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.
