Fruitful day

February 28 was a very fruitful day with our agent Jean-François Courrèges, who comes from Brive La Gaillarde. The Palm Beach area is a sort of mix between Monaco, Deauville, Saint-Tropez and Neuilly. I rarely saw so many luxury cars: Rolls, Porsche, Ferrari, Hummer, Aston Martin… and private homes so expensive that the upkeep alone must cost around $1 million per year!

We had meetings every hour to introduce: Présidial Thunevin 2003 and 2005, Chapelle Ségur 2003 and the 3 de Valandraud 2003. All our meetings were positive (as in New York), and the customers were happy to meet us and took the proper time to taste our wines. I think that Jean-François was happy with this day as he was able to open 3 new accounts (which means 3 new customers having ordered) and 4 orders from existing clients. Incredible results: 7 orders from 10 customers visited all with Présidial 2005, plus 250 cases for a chain + 50 cases for other clients.

In a few restaurants, Valandraud is already on the wine list, like in the famous Café de L’Europe with 2 vintages and a special note for this place: Rainer Schonher is a passionate man, like almost everyone else we met during this trip, be it in the extraordinary Café Boulud and its garden-restaurant where we quickly ate lunch, the shop “C’est si bon” with the best caviar and luxury gourmet foods, or the pretty boutique “Vine Styles” where I was able to buy the March issue of Wine Spectator with the notes for the 2004 Bordeaux (90 for Valandraud, is not much) as well as (and that is better) Clos Badon which finished in the 50 best Bordeaux under $50.

The day ended at 11pm, busy and full of great meetings, with radio “Magic” 102.7 which plays standards from the 70s including Tom Jones, and that, is a favorable sign… I believe in karma, in positive energy when you start the day, when you think that you are going to meet nice people, pretty girls, friendly buyers ready to be seduced by us, our wines, both being inseparable.