Valentin Bianchi, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina Here In Our Store in April , 2006 with wine rep Javier Baquero

     It was great to have Valentin Bianchi here of his family's famous VALENTIN BIANCHI, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina here in the store after having met him at his family's vineyard years ago back in 1995! WOW! You look great Valentin! We have enjoyed selling your wine here over the years. We used to buy them from Billington Imports and now buy them from Washington Wholesalers. We have done many specials here with your wines, from the " Elsa's " series to the rest including the red Malbec, the Cabernet Sauvignon, thw white Sauvignon Blanc, too. They always sell well here.

     I had a grand trip while at Valentin Bianchi. They took us rafting on the local river there after an amazing luncheon outdoors of all the grilled meats and vegetables. I will be downloading all these pictures eventually. We all gathered together and bonded whether in vineyard, at table inside or out, in the cellars or on the raft on the river on a beautiful, warm afternoon! Here are the pictures of Valentine here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits to get us all in the mood to talk Argentina, wine ans specifically San Rafael, Mendoza. Cheers to you all there at the winery Valentin that took such good care of us/me there in 1995 with Nora Favelukes. Wow. Your two brothers, your mother and father, you were all wonderful. 

     Valentin was nice enough to sign my poster and our journal book that we have here to remember when people visited. I think that Javier is here with his wife if I am not mistaken but memory fails me now Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 more than two years later. It was nice to have all three of you here, Thanks for coming. Good luck Valentin and keep up the good work, It is much-appreciated by us.TONY

Nora Favelukes, Our Tour Guide, Gave 120% Plus!

We went as a small group with Billington Imports. Nora Favelukes was our guide. Nora's from Argentina and been living for a very long time now in the United States. She put together Nicolas Catena with Alfredo and the Billington group years ago. I'm honored to have been on this trip with Nora as she has since left Billington and I believe now still lives in New York City. I remember fondly years ago when I was working as a wholesaler how Nora set up a luncheon with Nicolas Catena, herself and me to discuss strategies for getting the CATENA wines more distribution here locally and in the United States. It's humbling and I still appreciate that she thought enough of me to ask me to meet with Nicolas who was just starting off in the United States at the time. Thanks Nora. I still have the three or four pictures of that enjoyable lunch we three had at Bilbo Baggins restaurant in Old Town Alexandria.

Anyway, I also want to thank you Nora for going so many extra miles to make this an incredible trip for the small group of us. It ranks as probably the best or one of the best wine-trips that I have ever taken. I still have so many fond memories and stories ( as well as pictures ) that I intend to eventually get onto this blog site of mine. You made it so much better for me. Knowing you so well, feeling so comfortable in your company and knowing that you were there beside us really cemented and made the trip so much more enriching than it would have been otherwise.

It will be fun to resurrect / relive these glorious moments of 1995 in both Mendoza and Buenos Aires. What a trip of a lifetime! Cheers to you Nora. May you be well, prosperous and thriving and smiling your big, contagious warm smile as always! Your friend, TONY


And : Just added today, Monday September 22nd, 2014 ... and sent as my store email for the day at Cleveland Park Wine And Spirits :


SCRAMBLING

- OH WHAT FUN!

So much to share... like Nora Favelukes' surprise visit just now with Julian
Inarra Iraegui the export manager, bottle buyer, decider of what and how much to
bottle, and so much more for PROEMIO Wines in Argentina ... this is what we
wrote and posted an hour ago or less here on our Facebook page, Cleveland Park
Wine & Spirits ... go and see the pics we took using Julian's phone that he sent
me asap ..

I cannot get it to work the copying and the pasting and am frustrated not being
a computer person, so go to our Facebook to read more about this.

I have known Nora Favelukes now for many years and she lives in New York City,
the ' Big Apple ', and I want to g see her sometime there to discover some of
New York that she can show me I am sure!

She is with Julian Inarra Iraegui ( it's a Basque name according to Julian, and
I am not to blame him as he had nothing to do with naming himself when he was
born, even though it is hard to write and remember the spelling of! You are off
the hook Julian, do not worry, it's on your business card and so I look at it
while I type, no problem!

