As I mentioned in the first blog here David Bryant took a small group of us to Italy a few years ago, I think in 2005. I'll check my notes to be sure. It was an incredible trip. This blog will primarily be about that trip but it will include " other " Italian stories and vignettes, too. This one will be about David and the time I saw him at Sutton Place Gourmet on New Mexico Avenue sometime perhaps in 1993-1994 I am guessing? Anyway, it's a story about Italy and David but about olive oil, extra virgin Italian olive oil - Tuscan to be exact. It might even been about the great Poggio Lamentano Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil that the Mayflower Wines & Spirits imported years ago in the 80's. That was an incredible time of three years in my life that I worked at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits with owners Sidney Moore and Michael Downey, both big fans of David's. On our trip in Italy David often alluded to some of the incredible moments he had spent together with Michael in Italy. You could see / hear that it was like ambrosia for David to remember these moments and he'd become even more alive and animated. Michael, too passed away a few years back. He, too was taken from us all at way too young an age.
David, you will be missed. I knew you were sick and I remember leaving a message for you several month's ago on your phone and I never got a response. You may have returned my call to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits where I manage the wine department but I never got the message. This is of course one of those moments when we all say to ourselves that we wish that we had called back until we finally got through to you. I'm sorry now that I did not. Our precious time ran out, too soon for you our friend.
The last time I really thought about you in any detail was when Paolo the owner of ISOLE E OLENA came to our store to do a tasting. Our local rep Chris Pigott from Country Vintners dropped him off and I wondered why you were not there in person with him. You had originally perhaps two years before brought Paolo to the store. I have pictures of that and I will have to include them here on this blog later. I missed you at our last marvelous tasting with Paolo and his " new " releases at the store. We sold quite a bit of his wines that Saturday afternoon and I think that he enjoyed himself a lot.
At Sutton Place Gourmet I had taken Ugo Chiolo of the Piemonte region of Italy to meet you and taste his new releases with you. Ugo makes a series of wines : Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Barolo, Freisa sparkling, touch-fruity red, Arneis white, Grappa and more. I was working for Wines Limited at the time and that's when I got to know Ugo. Anyway we tasted you on one or two of Ugo's wines and you tasted us on one or two, maybe more of Italy's excellent extra-virgin olive oils. You gave us a " mini " lesson in olive oils. I think Ugo already knew much of what you said but to me even though I had spent years selling these high quality Itlalian olive oils at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits it really served as an excellent " refresher " course for me. Thanks. I've got these pictures by my side of us at Sutton Place Gourmet with you. You look so young, your hair so curly, a gentle smile in a couple, intentness of purpose in tasting both olive oil and wine in a few of the others and one looking Ugo directly in the eyes as you make some point or other which of course was important at the time. What was it? Was it about the history of the vines, the olive trees, the history of people and place, specifics about a certain local or custom, even a colorful story of years ago that still rings loud and clear and makes us all pick-up our ears and smile from one to the other in acknowledgment and appreciation both ... that common thread of truth and shared experiences common and profound to us all? You were a source of many stories and histories. You liked to share them. You'd tell them with punctuation, pause for effect and a touch of both highs and lows in your voice to signal appropriate excitement and accents of gravitas when merited.
So anyway David though you are now gone I will continue to share these few " David " stories where I was a part/involved - sometimes in a big way and sometimes only marginally as an interested spectator.
I do remember one of our last conversations over the phone. It was very much a warm, heartfelt conversation where we somehow naturally just shared mutual appreciation and respect for one another. You talked about my art, about the way I welcomed and made people feel at home when they visited the store ( how much you liked bringing them to the store, about mutual friends in Allesandro Furlan and Andrea Fossi : and I talked about the great trip to Italy that you had hosted and which I had so many wonderful memories that I would relive from time to time and always feel better for it.
Thanks David, stay-tuned for lots more. Get a comfortable seat wherever you are. We're going to have more fun you and I and the other three driving madly, insanely through Italy this time on my stories and prose and vignettes in that Hercules Fiat van. And even though my words might be a bit crazy and hard to follow at times we will not be in danger of an automobile accident! Cheers, we made it, what a trill ride it was thanks in large part to you. I still remember that magnum of PAOLO COPPO sparkling Piemontese that we had in the town of Barbaresco in the restaurant called Steele or Stiele was it? I'll have to look it up. You did not sell it here in the U.S. but you said you wanted to make the trip memorable and share a range of the great things Italian, not just those you represented. Kudos to such fine sentiments, they were appreciated by all of us then and now. TONY