lola ", Albana di Romagna DOCG " Passito " (12.5% alc ) and the 6) 2006 " Thea ", Sangiovese di Romagna DOC Riserva dry red ( 14% alc ).
Wow, this was quite the tasting and I had to photograph the 2007 " Casa Lola ", Albana sweet white DOCG " Passito " ( put in the category of " LE SELEZIONI " ) and take it to the office to taste later as I was a bit " done-in " beautifully by all of this and needed a moment to pause and reflect, collect myself and digest this rich experience with both Roberta and Vittorio ( and Sotiris, too of course ).
These are my notes with those of both Roberta and Vittorio. Of the 2007 " Camp di Mezzo " dry red Sangiovese, $17.49 ( put in the category of " I TIPICI " ) TRE MONTI : " Medium-bodied, so dry, classic, good acidity - best with food - roast beef ."
Of the TRE MONTI 2008 " Vigna Rocca, Albana( indigenous white grape variety ) di Romagna, DOCG, $17.49 ( put in the category of " I TIPICI " ) we wrote : " looks like honey/ miele Italian. Smooth, nice, rich mouth-feel / Love it! Great golden color. What a fun treat! Something new! Serve with frittura mista ( fritto misto di pesce ). " Excellent, really. I must get some quickly.
Of the TRE MONTI " Vigna Rio ", Trebbiano di Romagna DC ( put in the category of " I TIPICI " ) I realize now that we did not try because I believe the bottle they had brought with them may have been corked?
Then I tasted the TRE MONTI " Petrione " , Sangiovese dry red Riserva DOC ( put in the category of LE SELEZIONI ) and wrote : " I like it a lot! Classic, flavorful,aged dusty dry : lovely grip here, great balance. " And Roberta added that it would be really good with grilled beef steaks, hard cheeses/ cuttlery. What's cuttlery? This must be a problem with translating here from Italian to English maybe? Help us out , will you?
It was now onto the 2006 " Thea " , dry red Sangiovese di Romagna DOCG Riserva ( placed under the category of " I VINI DEL CUORE ". Roberta and Vitorrio said that it would be best served with stewed meats, specially lamb. I forgot to include any notes here I am sorry to say. I will have to taste it all over again : I can't wait!
Then as I said I took the last one into the office with me to finish writing some of the store email. The TRE MONTI " Casa Lola ", Albana di Romagna DOCG ( put in the category of " LE SELEZIONI " ) I remember very well indeed and wrote : " Lovely burnt caramel color. Lovely soft, smooth, rounded, rich ; yet not heavy on mouth or on the finish! I like it! Made from the Albana indigenous grape variety of the region." I forgot to get Roberta and Vittorio to write a food recommendation. What do you think? Please add a suggestion in the space for comments at the bottom of this blog entry Roberta and Vittorio. Thanks.
I love this picture of Roberta above with the dry yellow/golden Albana white in my glass. It's like a quiet lake or lagoon of Albana with the golden sunshine bouncing off of it with Roberta behind.
Here again is a more artsy photo that I took of one of the dry red Sangiovese wines ( perhaps the " Camp di Mezzo " DOC? I wanted to capture the color inside an interesting Reidel glass shape. The distortion of my fingers holding the glass and the reflections off the glass as intriguing. too.
I wroye at the bottom of my tasting sheet some facts that I had heard from Vittorio : " Victorrio came here 20 years ago to see Michael Downey and Mike Franklin ( the owner of FRANKLIN Selections/ Imports ). I was young ( he had a big gleam in his eyes and a full smile on his face as he spoke ) and learned a lot from them. I told him how I knew both and how Michael Downey and I had worked together quite successfully back at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits in the mid eighties. Those were some wonderful times so many years ago : and with so many great memories, too. Sadly both Michael Downey and Mike Franklin have passed away several years ago. I think I forgot to mention this to you, Vittorio. Did you know this?
As you may see here in the photo above that Roberta also had her camera with her and was inspired to take pictures. We will have to exchange them sometime to compare and to add to what we both already have.
Roberta wrote sometimes here in Italian on our tasting page her recommendations for the food. But you have seen that already by now.
The picture above is of shading and deep darks and some lighter highlights. I love the rims here of the white glass, the green bottle glass and the darker garnet red color of the Sangiovese wine in this Reidel tasting glass. It's all off-set by the larger rectangular strong white/golden, sun-like ceiling light above. Moody, pithy, gutsy, raw ... I like it as it provides contrast to all the others that I have included here. That's the artist speaking here in me ...
It was a grand tasting and a grand success and I spilled some of the Riserva dry red Sangiovese from my glass as I was trying to get just the right picture/angle and shot with my Canon digital camera here. Oops! This is all with the aim of course of getting the best results. The page is still stained here on my tasting notes sheet and I love that. It's another souvenir for me and the central color is a matted dark red with a lighter silver or gray outside. While wet it was stronger in color : now dry the red has faded. Oh well, it's good to have both to compare.
I loved drawing these quick portrait sketches of both Roberta and Vittorio that I gave to them as souvenirs of my thanks for such a treat and a wonderful moment shared together. The only thing that I asked was that they let me take pictures of them holding their sketches so that I , too would have a souvenir of my quick work. I think they were pleased and touched to have these portraits whether they were any good or not.
Look how nice the bottles, labels, the Reidel glasses and everything else look off the wooden top of our tasting table. I like having these different components here gathered together as a further testament to this specific moment in time that we shared together. It helps fill in many of the pieces as our memories might well be sparked by looking at this as well as these other pictures.
This is another wonderful picture of Roberta smiling with the golden-colored dry Albana white in my Reidel glass. Is it like sunset here with such an intense color and light? I think so : lovely.
This picture above I took at the very end with the glass that I would drink later of the " Casa Lola " Albana di Romagna DOCG dessert wine " Passito " sitting on my tasting note sheet. If you enlarge it on your monitor like many of these others more of the details will come out clearly such as the information on VOILA collection imports and where they are located. But to help everyone out I will type some of it here now in case you have more technical questions for Olivia or Sotiris later.
Go to : OSLO Enterprise LLC 7300 16th Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912 Tel: ( 301 ) 326-2056 Fax : ( 301 ) 328-5449 email : osloenterprise@gmail.com.
Thanks Sotiris, Roberta and Vittorio. Come again anytime : you are always welcome. Let's organize the next visit that you both do an in-store/wine-tasting of these wines here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits on your next visit? We can plan it in advance for your convenience.
I sure had a blast and am already ready for the next. It's now Sunday afternoon here back at my home in northern Virginia at 5:35 PM on February 28th, 2010 as I get ready to post this and take our Terrier-mixed-breed dog for a walk as she gets all stirred-up when people visits as she is both quite territorial and jealous of them. Oh well ...
Cheers, TONY
P.S. As I get ready to post this now I have two things to add : sorry about not including vintages yet. I will as soon as I call Sotiris or blow these pictures of mine up on the monitor to see them as they were not included here on the tasting sheet.
Also, all this has got me now interested in going to Romagna to see it and of course to visit you both Roberta and Vittorio at TRE MONTI. I want to see what it looks like where you all are. I'm sure it's wonderful.
