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This was a fun month and year for me at the Mayflower Wins and Spirits. In June 1985 we received our shipment from ROUND HILL California winery and I got to design the wine labels for our Mayflower Wines And Spirits' house wines : a dry Chardonnay and a dry red Cabernet Sauvignon. This was fun, I loved it, I even took a bottle of the ROUND HILL Chardonnay from California to give my good French friend and chef and owner of the Hotel De La Madeleine in Sarlat, Dordogne, France to offer as a gift. This is the store email that owner Sidney Moore sent out to announce their arrival. Cheers, TONY 1/ 12 / 2015 ... it is 30 years later now, wow, how time flies when you are having fun!

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This picture is Alessandro seen through my glass of the VERBENA Brunello Di Montalcino that I was drinking during the previous tour that he had taken time out of his busy schedule to take my daughter and me around in Tuscany to visit one of his fine producers, the wife tasting with us, and her husband busy at the time picking olives to make their first-season's batch of Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil that year, was it 2009, I believe so? Grazie Alessandro for this, too. So much to be thankful for. Glad I am finally sharing some of this here where it all started back in the mid eighties.

This is more a blog to say ' caio ' to an old friend that stepped up to the plate for me a year ago when my family was in Tuscany, Italy visiting our son in Florence, and he took a whole day off to take them on a tour of Tuscany, picking them up at a local train station there in Tuscany one morning and driving them around in his car to show them a town that made excellent Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil as well as many other fine products, met the owner and had a personal tour , guide and explanation, that may have often been translated into English by Alessandro? I am not sure I was not there.

This was last year's Thanksgiving break back here in the United States and so I was stuck here busy at work managing the Cleveland Park Wine And Spirits' store and selling lots of wine, recommending often those that I purchase from Alessandro through the Michael Downey Imports' portfolio that is quite extensive and quite excellent. Over the years I have met many ' new ' owners and winemakers of Italian wineries that are imported here by the Michael Downey portfolio.

I continue to call it the Michael Downey Italian portfolio because he was the founder and sadly passed away sever years ago with his wife Peggy and his two children , Brennan and Shannon keeping things going.

But it is when I worked with Michael Downey back at the Mayflower Wines And Spirits that I met both Alessandro and Andrea that came from Italy from their wineries : Franco Furlan / Castelcosa in Friuli,

and Fossi in Tuscany

to both learn English and have a retail experience in a boutique wine store in our nation's capitol specializing in Italian imports brought here by Sidney Moore's father Aaron Millman and his wife Helen Millman. Aaron had honed so many of his wine skills while previously working for the Milton Kronheim Wholesale company many moons ago. He also must have learned how to taste wines as part of the Consortzio of Chianti Classico wines in Florence while living there and a member , too of the Consortzio/ Black Rooster / Galo Nero fame?

Anyway, I have gotten to know both Andrea and Alessandro now for many years, seeing them now and then briefly and I am thrilled to have this relationship that still endures and grows and stays strong after so many moon's passing. That means a whole lot to me.

Then other day when I asked my wife more about their day with Alessandro and found out that Alessandro paid for the meal , a long and very satisfying luncheon; well, that stood out for me. I wish that we had paid and not Alessandro. But I am touched, deeply touched, and I am all the more happy to sell and recommend his Italian wine selections that I buy from Brennan Downey when I can. That is very special indeed to me and always makes me happy. Grazie mille times for that Alessandro, you did not have to do that, and I do appreciate it, really I do.

I am sick as a dog with a bad cold here at home and when I rose I started to compose this and remembered that my wife had pictures that she took of this their time with Alessandro and have asked her to send them to me to include here where appropriate. I will also ask my brother-in-law to do the same with the pictures that he took. That will make this day, their day, the four of them with Alessandro come even more alive.

Cheers and stay-tuned for more shortly. I will post this now ' as is ' and add a bit later. Caio e prego e a presto Alessandro! TONY Sunday a 12:03 PM here in northern Virginia on a beautiful day today. I like it, will step outside now for a few breaths of fresh air and then come back inside as I do not want to get any sicker, just better.