This morning our modem died. Or, as they say in pidgin, "Da kine all bus' up. It wen go junk." Ron needs his modem to work, so he took Crawford for a ride to town. Crawford loves to ride. Meanwhile, I took Doc and Hopps for a nice long walk. As we were heading home, we heard rustling in the bushes along the roadside. Then, there she was. The biggest, fattest feral pig I've ever seen. Whoa! Dis one fat wahine pig. I've seen fatter pigs in barnyards, for sure, but not fatter wild pigs. She must have gotten into some good gardens. The chubster swinette waddled away as fast as she could once she saw us. The dogs were mildly excited by her. Ah, the adventures of rural living in Hawaii.That was pretty much the highlight of my day. The winery was busy and the day went by quickly. There were lots of nice people buying lots of wine. There was one woman in particular who made me smile. She was also not just a little irritating. Here's a taste of how the tasting went with her:
I explain, "This wine is made with 100% symphony grapes. Symphony is the name of the grape. It's a cross between a granache gris and a muscat."
She asks, "How much muscat is in here?"
I say that there is no muscat in the wine. The muscat is a grape used to cross with the granache gris to create the symphony grape. Symphony is the name of this grape. This wine is made with 100% symphony grapes."
Then she says, "I can really taste the muscat."
OK then. I describe another wine. "This is the Volcano Blush," I say. "It's made with 50% white grapes and 50% jaboticaba. (The photo above shows how it grows.)
She takes a sip and says, "This must be mostly grapes. I can hardly taste the jaboticaba." Of course, she's never tasted jaboticaba before, but somehow she knows this. (Most people say just the opposite, by the way.) I say, "Well, it's actually half jaboticaba." She ponders this. "It's an interesting fruit flavor," she says. "How much jaboticaba did you say is in there?"
This is where I begin screaming "why me?" inside my own head while outwardly grinning and agreeably nodding.
Later, I explain the Mac Nut Honey wine. "It's made from honey that bees make when they pollinate blossoms on macadamia nut trees. That's why they call it macadamia nut honey. There are no nuts, grapes or fruit in the wine. It's just made with honey." She tastes it, then asks, "How do you make wine out of macadamia nuts?" "Well," I say, "There are actually no nuts in the wine. It's macadamia nut honey wine."
"How can you call it wine if there are no grapes in it?" she asks. This is actually a pretty common question. I explain that wine can be made from just about anything. There's blackberry wine, for example, and even dandillion wine. We make these wines you just tasted from jaboticaba and guava. She tastes again. "It tastes like honey," she says. (Gee. I wonder why? Lot's of people say this too, but by now, coming from her, it was especially grating.) "What kind of grapes are in this again?" She asks. I answer, "There are no grapes. It's fermented honey."
So when I say she made me smile, she made me smile when she left.
On a positive note, I did earn eight bucks in tips today. That's $8.25 to be exact. I know, I know. I have no intentions of spending it all in one place. I plan to diversify. One shouldn't put all of one's tips in one basket, after all....
Oh, and we played a lot of Jack Johnson today in the tasting room, which really always does make me smile.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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