Looking Through Glass ( Groot Constantia + - Wine Glass, Water Glass, Bottles, Olive Oil Glass, Whatever Caught My Fancy, March, 2009 In South Africa

I had a grand trip to South Africa with John Morrison in March, 2009 and posting these pictures that are more artsy really helps me relive these glorious moments. I hope you, too can share in some of these moments as many of these pictures tell stories that I hope are universal in some ways and rather specific and detailed in others. Cheers, TONY








Look at this picture at Moreson where the young winemaker is tasting a sample of his fermenting grape juice. Behind him is a lovely young lab assistant wearing a red shirt. She caught my attention and this picture is as much about her as anything. Look at how the form and the red all become quite distorted and blurred and mesmerizing when you enlarge it on the screen? I like it ... makes my mind wander off ...






I like this picture at Groot Constantia where the lady tasting us is almost completely distorted through their thicker wine glasses and the image is captivating to me in both beauty and starkness and becomes almost Baconesque as in the painter. You have to enlarge it and look really closely ...












Enjoy these pictures and go to : chatart.blogspot to see more. Cheers, TONY

There's Nothing Like Trying The Grapes First-Hand Right Off The Vines! March 15th, 2009? Curly's Grapes, South Africa

I hope that you enjoy these pictures that I took with my new Canon camera. I was just getting to learn how to use it and unfortunately ( or fortunately as it may be ) I set the camera on another color scheme of pinks, reds and silvers, whites and grays. This makes all the pictures more stark and more intense as a result. There is no softness or kindness : just brutal honesty in them. The colors give the pictures almost a bloody, horror-like edge that is both repulsive and fascinating ( we are drawn to look even though we want to pull away and run like mad away! ) : and I am both pleased to have them as well as wishing that I also had them through the normal colors, too. Oh well, it is what it is ...



This is the normal transition in which I took these pictures from start to finish as first I walked down the rows of vines before deciding on which to take a closer look at.




Once that I began to get a closer look at the ones that caught my attention my mind started to have various ideas about what and how to film these vines and their precious cargo of almost-ready-grapes-to-be-picked ...




One thing led to another and I became bolder and bolder and more caught-up in the moment as inhibitions were left behind, I relaxed more and took more daring pictures ...




I like recording moments and as I do it I like to tell a story with them that starts, has a middle and some end, too ... mine, all mine!




It takes these grapes to make the wines that we have been selling at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) that we buy from Boutique Vineyard Selections ( John & Theresa Morrison ).




I just had to pick one and taste it ...




I held it in my fingers and then between my teeth ...




I had to taste one now : the impulse was too strong not to taste one ...




It looks like I am smelling this grape in the picture above.

The picture below looks as if I am modeling it for everyone to see and admire and appreciate : as well as be envious and wish that they had one just like me in their mouths ...




More smelling and modeling ...




Why not make it one big happy party and family and model three at one time? I should have more of a taste-explosion this way once that I crunch into these three grapes. Right?!?




I had to take more pictures of these three grapes held tenderly/firmly between my teeth to ensure that at least one of them turned out well. They all are pretty good, really ...




But you can never be sure and thus you must take more than one or two pictures to be certain ...




I'm standing up now with the sun behind me. I'm still wearing or modeling these grapes ...

I'm having a blast here, don't kid yourselves ... this was fun and instantaneous for me.




The picture here of wineamker Rolf of BLAAUWKLIPPEN I added here by accident. These are Curly's grapes, not Rolf's ... Oops ...




I had what looks like the brilliant idea here to add the grape leaves still on the vine to this last picture : it provides setting, grape variety perhaps and color, texture and more of the story. Do you agree?




This was a great trip that John Morrison and I took to the wine country in South Africa and here are some of the pictures that I took of myself laying on the ground directly under some red grapes that Curly was growing to make his excellent wine. They are rather irreverant, silly, comical pictures that I took that reveal me in all my glory, stupidity, frankness, grossness, humanness : I hope you enjoy them. Cheers, TONY

P.S. It's now Father's Day here at home in northern Virginia at 11:33 PM on Sunday evening, June 21st, 2009 ... I've had a great Father's Day and went with both my children to the National Gallery of Art erlier to see the exhibit of etching of William Stanley Hayter and his Atelier 17 where I worked and etched and made prints in the years 1977-78. After that I went to work as the manager at Joelle Serve's atelier 54 was it? By being a manager I did not have to pay and could print for free ... nice, really nice.

Enjoy these artsy pictures I took as John Morrison was off somewhere else close-by I hope enjoying himself as much as I was ...

Marcus, Thilbee, Philip, John & Me At DE MEYE WEd. March 18th, 2009 In The Dark & Out In Shades Of Pinks, Roses,Reds & Silvers !

This story or series of images is all about atmosphere and fun contrasts as my new camera continues to insist on doing color variations in dark, whites, grays and silvers and pinks to dark reds. It's an interesting palate assortment. Yet, since we are tasting red wine here it works pretty well for that if not for anything else. It also works for the oak barrels that are also stained in deep reds, as well as the boxes ( new DE MEYE boxes that must have a fair amount of red in them ? Or is this a tromp l'oie that we have here? Marcus, Thildee and Philip, please help me out here?!

I got one of their four or five dogs back at the last wall in the cellar between it and the wall sniffing around : that came out pretty well. I also like the shot of winemaker Marcus tasting whatever red that he had just poured. You can see the plastic white pitcher that he had poured into to offer us each some of whatever red this is : Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, ... I don't remember and I did not take a picture of the barrel or the sign saying what it was. And because I was so busy taking pictures as I framed one after the other I don't know. John, you took notes all the time : which red were we all enjoying here deep inside and away from the sun and the beautiful day this Wednesday March 18th, 2009 ?

