Vinisud and points beyond…
After a couple of getting adjusted days in Paris, it was time for the boss to see Montpellier and come face to face with most of our southern French and Rhône producers. The biannual trade show called Vinisud takes place on the outskirts of Montpellier, a beautiful small Mediterranean city that would be a great place to spend extended time or even to live. It’s that nice.


The trade show turned out to be intense and very interesting as I met the brothers Dardè from Domaine Les Yeuses, Beatrice Nivolet of Château Haut-Blanville, the amazingly brilliant and animated Alain Razungles of Domaine des Chânes, Isabelle Coustol of Château Sainte-Eulalie, and Magali Combard-Couvignou of Domaine St-Andrè de Figuière who graciously took us to dinner at a wonderful new small restaurant in the heart of Montpellier called Tamarillos, which is soon to be awarded its first Michelin star.


We also met with the alluring and high-energy director Cècile Doussère of Domaine Montvac (in Vacqueyras in the Rhône valley) and Jean-Francois Arnoux of Maison Arnoux et Fils (southern Rhône valley.) It is great to be able to associate the faces and personalities with these various wine labels that have been appearing at Pier 19 over the past five years.


On another note, our accommodations throughout our five-day visit were nothing short of splendid: we stayed at a “Relais et Châtea” small hotel called “Jardin des Sens”, which is a two star Michelin restaurant owned and operated by the twin chef brothers Pourcel. Even breakfast was an adventure and impeccably rendered. Last but not least I got a chance to meet and visit with Alexander Krossa, originally from Germany, who is married to a lovely French woman and who is our agent throughout these southern French regions and Burgundy. I also met and dined with Elizabeth’s friends the Poiriers who hosted her during a year abroad program in 1993 during her university studies.


Next came the Spanish leg of the trip which was devoted to establishing a solid relationship with our new agents from a very small, rather new company called "Vinexplora" – a fellow named Diego and two women named Pilar and Anita and a sommelier from the Ritz in Madrid named Javier. We encountered several very interesting and exciting new wines, both reds and whites as well as a very attractive rosè, a dry sherry, and a delicious olive oil. You will be seeing many of these over the course of the next year.


Finally, we wrapped things up with a gala weekend in the Rheingau in Hattenheim which hosted a €1250 per person dinner at the elegant Krone Schlösschen Hotel featuring wines from the Staatsweingut going back to 1897! The dinner was limited to 26 people, which included journalists, state domain director Dieter Greiner, and Hessen state’s Minister President Roland Koch and his wife. I had the pleasure of sitting next to renowned English wine writer and Master of Wine, Jancis Robinson, which was great fun.


The following day featured the 200th anniversary Staatsweingut tasting and auction which was oversold by 100 places and culminated in the sale of one of the state domaine’s all-time greatest wines: 1920 Steinberger Trockenbeerenauslese, which achieved a staggering price of €10,300, or about $13,000. The record snowfalls the day before didn’t seem to deter the avid tasters or bidders. On Sunday, we tasted our first 2005 Rieslings from Weingut Barth which are a very encouraging indication of this vintage’s potential.


Rest assured that you, our wonderful customers, will reap the rewards of this trip as we are working to bring you the finest wines for the best value.