Horseback Riding Boots and Shiraz...

While visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Hawaii a couple of years ago, I was invited out for dinner along with my cousin and his wife. As our gracious host made sure that appetizers made the rounds and our wine glasses were full, talk turned naturally to wine. When he heard that Shiraz was my favourite, he leaned over the island and said "I have a bottle for you to try" in the most conspiratorial, low-voiced tone. He disappeared down the hall to reappear shortly thereafter and handed me a bottle with what had to have been one of the most bewitching labels I had ever seen. It was a Carnival of Love label on a bottle of 2005. He began to describe the flavour and the points and accolades it had received. We reverently swirled it in our glasses and I was enamoured at first sip. We even slipped the label off of the bottle and affixed it to a larger paper so that I might take away a keepsake. Days of my vacation passed as I went into every wine store I encountered trying to find the elusive bottle. He had to have bought it somewhere, right? A week or so later, when dispair had come to call and was settling in, I stopped in a small town at the north of the island on my return from horseback riding. I had passed this wine store countless times over the years and it was only remarkable for looking like a storefront from the days of the pioneers. Lo and behold, what treasures inside. The owner was a font of expertise and indeed did have Carnival of Love 2006 in stock. Soon I was merrily wending my way down the highway with a bottle of Carnival of Love as a thank you gift for the dinner party host, a bottle for myself and another of the equally gorgeous labelled Enchanted Path. Towards the end of my vacation, I began to walk about the house with a furrowed brow as I pondered the aviation rule regarding no liquids in carry-on luggage. Much to my delight, a bottle of wine fit snuggly and securely into each one of my riding boots. The stiffness of the leather protected each bottle on their homeward journey to Canada. Now my family teases me that the only reason I take my riding boots when I travel is as wine-carriers for the return trip.
We have just recently lost my cousin and I will always open and treasure each bottle of Carnival of Love not just for the elegance and perfection of the contents, but for the associated memory of sitting on the lanai in the balmy air, watching the lights of Kona sparkle in a carpet below, sipping my new favourite wine and listening to my cousin's laughter float into the night.