Ludivine Ambroise of AMBROISE, Burgundy, France Wrote in August 5th,2006 In French About Our Soiree Chez Bobby Kacher et Kelly:

     I've already blogged about this evening and how much I really enjoyed it. Here is what Ludivine wrote me as the evening was coming to a close :  

     " Dans la nuit du 5 Aout ( 2006 ) j'ai fait un reve extraordinaire. Nous etions plusieurs amis ensemble a deguster des vins de notre grande Bourgogne. Au milieu de l'ensemblee, j'ai decouvert un petit homme qui parlait francais et qui voulait absolument deguster nos vins. Il etait tellement sympathique et racontait tellement d'histoire que nous avons presque oublie le vin mais la fraicheur, la puissance et la saveur des vins nous rammenaient toujours a nos verres.

     Excellent soiree pleine d'avenir. " Friendship, Bertrand,   Amities, Bertrand    Ludivine

     Go for more info to : www.ambroise.com   and bertrand.ambroise@wanadoo.fr.

     I've included a picture of Bertrand, Ludivine and myself this evening.

     It was a superb evening. Cheers, Sante ,    TONY

Matt of MAN Vintners Tasted His Wines April 2006 With Cleveland Park Customers

     I just finished blogging about Tyrrel Myburgh's visit here a couple of days ago with rep. Olivier Lotterie. They tasted me on the new MAN Vintner South African wine releases. In April 2006 Matt ( one of the three owners along with Tyrrel ) tasted our customers on a number of the then current releases. They are always consistent and offer very good value, too. Cheers, Matt, Tyrrel and gang.

     Oh , the name MAN coms from the first initials of each of these three men's wives names : Marie, Anette and Nicky. For more info on MAN Vintners go to : www.manvintners.co.za , P.O. Box 389, Stellenbosch, 7588, South Africa. tel: 27 21 886 7532, info@manvintners.co.za.

Joe Shipley, Winemaker TRINCHERO Winery,, Napa, California Tastes His New Releases At Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits, March 2006

     It was a real treat to get Joe here as we over the years have sold a whole lot of the TRINCHERO wines across the board from the everyday Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc all the way up to the Mario's Reserve 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon, $44.99 ( estate-bottled ). These are stylish, well-balanced, focused wines that really represent remarkable value in each tier that they make. It's been a pleasure to sell them from 2002-present. Here are some pictures back in March 2006 here in the store ( <> ). I think that TRINCHERO now has Hal Huffsmith at their helm. Thanks Joe for all your excellent work. Call us here if you want any of the TRINCHERO wines. If we don't already have them we will be happy to order them for you. Go to : <> for more info. They are located at St. Helena, Napa County, CA 94574.

     Here are some photos when Joe tasted his upper-tier wines to great acclaim here in our store. Cheers,  TONY

Tyrrel Myburgh ( winemaker ) of MAN Vintners/ JOOSTENBERG Here At Cleveland Park Wines With Rep Olivier Lotterie Tuesday July 22nd, 2008

     It was great to see Tyrrel again after about three years. Tyrrel came and launched MAN Vintners here then with the MAN dry Chenin Blanc and the dry MAN red Cabernet Sauvignon. That's all that Country Vintners had in stock at that point. They were waiting for the container to get here from South Africa. We were being proactive and getting the ball rolling early!  We pretty much sold everything that we had at the tasting and reordered immediately. I think Tyrrel had samples of the other wines to taste so that people could get an idea of what would soon be available. We tasted the Pinotage, the Shiraz, the Merlot and the Sauvignon Blanc.

     On this recent go-round of tastings I really liked the whole line but ordered more Shiraz because it is so delicious and bright and " right " with no edge or disturbances- just soft and full and round on the palate - at the edge of being too fruity. Chill slightly and enjoy by itself or with many a grilled/seasoned or well-marinated meal, vegetable and grain as well as meat. Lovely.

     I liked the Pinotage myself much better. It's drier and less fruity and less full in flavor. It suffers and benefits both from more highs and lows in the taste. I refer to it as having space inside it so that my palate has both room to breathe and spread itself out completely. I love that idea of space. I want to have that room to become a part of the wine if that makes any sense. So I bought both! They will all sell for $10 or less a bottle and will disappear quickly. They have attractive, colorful labels, too.

     We will also sell the JOOSTENBERG ( a red flagship blend , and an unoaked Chenin Blanc-Viognier ) shortly. I have not tasted those yet but they are from Tyrrel's family vineyard. Check out : <> , and <>. ALSO : <> ( 27 21 886 7532 , Stellenbosch, <>. Come by and try the new wines in August when we receive our order.

