Our Blond Goddess Waitress @ Mano's Restaurant In Green Point, Cape Town South Africa For Lunch, March, 2009

I was quite literally swept off my feet / my eyes did double-takes here!


Our blond waitress here was professional and stunning and composed all the while that she did her job and took our orders and served us and was all the while quite aware that I was taking picture after picture of her here at lunch this early afternoon at Mano's restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa in March of 2009.




I was in the company of two really talented South African artists as well as that of my guide extraordinaire and South African wine importer. It was all that I could do to hold it all together as the wine, the company and conversation, the excellent fresh indigenous seafood and this blond goddess waitress waited on the four of us. Wonder of wonder and wondrous devilment and excitement as my mind went into an intense overdrive and my senses and circuits all but overloaded : were taxed to the max. I enjoyed the various sensations immensely and am happy to have these photos to share to help bring it all back to me as it was really way too much for me to absorb all at once : simply not humanly possible.




I will probably add more here as time allows. In the meantime I want to share these wonderful pictures with you and apologize for some of the grays here as my camera was still unfamiliar to me at the time ( a Canon ) and was playing tricks on me that at the time I was completely unaware of. Sorry, especially to this blond waitress that does not deserve any of this as she was quite literally breathtaking.




It's Monday night here in northern Virginia, U.S.A. at 11:44 PM on December 28th, 2009 and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Cheers, TONY

Saturday, April 25th, 2009 With THELEMA 2004 Rhine Riesling , Helshoogte, Stellenbosch, South Africa : Dry, Medium Golden Colored Wine

Since I placed this at my chatart blog site I will have to call this blog entry also : The Art Of Getting To Know & Understand & Appreciate The 2004 THELEMA Rhine Riesling over the latter part of Saturday, April 25th, 2009 and extending into both Sunday and Monday , April 25-26th, 2009! Cheers, and read on ...


I just visited THELEMA Vineyard Winery in the slopes of the Simonsberg mountains in Stellenbosch, South Africa last month on Friday, March 20th, 2009 with my incredible guide and host John Morrison. We could not stay long : it was just a visit to see it and say " hello " and to be again off to our appointment with owner Ian of the ELGIN VALLEY vineyards.

It was great to see THELEMA and the superb peacocks that they have there roaming the grounds around the home, vineyards, tasting room and cellars. I saw them ever so briefly from the periphery of my left eye as we hurried over to the tasting room to see if the owner ( Thomas Webb ) was there to see us. Funny, he was walking over to the tasting room just behind him as the peacocks moved away from the three of us all. John Morrison did not get a good look at him and thus did not recognize him.

We got to the winery and had a chance to scope it out before meeting him.

Yesterday late afternoon Arielle brought a bottle of the 2004 Rhine Riesling 2004 to taste with me. She had just opened it and tried it before bringing it to me. She thought it good but a touched oxidized. I noticed the mid-golden color to it and liked that there was no noticeable petrol bouquet to it : I also liked how dry and closed it seemed to be. I was not crazy about it but happy considering the sale price of $12.99 that we can sell it for. I was also excited about being able to taste it on this upcoming Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 ( Our " Big Theme " monthly South-African wine-tasting from 5:30-8:30 PM ). That's all really exciting as I have just visited a month ago THELEMA. I like all of that and that one of our sales reps Marci Weinstein (Constantine Imports ) knows both the father ( Thomas Webb ) and the son well , having lived in South Africa and having gone to the wine program of twelve or so students ( with the son ) in Adelaide, South Australia. It all ties together.

It's a small world as I was speaking earlier yesterday with Theresa Morrison who also just returned from South Africa ( who also visited THELEMA and actually tried either the 2006 or 2007 Rhine Riesling and liked it very much. She said that they age beautifully but realized that many people today like their Rieslings young. I immediately countered that given the opportunity to taste the wine on Wed. April 29th ( she and John Morrison her husband will be our special guests for the evening along with Ian Tarlie ) , and it being ON SALE for $12.99 that I believe we will sell a lot of it. People when given the opportunity to taste the wine can quickly decide whether they like the wine or not and buy it if the price agrees with them.

