Dispatch from the #Cabernet Road

So I left home at 10:30 am with the intent of visiting as many Orlando-area wine purveyors as I could to identify/participate in their #Cabernet Day activiites. My first stop was at Vin'Yard in Ormond Beach. I arrived at around 11:30 am, stepped in, and was greeted by a vast array of nothing. These guys were unaware that this day existed. Even though I had communicated with them. I walked around the joint for awhile, sheepisly admiring the cheeses on display. I engaged the sales person in a dialogue about the wines on display and then left. I was heading to Deland.

I drove across to Deland and decamped at The Elusive Grape. I stepped in and Bill welcomed me with open arms. His first words were Happy Cabernet Day. He then proceeded to break open a bottle of 2005 Chateau de Chambrun and pour me a glass. "This is one of the bottles we are going to be having tonight," he said. He then continued to decant some of the bottles he was going to be having later that evening and I sampled them.

I ordered lunch from a nearby Mexican restaurant and my steak went very well with the 2002 Slaughterhouse Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. I had only intended to spend an hour at Bill's establishment but the wine, food, and conversation stretched on pleasantly. I looked at my watch. It was 2:30! I had to get the hell out of there.  On to the Wine Den in Mount Dora.

The Elusive Grape

The Elusive Grape is a warm, customer-friendly, neighborhood retail store/wine bar located in downtown Deland that serves as a gathering place for local residents and as a great book-end to Cress Restaurant (a wine-friendly Deland restaurant that will be reviewed in the future) for out-of-town visitors.  With an on-premises license, the Elusive Grape offers over 30 wines by the glass for its patrons pleasure, a substantial retail wine store, beer and artisan cheeses.

The Elusive Grape was founded on April 1, 2003 .  Bill, the owner, had previously operated two restaurants in the Deland area and had sold those to his partners.  His introduction to the wine business came while he worked with the Ritz-Carlton in Naples in 1987.  At that time Berns Bestaurant had conducted on-site sommelier training courses for Ritz-Carlton staff and Bill had taken advantage of that opportunity.  After leaving the Ritz-Carlton, Bill went to St. Thomas where he opened a liquor and wine store.

The Elusive Grape opened initially with 100 wines and with the intent of being a retail establishment.  The Volusia licensing authority had him put in a sink and make other improvements to the property and this led him to pursue an on-premise license.

According to Bill, while the Elusive Grape is the face of wine drinking in Deland today, there was a wine culture in town prior to it's arrival.  Residents procured wine but went over the bridge into Seminole (Pierre's) and Orange (Tim's Wine Market) Counties to do so. 

The Elusive Grape has grown tremendously since its inception even though, like most retailers, they have lost some business to the grocery store and the general slowdown in the market.  Customers,80% of whom are "regulars," can consume wine on the premises without paying a corkage fee.

In addition to drawing on the regulars who come in on a daily basis, the Elusive Grape takes advantage of the fact that Deland is the County seat for Volusia and betwen 26,000 and 34,000 people come into town each day to do business. 

The Elusive Grape does not prepare meals on the premises at this time but it has mutually beneficial arrangements with all area restaurants.  If a customer buys a bottle of wine at the Grape, they can take it to any nearby restaurant and consume it with a meal without paying a corkage fee.  If the customer wishes to remain at the Elusive Grape, food can be ordered from any nearby restaurant and it will be delivered for consumption at the Elusive Grape.

I was at the Grape on Saturday from a little before 2:00 pm to a little before 6:00 pm and saw a steady stream of regulars and visitors come onto the premises and order for on-premise consumption or take out.  They were cheerfully greeted by Bill and offered help if needed. 

Susie, who just passed her first-level sommelier's exam, was a stalwart behind the bar. 

This is a very comfortable environment and the regulars will welcome you with open arms. 

A must for any wine drinker visiting Deland.

Elusive Grape Pouring: Lessons Learned

So last Thursday(February 18th), I am travelling from Lake Mary to Tampa on my twice-weekly jaunt (three times a week now that we have a new employee who does not know, or does not care, that the national unemployment rate is just south of 10%), listening to Lady Gaga (yes I said Lady Gaga), when I get a telephone call from Robert Goulet (you have to be a "special" person to choose that hallowed name as an alias on a wine blog). "Hey," he said, "are you going to the Kapcsandy tasting tonight at The Elusive Grape?" Now I was totally baffled because I was not familiar with the winery or the scheduling of a tasting at the mentioned locale. I told him that I was unaware of the event but that I would give Bill (the owner of The Elusive Grape) a call. So I called Bill (I was a little hurt that Goulet knew about the event and I did not) and asked him how come I had not been invited. "I didn't have you on my mailing list," he said, "but come on over. It's going to be great." So I went.

When I got to The Elusive Grape in Deland, I found that the tasting was a benefit in support of Journey's End, a doggy hospice program. Attendees were assessed a $10 charge plus had to bring an item that could be used by Journey's End. All proceeds went to Journey's End. It is estimated that upwards of 100 people attended the event.

The wines on offer were from Kapcsandy Family Winery (2006 Estate Cuvee, 2006 Estate Cabernet, 2007 Estate Cabernet), Erba Mountainside Vineyards (2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 Merlot, 2004 Syrah, 2007 Chardonnay) and Pina Napa Valley (2006 Cabernet D'Adamo Vineyard "Yountville," 2006 Cabernet Buckeye Vineyard "Howell Mountain"). The 2007 Kapcsandy Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was rated 100 points by Parker so having this wine poured in his establishment was a coup for Bill.

The wines were set up on a table to the left of the bar and patrons rolled by this stately assemblage with outstretched glasses so that Gerard Moffet, National Sales Manager for Kapcsandy, could deposit the valuable juice therein. A number of issues here. First off, the glasses that were utilized were very small and, combined with micro-pours, did not allow for meaningful evaluation of the wines. Second, Gerard could have been more suitably attired in order to align with the general attendee mode of dress (Gerard is the one on the right in the picture. Bill is on the left.). He also could have been more forthcoming in his answers to questions posed and could have looked at his watch 50 fewer times.

The size of the crowd, and the method of wine distribution, made it very difficult for Gerard to control who had which wine in their glass at a specific time. He did try to go from white to red and from least impactful to most impactful but people knew that there was a 100-pointer in the house and wanted to get at it. The fact that only one bottle of the 100-pointer ws on hand for a crowd of this size exacerbated the problem.

So what did we learn? First off, this was a pouring, rather than a tasting (see my 2/19/10 posting). Second, the appropriately sized glass is key in an event such as this (see Robert Goulet's posting of 2/22/10). Third, the winery representative should have enough wine to adequately conduct the event. Fourth, have the winery representative send you a picture of what he/she plans to wear to the event.

Both 2006 and 2007 vintages of the Kapcsandy Cuvee were poured and the "07 was obviously a very special wine. The winery, and its products will be covered in greater detail in a future post. The Elusive Grape will be covered in fuller detail in a future post.