Rob Gibson, Owner-Winemaker of GIBSON & LOOSE END, Barossa, South Aussie Wines Visits Washington D.C. Late 2008 : Leaves Lasting Words / Impressions

     It was great to see Rob Gibson and the rest of the Aussie crew as well as owner Barbara Lawson of LAWSON wines in Marlborough, New Zealand. They came ( all four of them ) and left lasting impressions on me. It was a great weekend's visit ( I think the last weekend of September 2008 if memory serves me well ) with an in-store wine-tasting as well as an Orioles baseball game at Camden yards and later a dinner/wine tasting at my home in northern Virginia.

     Rob made a special point to speak to me briefly during each and every one of these three activities. Oh, actually there were four because after our in-store tasting on Saturday night ( the evening - day that our customers Jennifer and John tied the knot ! ) we afterwards went over to Chef Geoff's in downtown Washington D.C. ( across from the National Theater I believe ). Though he spoke briefly to me each time his few words were like honey to a starving man.

     At Chef Geoff's restaurant Rob came up to me after the dinner and said simply two things  that went straight to my heart and touched me as few words have. He complemented me for the excellent in-store tasting ( Nick Stacey had already done this at the other head of the table from where I say when he toasted me - thanks Nick- loved that, too )  and also made a comment about his wine-tasting operation back home in Barossa. He said that at times he would wonder how to accomplish something there, how to do it ? He then added that he would try and imagine what I would do, how would I handle it? Wow Rob, that's really nice. Thanks for the complement. I love it, really I do. I'm glad you think that highly of me and my way of operating. That means a whole lot to me , one hippie to another.

     The other comment that you made was at my home when we did our dinner/wine-tasting at home. You immediately went and examined all of the bottles with Liz not far behind. You took a lot of time tasting, evaluating, and comparing the various wines that I poured ( American from California, and French, too ). They all had lots of bottle-age and so I wanted you all to enjoy some of my old treasures that I have waited to taste and enjoy with special people like the lot of you fine Aussies!

     You can see all the wines in the pictures when you enlarge them on your screen. Anyway, when you were about to leave Rob you told me that it was one of the best tastings that you had ever been to. That really touched me to the core and I am thrilled to have been able to offer this to you Rob and to the rest of you that all took great pains and great care when both Chris Pigott and I visited Australia this past February ( 9th-21st I believe ). This was " pay-back " time as far as I was concerned, my small way of showing some of my thanks and appreciation for those two great summertime weeks in Australia. 

     I have lots more to say and will very soon but want to post this now so that you may all enjoy these fun photos now.

     Thanks Rob, Barbara, Liz, Nick, Jeremy, Peter and Chris : you are all the best. Here's to all the great times and work that we have already done and to many / much more in 2009! 

     Happy New Year 2009 to One & to All of Us : we need it desperately as we get through these trying times and sort things out and find once again our places in this incredible world of ours. Yes, I'm in love with life, have and always been.     TONY

PICARDY WINES, Pics of Dan Pannell & His Family/Vineyards/Winery/Tuscan-Style Villa In Pemberton, western Australia, Feb. 2008

I really enjoyed my one-on-one visit with Dan Pannell the owner/ wine-maker of PICARDY winery in Pemberton, western Australia. I just blogged about Dan in the previous blog but was unable to include the pictures earlier. Here are some of them at the winery, in the barrel room, in his parent's Tuscan-style villa where we slept, in the restaurant and at his home and while making some of the rounds with him on a workday for him. Dan was nice enough to include us and let us tag along. Enjoy. The pictures include his wife Jodie and their boy and girl as well as friends and business associates, workers at the winery, etcetera. Chris Pigott and I were there for two days around the 12th or 13th of February, 2008 during their summer. It was beautiful and hot and we were on vacation and having a blast, eating and drinking ( the Tete de Cuvee 2005 Pinot that we enjoyed the first night at dinner in the town of Pemberton sure was a treat. You can see it in one of the pictures along with the regular bottling. It's the Tete de Cuvee that Dan wants to have enough of for he and his fishing buddies I believe! ) well and being really well-entertained, too.

I notice that in the picture of the platter of sandwiches and shrimp and other goodies that at the corner is a pamphlet of Dan's neighbor ( Lake Wines - there must be more to the name than this?! ) that the neighbor makes as well as having a restaurant. They were also from Pemberton and a nice way to start our visit with Dan before going into his barrel room to try those fabulous 2006 Pinots still in the barrel. You can see how bright and clear the color is in some of them in the pictures. Thanks guys.

I've just added the pictures and I see how much we did. We had three meals with Dan all pictured here, we spent a wonderful time tasting his new barrels of 2006 Pinot Noir that really impressed me no end, we delivered some barrels to a winery, we drove through some of Pemberton and we ended up in Margaret River where we had lunch on the main drag there ( looks like a beach resort to me ) at a restaurant called VAT I think and met up with a colleague of Dan's that works for the Aussie government and promotes Aussie wine trade among other things. You can see in the close-up picture of Dan reading the menu that on the balckboard on the wall beyond him is written Picardy Pinot Noir. That's what I ordered. I also told the waitress that Dan was the winemaker of it. It was alright for me to blow his horn but not him I understand. That's okay, I thought that she should know.

