| I can’t believe it took me three years to write about this wine!!! The first time someone mentioned Fernao Pires to me my response was something like, “Isn’t he a forward for Arsenal?” Okay, never mind. Being the inquisitive type, not knowing what it was all about, I grabbed a bottle to taste. Popped it with one of my wine tasting pals, and were we blown away. That very weekend, I was invited to a party out on the houseboats of Sausalito, and I brought a six pack of Fernao Pires, and low and behold, I left the party with a litany of names that wanted more!
It’s that good. Well, maybe it’s not just that. No, it IS just that. Well, that and the fact it’s a little off the radar of even the most finicky white wine drinkers out there. Take my landlords for instance. I’ve been living in my treehouse cottage for a year and a half now, and I have shared wine with them a handful of times, but for the most part, I barely see them. He’s an English bloke, and goes back to the old sod once or twice a year, and recently I ran into him outside my front door.
“Hey Kevin, thanks a lot for letting me pick the tomatoes. How was your trip?”
“Not bad. Getting killed with the currency, you know, but not bad.”
“Hear ya. You missed a good bout of warm weather here, but I guess you can see that as evidenced by the next wave of ripe ones.” Tomatoes, that is.
“Indeed, Peter.” The formality kills me. “Say, you know, on the flight home, I had the loveliest wine that I’ve never heard of. So I did a little research on it, and it turns out that your shop carries it.”
Fresh on the high of the old vine Carignan that we recently raved about, and still do, I blurted out, “Oh the old vine Carignan?”
“Come on Peter, I know what Carignan is.” He said in a somewhat annoyed kind of way.
“Oh, sorry ’bout that. Of course. I know, you mean the Fernao Pires, don’t you?”
“That’s the one. Right. Can you please bring a couple bottles round, then?”
And two more fans are born. I was worried because right after their first order, we quickly sold out of what we had. Come to think of it, that happens a lot around here. We get hold of some cool, esoteric wine that packs a wallop of quality for a stupidly low price, and poof, it’s gone. Lucky for us, we were able to get more, and it’s now back in stock. I’d hate to say no to my landlords, especially in light of the work done on my roof this week. Thank you very much.
|
