by Jenise » Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:19 pm
That Lapierre. I once had a friend named John who worked at a local store selling wine. He'd had an epiphany about Beaujolais, a story that involved a Foillard and a bus wobbling through Portland, Oregon, a story I remember but to this day don't exactly understand. But however it went, the result was John coming home and ordering a ton of Beaujolais for his store much to the consternation of the manager of said store who didn't know the difference between Cru Beaujolais and the bubble-gummy unsold Nouveaus they dumped in the remainder bin every December after the parties were over.
The vintage was 2009. And much of what John bought were magnums, especially the Lapierre and Foillards. Only a few customers, me included, fell under their spell, and the rest languished.
Then John got sick and things got real bad real fast. He was sent to hospice where "any day now" turned into two months, during which time I visited every day unable to stand the thought of him not knowing how much he'd be missed, which of course he wouldn't know if he measured it by the people who visited once and then quit coming. Many of those days he wasn't lucid, but on one of the good days he asked if any more of the Beaujolais had sold. Then a few days later, as if it hadn't been asked before, he asked again. When people are dying they tend to review their lives and often think a lot about their mistakes, even well-intended misjudgements, and for John a burden of his deathbed right up there with being sorry to leave his wife and two brown tabby cats was over-ordering those Beaujolais.
I stopped by the store on my way home that day and bought every last bottle. The next time he asked, as I now realized he would, I would be able to delight him with the news that they'd all been sold. To distinguish them from later purchases we dubbed them the John Bottles. This was the last John Bottle, and it was the best Lapierre I've ever had. As it should have been.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