The bit of time spent on the second morning at Dan's home in the company of his family as they got ready for the children's school day was really special, too. It was beautiful there in Pemberton at PICARDY winery. You can see the fresh fruit on the table in front of the group photo that was picked right off their fruit trees just feet away. The picture where the two children are studying the models in their hands and of Dan's daughter driving us there before are priceless. Thanks for sharing with us. TONY

PICARDY WINES, Dan Pannell, Owner & Wine Maker , Pemberton, western Australia, The Man I See

     This starts a series of stories about both the men and women that I met on my recent ( Feb. 2008 ) trip to both western and south Australia. It changed my whole idea about Australia and gave it life, red-white wine blood and liquid wine flesh. Fleshed-out and pulsing it leaped to life and created a full-blown, big screen series of sights, sounds, smells and textures in varying forms, colors and shapes. I was quite literally blown away - a new man was born in my body and I welcomed this good transition. The people I met really impressed me, too : both the men and the women and even the children, too. I was really happy at the end of each day there and that's largely because they took such good care of Chris Pigott and I and welcomed us into their inner sanctums.

     So I start with Dan Pannell today and will of course mention both his lovely wife and two children ( a young boy and  younger daughter ). We mostly saw Dan in action as he tasted us from the barrels of " new " Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. I LOVED the new 2006 Pinot Noirs siphoned up and into our thirsty wine glasses right there ( Poof! Like-magic!! ) on the spot : just Chris, Dan and myself. More personal, hands-on treatment you cannot get. It was a really hot summer day there in Pemberton but I did not feel it one bit while tasting these fabulous fresh, still growing-forming,developing character/personality Pinots.

     Chris and I did get to spent a wee bit of time in the company of all four Pannells present : mom  ( Sandra ) and dad ( Bill ) were on holiday I think. Chris and I had the chance to spend the night in their beautiful, bucolic, serene, country-idyllic Tuscan-inspired villa : magical. My only regret of these two days with Dan was that we did not meet his parents. That will have to wait till another time. I've heard so much about Bill that I am curious to meet him and see if we would get along? How would we mesh-our personalities? I love what he and Dan are doing with their wines: I love all the French-inspiration of theirs - in my humble opinion it elevates both Bill and Dan and their wines to a whole new level/plateau, niveau of wine that I love ).

     On the second morning Dan came by and roused us and got us moving. We were taking it all in one last time, sitting in the family room when Dan's little daughter poked her head around the corner of the French doors in front of me and " peeked " inside, searching silently for her dad! When she spotted him and Dan ( facing me ) saw my surprise he turned around, opened the doors, greeted her and introduced us. She, silent, blond hair flowing down over her shoulders hugged her father's legs and smiled but did not say a word ). I loved soon after her sitting on Dan's lap as she steered the small truck and her father watched attentively and talked her steadily through the twists and the turns and she got us to the winery with nary a bump or start, just appreciation for a job well-done. We later sat in the Dan and Jodie's screened- in porch and watched them get the kids ready for school ( Jodie brushed her daughter's hair ) and the son showed a number of his assembled models of various action figures and machines. He was quite proud of them and as he showed them to us he warmed to our presence. Nice.

     Dan impressed me so much with his brutal honesty about everything! It caught me so off-guard this honesty and willingness to share observations, feelings, opinions of his clearly not edited - so refreshing, so welcome, so amazing in a day and age where most everyone is guarded, vague, using words with double-entendres, rarely saying anything with any grit, grip or meaning that one can chew on and get any nourishment or satisfaction from. WOW! Thanks Dan. I will remember more the earnestness of your comments more than perhaps all the exact things you mentioned. We / you mostly talked about the wines, wine-making, the situation of wines today, the history of both your wines and that of western Australian wines, about the French inspiration started with your father, visiting Burgundy several times, your Burgundy connections, and what would -does make you happy. You're a family wine that's so clear. You adore your family and you obviously have a couple or more fishing buddies and you want nothing more that to be able to make an honest living for your family and have your better Pinot to take on fishing trips with them without running out! Jodie, do you ever go on the fishing trips with Dan?!? I'm sure the kids want to tag along Dan?

     Dan, you brought the trip to yet another level for me. You really got me to thinking about the inner working mechanisms of making wine and keeping a winery afloat and profitable so that you could continue with making the best possible wines and keeping that dream alive. You talked about the sacrifices, the compromises, each of the various areas and parts involved. You really made it come alive for me on the basis of a small winery like yours that I have grown to appreciate all the more after this visit. Since returning we have tasted here in the store the 2004 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the Shiraz and Merlimont red blend 2003's. 

     I like your wines with a bit of bottle-age ; that's when I think they really shine. We have sold quite a few bottles during these tastings here on Saturdays at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits. The other Saturday when Morgan Hartman was here doing a tasting of her Argentina wineries ( Susana Balbo and Mapema ) we thoroughly enjoyed a bottle of your 2004 Chardonnay and reminisced. She says " hello ". 

     Thanks Dan, Jodie, Bill and Sandra. Keep up the great work , the high standards and keep shooting for the stars. You're a class-act and one that I am proud to have here in our store in Washington, D.C. 

     I've included some of the pictures from that marvelous stay with you in Pemberton back in February, was it the 12th or 134th? Something like that.

     I can't find the photos here so I will download them in the following blog this evening from home. Stay-tuned. Cheers,    TONY