Loved having Nora and Julian visit as I would not have seen Nora at all if I had
not switched schedules today with Chris to be here on this drop-dead, gorgeous
day which is normally my day-off as many of you know. I am so thrilled to have
seen you Nora, really I am!

Our Trip Nora to Argentina in 1995 with Billington Imports was one of the best I
have even been on ( a group of perhaps 12-14 ), and I tell everyone every chance
that I have that you gave 120 % of yourself to make it a great trip, and it was.
We had a magnificent visit at CATENA just as the annual harvest celebration was
beginning there in the town of Mendoza.

We arrived in the town of Mendoza and were pretty much immediately whisked off
to the park with the great open-air stage and we took our seats there with one
of the younger Catena's and her small daughter and her daughter's friends , and
we had meals packed in bags for us to enjoy while the spectacle of dance and
music and lights and sound and merriment, pure joy and relief and gratitude all
unfolded there with so many performers, right before our spellbound eyes. It was
amazing, it was wonderful.

We were there to visit both the CATENA winery in the northern area of Mendoza
and also to there to visit VALENTIN BIANCHI in San Rafael in the southern
region. We did both, too : and were the better for it all, being wined and dined
and made to feel special and like royalty and with the food, the wine, the
company, the good cheer, the country and the warmth and the joy all around us,
with owners and winemakers and Nora all so attentive and wonderful to us and
every whim and whimsy of ours. What more could we have ever wanted?!? Not much I
can still say to this day, not much at all.
What I remember after this twenty-plus flight to Argentina was a certain amount
of fatigue and nervous and excited energy and wanting and expectation and
hunger. The bags were a start, but a weak start and more was needed. More,
muchas mas did , in fact come later when we got back into the town of Mendoza
and around midnight or so found a restaurant, took our seats outside by the door
in a long rectangular table and ordered many delicious wines from Argentina as
well as much-need carne rojo / red meat : thick and juicy and succulent and
charred and steaming and delicious! Now we had arrived, now - ahora - the big
smiles covered all our faces and we were all brimming broadly!

The next day we were off to visit the CATENA winery and that was exciting. Nora
said it to me just awhile ago : that we were at the start, at the beginning of
some marvelous adventures for the wines of Argentina back in the 1990's. She is
right, too. Things were just starting to happen then. In the 1980's the wines of
Argentina were largely unknown and unappreciated. All true, it was a bit of a
struggle to get people's attention and to both open their eyes and their palates
to the splendors of Argentina's wines, imagine that now when the whole world
seems to be in love with them and with the Malbec grape that originally comes
from France's Cahors and Limoux region ( yes, we have both the Cahors of France
that blends Malbec, Merlot and Tannat often to make their dry red wines that
used to be referred years ago the the ' black wines ' of France ,  ...

as well as the ' Original ' Malbec , a 2012 from Anne de Joyeuse, depuis-since
1868 - from Limoux, France, south of Bordeaux and the Lot region where Cahors
is. This ' Original ' 2012 sells for $14.99 a bottle,  with 13.5% alcohol by
volume, and Certified Protect Planet By Bureau Veritas International ( BVQI ).
It is bright, balanced, fruit-forward, medium-to-light-bodied, and a treat to
sip by itself or enjoy with many a meal. Come try some, we have it on our
shelves now, and it is perfect for a drop-dead gorgeous day like today!

ANYWAY, when we went to CATENA the whole world then was in love with Cabernet
Sauvignon ( no one knew much about, ot talked much about, the wines made with
the Malbec grape, except for the ' black wines ' of Cahors that I have already
mentioned ) ; and the world was loving the dry and flavorful and complex white
Chardonnay that winemaker Paul Hobbs had helped them make at CATENA. This was
the news back then in 1995 when we were there, it was about this incredible and
tasty and complex and fine Chardonnay from CATENA made in Argentina that was not
at all until known for it's white wines.