     In the MAN whites we will have the Sauvignon Blanc, the Chardonnay and the Chenin Blanc. They are all from the 2007 vintage. The reds are all from the 2006 vintage. The Sauvignon was my preferred for drinking now because it is the lightest and it's hot. The Chenin Blanc is a bit richer and more intense with more weight. The Chardonnay spends a bit of time in oak and it is beautifully-made. I love the beginning flavors and then the extra body of the wine catches up to me and so I would rather enjoy it in September of October when things cool down once again. Of course these are just my personal thoughts. As I told Tyrrel the wines are all beautifully-crafted. It's just a question of what you like or not but not of the quality. It is there in these wines and so affordable, too. Cheers Tyrrel and Laurent. Here are some of the pictures I took during the tasting this week.

     Olivier Lotterie ( with the glasses )works for Vineyard Brands imports (<>) along with Danny Haas. Both bring me lots of interesting people in the business and I thank them both for that. Enjoy.   TONY

The Pre-Phyloxera Portuguese Red Indigenous Grape Variety Ramisco As Seen Through The Liquid Red Eyes of Collares Sandy White Beaches

     This past Friday evening, July 18th , 2008 I opened a bottle of the 1994 Collares red indigenous pre-phyloxera Portuguese wine made in 1994. It's really hard to make, adored by the British and hardly worth the effort any more is the idea I get from talking to people. They say it may not have been made since the year 2000 making this 1994 one of the rarest wines ever and yet one of the greatest wine values, too. We sell it here at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits ON SALE for the grand lowly price of only $21.99 a bottle. It comes in six-pack cases and we are almost out so call us ( 202-363-4265 ) if you are interested in getting some.

     This 1994 has a lovely tasted red cherry brick red color. You can see clear through it. It's medium-to-light-bodied, perhaps a bit more light-bodied. Like a red Burgundy the color bellies all the intensity and range of cascading, wonderful flavors inside that are always more nuanced than stark and yet there's a lovely polish/patina to both flavors and tastes. It was showing at it's best this past Friday : silky and enticingly spicy and a bit herbal yet never sharp or unpleasing. It's best with food to fill in the spaces that the wine allows us to stretch our tongues out more fully in. I like this type of wine, it lets me get more involved as it has both strengths and weaknesses that from my humble opinion amount to more interesting interactions between wine and taster.

     I took these pictures of the wine and the bottle on Saturday night, July 19th at around 8 PM just before leaving. I wanted to preserve the memory of this extraordinary and really rare Portuguese red wine. I'm amazed now looking at the pictures and the clarity, the reflectiveness and the amazing colors. Wow. What do you think? Let me know. Cheers,   TONY

     

Everyone's A Superstar We Just Don't Recognize It !

Indulge me here please. I was having a conversation the last week and with one of our customers saying basically that all we read or hear about are rock stars, actors and celebrities and chefs. Of course there are others, too : designers, politicians and an occasional artist here and there. Not much else gets mentioned are covered.

This blog is loosely designed around wine. It's not all just about wine, though. It's really about what happens through the store that I am exposed to. Sometimes it's through my own engineering and sometimes it's totally serendipitous. I want it to be a reflection of observations and reactions to experiences that happen to me in and out of the store.

I want to cover the beer and the liquor tastings as well. I want to take pictures of basically everything and everyone involved somehow, either integrally or peripherally. It's all part of the story. This blog is all about the stories, about the memories, about the pictures that capture split seconds in these stories and also about how the pictures can mean different things to different people.

I really love covering all of this. It gives me pretty much complete artistic freedom to see where it will all go/develop. I'm enjoying it so much that I almost feel guilty. Oh well, I'll just have to live with that. I find that it is really interesting to see what each of the pictures reveals. At the time that they are taken you can only anticipate so much of what a picture will hold or ultimately say at a later date. I like to incorporate a lot of things in each picture, making them as complete as possible so that they live alone and are worth enjoying all by themselves regardless of any other photos or the story that they recorded. Everything is ultimately up to personal interpretation.

As you can see in some of these pictures that they are almost abstractions of whet they are of. I love including the wines in the glasses. The wine glass can actually distort both people and settings. I love that. I love the pictures of the recent photos of the food at Lavendou through the white wine. It's golden in color and it changes both the food as does the glass distort to some extent. Look at the picture of David Pinzolo in the last blog. His face is distorted, extended, a touch bloated, all to interesting effect. I like it. I hope he does, but I cannot stop experimenting with these photos, the angles, the closeness to subject, the magnifying of wine labels and their pictures and writing using the angle of the wine glass. It's all a work in progress.

I'm thrilled to include everyone : customers, their children, the salespeople , the brokers, executives of corporations, winemakers and wine owners, people that work at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits, restaurants and the waiters, chefs, owners, etcetera. I think everyone deserves a big congratulations. It costs nothing to congratulate and to thank someone, to include them, to draw a bit of deserved attention to them and to their efforts. I have to believe that they will appreciate both the attention and the thanks. I hope they like their pictures, too. It is all meant in the best way possible.

