Bottle of Red

Thanks to our Tea Cup Congress I have a bit of time on my hands and so I went down to Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits this wet, chilly afternoon and joined the throng of peeps waiting to gawk at the winning skipper of AC 34.  I arrived fifteen minutes earlier than the published start time for the event but like all rock stars, Jimmy kept us waiting (he was the main attraction at an event over at the annual sailboat show and no doubt road traffic between city dock and Bay Ridge was at its boat show week best-- for those not familiar, Thursday is VIP day which features higher priced tickets and predictably smaller crowds; I always go during the weekend when the tickets are cheaper.  Yes the place is heaving with people then but that's part of the charm).

I don't know what role Jimmy played at the boat show but at Bay Ridge he was flogging Penfold Wines.  The room full of people snaked around and although I've never been to a book signing I suspect that the vibe was about the same.  Instead of people telling an author how much they enjoy his writing and getting him to sign a copy of the book, people were telling Jimmy how much they enjoyed watching him beat the New Zealanders and asked him to pose with them for photos.  I overheard one couple saying that the photo of man, wife and Jimmy would be their Christmas card pix.

When it was my turn, we shook hands and I said "I scarcely recognized you without the helmet and body armor, but I'm guessing you're kinda counting on that."  He laughed as he autographed my bottle of $9 red and asked what kind of boat I sailed.  When I said Moths, he looked up and I quickly indicated that I sail Classic Moths not the sexy foiler variety.  He said that he still has his foiler and that they're really not that difficult to sail.  Easy for him to say!  Every time I've tried it, I've been nervous as a cat about smelling bottom at speed with somebody else's expensive T-foils.  But I digress.  Penfolds had a selection of reds, mostly Shiraz and Shiraz-Cab blends, all offered in boxes showing the winning Oracle cup boat with the Golden Gate bridge in the background.  A good start to boat show weekend! 

This nice box of red plonk should keep the wife and me busy for a few days.

The signed bottle.  I wonder how many of these will wind up on flea-bay in a couple days?