We had our customers try it in the store ( Ian Tarlie and Fran his wife were both there ) and the consensus seemed positive on this 2004 Rhine Riesling from THELEMA. It was warm and so we tasted all the strengths and the flaws of the wine : nothing was hidden. It was also nice to give the wine some time to open gracefully as it did improve in my opinion.

I took the bottle home at 9:30 PM when we closed the store. I put it into my trunk as it was an open bottle and I did not want to have any trouble with the police. It can be tricky here about that and I am, after all in the wine business. It had been more than three hours since I had tasted it so I did not worry that it would affect my driving : but you never know when a cop may pull you over for whatever : a tail light out, expired stickers, whatever. You never can be too careful.

When I got home I had my Boston Chicken meal awaiting me : chicken and sliced french fries ( actual sections of the potato ) and cinnamon apples in a sweet sauce. I brought my meal downstairs to join my wife and my son and I had two empty glasses and the bottle with me. I poured for my wife and she tasted and liked it immediately. She was happy that it was a dry Rhine Riesling and she enjoyed the glass with her favorite Firehook Bakery seeded thin ficelle ( string ) baguettes that I buy specially for her.

I began to really enjoy this wine after I ate my meal. I was beginning to relax and it felt great to be off my feet finally after a long day's work and a long week at work in Washington D,C, at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 , sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com Tel : 202-363-4265 ). I was now able to fully concentrate on this 2004 THELEMA Rhine Riesling bottle.

We were watching the movie called " Under The Tuscan Sun " with Dianne Lane and I was enjoying that as well. I began to appreciate the flavors of this Rhine Riesling now : they were more open, broader, more silky and round and more subtle, too. I began to realize that at this temperature ( not being chilled ) that I was able to pick up on all it's elegant flavors that had less sharpness or edge and no petrol flavors. It was a nice pure, mellow bright taste of filtered sunshine through these five-year-old Rhine Riesling grapes from Stellenbosch. I was really enjoying small taste after small taste as the liquid covered my tongue and saturated in parts and in others just grazed or accented it. It was a wonderful experience between me and the wine and the beauty of Italy and the attention to details of all from the wine to the dialogue and ways in which scenes were captured on film.

I still intend now to chill the rest of the bottle and taste it chilled. I cheated now as I started to type once again : I took a small swill from the bottle here to my left by the monitor. I also intend to take a couple of photos of the wine in the glass and the bottle besides it.

In the meantime I have included some of the pictures that I took while there with John Morrison. I loved the ornamental grass here in the open space before the tasting room. I've also included pictures of Thomas and of Andrea the beautiful young lady pouring behind the counter that offered me quickly both a taste of the THELEMA Sauvignon Blanc and the Cabernet Sauvignon.

I have already blogged about this visit with John Morrison to meet with owner Thomas Webb on chatwine.blog spot. Return to that to see more pictures and read more of that wonderful story. Cheers!

My work is almost done but not quite. This has been a fun story to relate the day after tasting the wine and the day before my son's birthday ( as well as the day before South Africa's " Freedom Day " ) : lots to celebrate from small pleasures to big and medium-sized ones : as well as big events, too! We've got lots in our glass ( plate ) so to speak now.

The weather here in northern Virginia where I live is in the 90's and really warm and beautiful. I will relate more as things unfold and as more glasses of wine are poured. Cheers, TONY

JUST ADDED : Thursday morn, March 20th, 2014 : ...


  This was such a lovely serendipitous visit to THELEMA Winery in South Africa with John Morrison back in 2009 I believe when the tow of us visited a number of really great South African wineries and John showed me, first-hand a number of sights and views and places, introduced me to a country, it's food and it's wines and culture in such a up-close and wonderful way. Thanks John, this was one of the best trips that I ever took. You gave 120 percent to it and I will never forget it. Cheers,  Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn 3/20/2014  on a foggy morn here Thursday, March 20th, 2014 ...   TONY

Me After Stomping Grapes At BEAUMONT Vineyards, Walker's Bay, South Africa, Fri. March 20th, 2009 : What Fun!

