John's Blend
Ron from Australia approached me one day in the “Vinyard” as I was typing.
“I see you have a Dell,” he said. “So do I, and the thing is, I forgot my charger at home. Brought 2 batteries, but now I’ve run them both down. Any chance you have a charger and I could borrow it?”
“Sure,” I said. I got his room number and said I’d call him later. Shortly after that Hans joined me so I explained about Ron and just then, Ron walks by with 2 splits of champagne and frosted glasses which he was bringing to his wife who was doing their laundry. We arranged for Ron to pick up the charger later and in return, he said he’d buy us a nice bottle of wine, which he did. To our sincere appreciation, a fine bottle of Australian Rosemount Shiraz was delivered to our dinner table that evening.
We ran into Ron again the next day at the pool and we talked about wine. John Glasier (sp?) was the chief winemaker for Wolf Blass and John’s a friend of Ron’s. John left Wolf Blass to make his own wine, though he’s on retainer as a consultant to them for which he gets paid a very handsome annual salary for about 2 hours work. Nice job if you can get it!
John apparently makes a very fine blend called plain, ordinary John’s Blend. Evidently it’s quite pricey and made in small quantities. Ron recently bought 6 of the last 10 cases from 1998 John – who kept the last 4 for himself. At a restaurant in Vegas they offered a recent bottle of John’s Blend for $200. When Ron told the sommelier he had some of the 1998 vintage, he sommelier brought out an older wine list where they were selling it for $2,000.
In other news, Ron mentioned that he and his wife have friends in France and they had driven to Marseilles, our first stop, to meet up. High winds prevented us from docking so that trip fell through. They also have friends in Mykonos who came to meet the ship and there too, we didn’t dock.
“I hope you don’t have friends in Istanbul,” said Hans.
“I see you have a Dell,” he said. “So do I, and the thing is, I forgot my charger at home. Brought 2 batteries, but now I’ve run them both down. Any chance you have a charger and I could borrow it?”
“Sure,” I said. I got his room number and said I’d call him later. Shortly after that Hans joined me so I explained about Ron and just then, Ron walks by with 2 splits of champagne and frosted glasses which he was bringing to his wife who was doing their laundry. We arranged for Ron to pick up the charger later and in return, he said he’d buy us a nice bottle of wine, which he did. To our sincere appreciation, a fine bottle of Australian Rosemount Shiraz was delivered to our dinner table that evening.
We ran into Ron again the next day at the pool and we talked about wine. John Glasier (sp?) was the chief winemaker for Wolf Blass and John’s a friend of Ron’s. John left Wolf Blass to make his own wine, though he’s on retainer as a consultant to them for which he gets paid a very handsome annual salary for about 2 hours work. Nice job if you can get it!
John apparently makes a very fine blend called plain, ordinary John’s Blend. Evidently it’s quite pricey and made in small quantities. Ron recently bought 6 of the last 10 cases from 1998 John – who kept the last 4 for himself. At a restaurant in Vegas they offered a recent bottle of John’s Blend for $200. When Ron told the sommelier he had some of the 1998 vintage, he sommelier brought out an older wine list where they were selling it for $2,000.
In other news, Ron mentioned that he and his wife have friends in France and they had driven to Marseilles, our first stop, to meet up. High winds prevented us from docking so that trip fell through. They also have friends in Mykonos who came to meet the ship and there too, we didn’t dock.
“I hope you don’t have friends in Istanbul,” said Hans.
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