1995 In Argentina With Billington Imports And Nora Favelukes 1995 : Visiting The Town Of Mendoza, Being Also Wined And Dined By The CATENA Family, Also Driving South To San Rafael And Being Wined And Dined By The VALENTIN BIANCHI Family : What A Grand Adventure/ Experience : Gracias Nora E Catena E Valentin Bianchi!

This blog page will be devoted to my wonderful trip back twelve years ago to Argentina's wine country ( Mendoza ) and to Buenos Aires with the Billington Wines Import group led by the very capable and talented Nora Favelukes. There were perhaps fifteen of us total on this trip, a handful compared to the fifty or more that go these years. It was the maximum size for a group that I like. Really I prefer now to go to different countries in smaller groups so as to maximize my time with the principals at the wineries that we visit. I really like more of a one-on-one contact and it's more difficult when there are more people present and involved. Nora was wonderful and gave one hundred and twenty percent of herself, maybe more to make this trip the success that it was.

I worked at the wholesale level at the time of this trip. I was employed by Marvin Stirman and Alfio Mariconi at the time at Wines Limited imports. It was a small company with my immediate boss being Serge Reveille. I was the only one from the company going on this particular trip. I had sold enough cases of the Billington Argentina selections to qualify. They represented both Catena and Valentin Bianchi wineries and I had to sell a certain amount of both to qualify for this trip. It was my first time back to South America since growing up there in Brazil from the years of two to eight years of age. This was really thrilling to me. I had no idea quite what to expect and I did have two Argentinian friends that I had met in Paris, Christina and Maria. In the back of my mind I had visions of perhaps seeing them again and living some of our old artist/etcher days from back in Paris, France in 1978-80.

As it turned out this was probably one of the finest trips that I have ever taken. It was memorable on so many levels and I have so many different memories and pictures to have much of it come back to me. We did land in Santiago, Chile and I did see the airport there in Chile. I'm sorry I did not really see anything of Chile but at least I landed on it's soil for awhile. The flight took a grueling nineteen hours and I was a mess from such cramped seats for such a long stretch of time. Being in Miami, too was quite the shock as at the airport there it seemed that everyone spoke Spanish and it was almost impossible to hear any English at all!

The trip took us to both the north and the south of Mendoza ( Catena in the north and Valentin Bianchi in San Rafael in the south ). From Mendoza we flew to Buenos Aires and enjoyed that city for a couple of days. That's where I met up with both my friends Christina and Maria. It was the more social part of the trip, Mendoza was the more intense wine-part of the trip. That was okay with me. Nora our guide was the one that helped me reconnect with both Christina and Maria. It took a call from our hotel.

Christina's number was not listed. The operator did not want o give it out. Nora was patient and persistent and explained in fluent Spanish to the operator who I was and our prior connection in Paris, France. Somehow she got the number and before we walked out of the hotel to visit some art galleries close by Nora left a message. The message basically said that if Christina was the person that had lived in Paris back in the late 1970's and had been etching and worked with a Tony Quinn that I was now in Buenos Aires and would love to see her. There were lots of " ifs " and holes in this and nothing was certain in the least. I was still really hopeful. I'm an optimist and don't like to see the negative side of things first. I was just hoping that we had the right number and that I would be able to see my old friend once again. You never know?

We went out to visit the galleries and upon our return perhaps two hours later we were sitting at lunch when we received a call someone came to get me. I was floored! It was Christina on the other end of the phone line, she was thrilled to hear from me. We both talked a mile a minute. Yes, she could see me, how about today, now? I said how about a bit later and we meet for dinner and some shopping? She said " fine "; Nora also agreed to let me break away from the group for the evening and it was all set. Christina would come meet me at the hotel a bit later and my head was racing ahead with so many thoughts and emotions. I could barely contain my excitement!

Christian showed up a couple of hours later and met me downstairs in the lobby and smiling we raced to each other and embraced/kissed and said our " bonjours ". We spoke the whole time in French because that was the common language that we used when we knew each other in Paris. I will continue this story in my next entry. Let it suffice to say that it was an amazing evening that included Maria and the three of us had a blast together. What are the odds?!? It was a milagro, really. Thrilling. Cheers, TONY