An Eastern Migration

Posted by : Chris Corley

In the (bizarro) spirit of those great Jeffersonian explorers, Lewis and Clark, my wife and I loaded up our stagecoach full of wine and blazed back east to visit a couple of our distributors recently. We made good time as our 'coach' was a newer model built by the team over at Virgin America.

Julianna's sister lives in Brooklyn, so we got a great feel for the local mojo in her neighborhood. There are some very nice restaurants and hangouts within blocks of her house, and a subway stop within a block, which was nice for our daily migrations to Manhattan and New Jersey ...

We spent a day in Manahattan and a few days in New Jersey, and the reception to the wines was excellent. It was also fun to visit with some of the retailers and restarauteurs who remember our Monticello wines from the late 1900s.

Our MONTICELLO Cabernet Franc and our CORLEY Proprietary Red Wine were big hits, and I was very happy with how the wines were showing throughout the week. People were really excited about our use of Cabernet Franc in our blends and in the 100% varietal bottlings.

On our last evening there, we had dinner with our NJ distributor, Jeff, and his lovely wife Sandy. They've been enjoying wine together since they got married nearly 27 years ago. The restaurant was a BYO (Bring Your Own, because they don't sell wine at the restaurant). Among others, Jeff brought two bottles to dinner, a 1986 CORLEY RESERVE Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1986 CHATEAU MEYNEY St. Estephe. What a treat to taste the two bottles side by side! Both had aged gracefully and we easily segued into a conversation about what makes the great wines age well. Jeff is a nut about wine, and he also brought a very nice German Pinot Blanc and a beautifully complex Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) for the evening. What a great dinner with great friends !

We're already looking forward to our next market visit back east !