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WI NE S
Their Selection and Service
Connoisseurs of premier wines,even as the wines themselves,
are rare birds. They are those who constantly seek out hidden
caches of fine vintages (years),for the year of a wine's birth has
all to do with its quality, and, by devious means, having pro
cured that which they sought, retire into their secluded nook
with much self-satisfaction.
These self-same connoisseurs then will spend much time in
sweet anticipation of the impending event and, when the au
spicious moment arrives, and the treasure be drawn from its
secret resting place, again it is they, and they only, who bask in
its bottled sunshine and fawn in the flood of their friends' rap
turous approval anent its body, bouquet, etc., etc.
However, these connoisseurs being rare birds, indeed, it is
not to them, who surely need no guidance in their quest for
vintage, that this short treatise is dedicated. Rather to the com
mon flock, or fledgling if you please, nine hundred ninety-nine
strong to each connoisseur, this feeble effort from a sea of vol
umes is respectfully offered.
For those whose palates and whose nostrils are not so
keenly attuned to that finesse acquired by the epicure in wines,
for those who though they might enjoy the bouquet, yet do not
readily recognize it, and, for the very life of them, could not
name its vintage, the publisher offers.what aid he might.
Wines,in one form or another, have come down to us from
the days of the Pharaohs. It is claimed first to have been dis
covered by the Egyptians in the earliest days of history. These
pyramid builders are reported to have fermented, from the ten
der shoots of the date palm, a liquid termed Araq. This was
man's first knowledge of wine,and if history is to be relied upon,
the fluid produced was plenty potent.