I hope that these pictures are not to disturbing or graphic. They are meant as a pure art piece that I did serendipitously and am happy to now have and to share with you. Hope you like them and the stories below.







Here I am grinning at the end of taking all these close-ups of myself ( just before my shower to wash away all the evidence on me of this crushing/feet-stomping of grapes ) with my artist's eye and intuition at work to record and preserve this spectacle of myself after stomping the grapes. I like preserving moments, especially moments like this that are perhaps for me " once-in-a-lifetime ". Funny, I'm looking at almost every moment today as being once-in-a-lifetime. I'm enjoying trying to live in each moment and make it mine as well as share it. I'm intense, perhaps more than I should be but intense no matter what.

I have included a few pictures before the stomping here with the preparations ( getting the music set-up to churn out pulsing rhythms, the candles lit by Sebastian's assistant winemaker, and John Morrison checking out the old cement vat filled with the grapes to be stomped, and the picture I took of those grapes before the stomping.

As you can see by these photos some of that grape juice and some of those skins of the grapes still clung to me even after Val had hosed me off for at least three minutes after I got out of the cement vat!

I like that I have a glass of the current port-style red wine in my hand in a lot of these pictures. I had taken it with me back down to the cottage before changing into the white t-shirt and the faded khaki torn shorts that I had brought especially for this task-labor-or-love. Sebastian had said to bring clothes that could be thrown away after this mission.

There's a starkness and a grittiness - a pithiness to these close-ups. They do bring back some of the exaltation and grime and fatigue that I was feeling then. I did not drink any more of this port-like red wine. I was too tired. After the stomping I was wet, a bit cold ( I warmed myself by the fire outside ) and drank two glasses slowly of the dry BEAUMONT rose - the Raoul's dry rose I believe that we will get shortly. It was just right for me after these intense moments of stomping.

Pictured here is Vivian with me the morning-after. She and her friends had camped-out at BEAUMONT and I saw them ready to leave so I rushed over to wish them well/thank them and snap this picture of Vivian before she left. We talked some while we stomped grapes and then afterwards around the fire with her young German lady friend that was studying to be a doctor in Berlin and that had come down to work at an Aids clinic in Cape Town.

I have also included two pictures of the sketches that I drew to leave with black water color as " thank-yous " to the Beaumonts for their hospitality and kindness. One's of people stomping grapes in the cement vat and the other is a written " thank-you ".

I also took pictures of what I believe in their small cellar by these cement vats of older vintages of this port-style red wine of theirs? I like the colorful labels: and the bottle-shape they are in remind me of port bottles ( though their current bottle shapes are different).

The bottle may be visible on the table in front of Jayne Beaumont with all the glasses and other bottles ready to be poured as the guests ( some eighty or so , I was the only American in the crowd I believe ) : I hope it is. That's why I included this picture, to show the event from start to finish - the whole circle so to speak.
















I was a damp, sticky mess after stomping grapes at the BEAUMONT Winery's Annual stomp to make their small amount of port-like red wine that we now have been selling at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 202-363-4265, sales@clevelandparkwine.com ) for two-three years. I will have to buy some of the 2009 that I worked so hard to stamp this Friday evening just a month ago. Wow, that was a first-time-ever experience for me that I will not soon, if ever forget. Thanks Jayne, Sebastian, Ariane and John. I loved it, really I did. Just look at me and my clothes and my smile and the glass of it I have in my hands later after all the activities and I return to my lovely room in the old white cottage there by the old mill at BEAUMONT. I loved staying in this fabulous old cottage.

Enjoy these photos. I will talk more about them as time permits. In the meantime I want to post them and call them the " art of the moment " - me, too. What a sticky wet mess - what fun it all was! Cheers, TONY

Jayne Beaumont's Artwork I Saw In Walker Bay, South Africa Fri. March 20th/Sat. March 21st, 2009 - Enjoy!

I love your colors and compositions here Jayne! TONY