So here to all those wonderful people that have filled my life and continue to as each day arrives and brings new and expected events and surprises. I live for that to a big degree. It's fun and exciting. I hope that you all tune-in from time to time or daily. I will work on this blog page pretty much daily. That I promise myself as well as you. It will not be static, it will be constantly evolving and morphing and growing reflecting both old and current, daily - of-this-exact-moment-almost events. I will add as many pictures as I can.

I will probably be taking many pictures of my older pictures and including them more quickly that way. They, too may be a bit distorted because of this technique. We'll see. I'll try some tomorrow and see what I get. I have found that looking at the photos enlarged on the screen reveals really cool things that become so much more alive and in many cases clearer and more revealing. Try it with some of these. Try it with the picture of Antoine Pin at Lavendou sipping his wine and with me holding mine in front of him as I snap the picture. The glasses and the reflections are really nice. In one of the glasses you can see the reflection through the front windows at Lavendou and the scenery outside. It's also true with the picture of David Pinzolo when you enlarge it. I just thought that I would share this with you all.

I was developing this blog in my head as I read this Sunday Washington Post Sunday edition paper outside on our deck earlier and then again while I was clearing our yard of fallen, brittle brown branches. It's Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 3:18 PM as I type this up.

It sure is hot outside today! I read that tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day each summer here in this area. We'll see. I've included three pictures that I took two years ago of a red hibiscus plant that I bought to remember the wonderful anniversary vacation my wife and I took to the Dominican Republic. I'm hoping to get more flowers next year. I've been nursing it back to health after last summer when our squirrels decided to eat both it's bark and green leaves. The prognosis looks good so far. Take care, TONY

David Pinzolo With FALESCO Umbrian Italian Wines Here Tuesday, July 15th Tasting/Setting Up Ardeo Dinner Thursday September 25th, 2008

    It's always great to get David Pinzolo here in the store whether he's tasting us or you our customers on his excellent selections of Italian wines. He's a live encyclopedia of Italian information on anything wine and Italian , whether area or soil or indigenous grape variety. I always  hear a good anecdote, phrase, and or story from David and he always delivers it with one of his broad smiles that covers his entire face from ear to ear!

      This Tuesday we were talking of the excellent FALESCO mostly reds and two whites, all dry; and including the two dessert wines, one red and one white. I rediscovered the delicious white EST EST EST this go-round of tastings as well as the dessert PASSIRO Lazio that blew me away with it's freshness/brightness/ripeness and yet not-no-non-at-all-cloyingness! It was my pick this time, expensive but stunning. We'll get some here really soon I promise.

     We were talking about our proposed dinner at Ardeo in September, Thursday the 25th, 2008. I tasted the incredible indigenous FERENTANO white made from the Roscetto grape. I love it, always pleases me just so much more than many whites do. I also tasted the Sangiovese and reveled in it's bright red toasty, roasted low-acids red that has hardly any bite but continues to please and tease from start to finish. What a great everyday value it is, too. Owner Riccardo Cotarella is also a lover of the Merlot grape and he makes two that are superb, one for everyday ( UMBRIA MERLOT ) and one when you splurge ( MONTIANO ). I liked both but this time was snowed by the more earthy, peppery, rustic yet appealing for me Cabernet blend of both Cabernet Sauvignon( 70% ) and Cabernet Franc ( 30% ) called MARCILIANO. Wow. 

     We will probably use the less expensive dessert red called POMELE ( from the Aglianico grape ) for our meal because it is half the price of the PASSIRO. Oh well, I'll just drink some of the PASSIRO on the side! Kidding!!

     Here are some of the photos I took when David came through this Tuesday with rep Jody Jackman to taste some of the recent bottling for both the store and for our dinner.

     I included a picture of French wines I had tasted just prior to seeing David and Jody. Sorry, that's what happens sometimes when I have to rush to get this done. I want it to be fresh and fluid and " of the moment " and alive and organic. I will make some mistakes, sorry. Please try and understand that I have to work quickly and sometimes it is easier to leave things as is and publish them so that they are " out-there " for you all to enjoy or not. I don't have time to think over things to much, just think it through once or twice, type and download pictures and proof and hope I catch everything and then push the PUBLISH button. Voila! Hope you like these more artsy photos. I sure am having fun with them. Here's to our upcoming dinner at Ardeo. I can hardly wait, they do such a good job with the food and matching the foods to the wines.

     Don't you all just love the colors of these wines? They are so bright and rich and full of life and they beckon me to them, my lips to taste them again and again! Cheers,   TONY