Thildee, what were you thinking there as you seemed to stare off into space as Marcus poured wine from the plastic pitcher into our glasses? Also, what was the glass saying to you as you listened to it in this last picture posted here? Was it singing to you the Barbra Streisand song that I later played for you ( as one of the most famous DE MEYE red wine blends is called " Truitina " ) called " In Truitina " ? I'm glad that I had that for you to listen on my i-pod that I treasure that my son gave to me. He downloaded all my eight hundred songs or so for me to listen and share anyplace/anytime.

Who sang that song : " Bell Bottom Blues "? Was it Eric Clapton? I like those bell bottom white pants in that one image of Thildee. I'm probably not the first to tell you : but it's a great look for you. I hope you don't find me too braizen for saying so : just an artist appreciating the beauty all around him.

I also like the pictures I had where I must have moved the camera and the image moved with me : and how there are lines and squiggles of light and color that look like glass and double-triple-imaged people. Fun. I also like the picture I took deep in the cellar looking at everyone before me with the light of day beyond them. It gives a great silhouette in shades of different darks as well as a glow of the light ( white here ) outside.

What do you all think? Do these pictures tell a story of the moment as well as on winery/cellar moment that is vivid, alive and captivating? I do hope so. Others should visit and experience this. Harvest time was the best for this, too as the winery was alive, throbbing and constantly active to keep up with the frantic, mad, rush-to-the-finish of fermenting mad, insane, explosive grapes, their skins, juices and whatever else.

We pretty much tried everything that Marcus had there which include others I have not already mentioned. I will fill in more gaps as I confer with my notes at work and with John Morrison later.

I was thrilled with the tasting and the wines. Here we started tasting things that were still very much different grapes' juices fermenting. We also tasted from the stainless steel tanks as well as from many barrels. Marcus was eager to oblige us as we asked him questions whether or not he had any Petit Verdot, Malbec, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc and just about any other grapes like Grenache or Cinsault or Mourvedre, etcetera. Whatever he had and that was easily available to taste he obliged us. Thanks Marcus.

As I said I liked what I was tasting and really enjoyed the commitment and dedication that Marcus had to his craft here. He did accompany us out into the official tasting room and offices and gave us a mini tasting of some of his very best in bottle. That was grand. But because it was still harvest and wine-making time he could not join Philip, Thildee, John and me at lunch later in Stellenbosch. We missed you Marcus. I also missed not meeting your wife the artist that did many of the paintings there in the tasting room and gallery immediately to the side.

Thanks guys for this fun peek into your very special, wonderful world. Cheers, TONY

Nico Van Der Merwe Winemaker Of MAS NICOLAS & ROBERT ALEXANDER, Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

This was towards the end of a wonderful private tasting with Nico Van der Merwe ( owner, winemaker of MAS NICOLAS and ROBERT ALEXANDER wines, Stellenbosch, South Africa in his cellar/winery ) , John Morrison ( president of Boutique Vineyards' Collection with his wife Theresa Morrison ) late Tuesday evening, March 17th, 2009 and into the evening. Dark had descended upon us as we got ready to drive back into Cape Town to have dinner in a lovely restaurant there on the outskirts of the town.

As we got to SAXENBURG Wine Farm :winery/restaurant/park or sanctuary for wildlife, too where Nico is the chief winemaker. As we drove up we saw both Springbok ( the white albino as well as the regular ones? clarify this for me John, will you please? ) and zebras there. They are pictured here to tell a more complete story. And I do love animals and I have two children and a wife that love them, too.

Nico, John and I tried many wines from whites to reds and I will find my notes shortly to include here.

Many of these photos I took with an artist's regard as I am an artist and like to find new angles and perspectives on things. I also like to find ones I believe with all my heart that should be documented but which sadly often are not. I want to have more of the total picture for you all to enjoy.

After all, you were not here tasting with John, Nico and I and so I have only words and pictures to make both the wine and our surroundings come alive for you. I hope I have succeeded a wee bit here. I know I sure had fun trying as I framed one picture after another, was pissed that I missed many good ones that I saw but did not have enough time to capture as so often they are fleeting.

I also enjoyed sipping the wines, rolling them over my tongue, holding my breath, swallowing slowly and in stages, closing my eyes momentarily to better concentrate ... ahhh, the joys of tasting and drinking wine. I was most happy that John was our designated driver and had to worry about getting us to our next appointment on time, as well as safely!

I like Nico's wines : they are full of strong character and personality, never wimpy, always classic and for me best when served with food from a simple meal to a fancy one as well as everything in between.

We at Cleveland Park have been selling his wines now - mostly the ROBERT ALEXANDER Merlot - and we have just added some more within the month and intend to add more as we have our BIG THEME monthly South African wine-tasting at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 ( from 5:30-8:30 PM ) two days after South Africa's Freedom Day. You should all come and join us. Everyone is welcome, bring some family, friends, business associates ... whoever ... the more the merrier! John and Theresa will be on hand pouring a broad selection of their wines as they are our special guests for the evening.

More to follow soon, as well as more pictures. Stay-tuned, ...

Wow, look at our broad smiles at the end of this tasting : what a lot of wee-little bits of wine can to to one as they add up to quite a whole lot by the tastings end! Like I say, I was happy, upbeat and not driving anywhere.

Cheers, TONY















Here are some more pictures of Nico, John Morrison and me. Cheers, TONY