I should have clarified what I meant by ripening — I was referring not to a long enough season but picking them at the right time and storing them properly. It takes time and energy to be keeping track of which pears you picked when and how long they have been in the cooler. Apples also require some work there, but they are much more forgiving in terms of their cold storage requirements. For me I want about half a dozen different pears which will be spread out over a long period of time.
Docteur Desportes is different than Andre Desportes. DD is something like Bosc but less russet and fatter and stubbier.
Superfin was an easy pear to grow, but it was really hard to ripen for me. They needed to be picked early or they would rot inside. They are a more lemony pear in flavor, like d’Anjou. I grew up eating rock-hard d’Anjou pears and that may have turned me off that lemony kind of pear flavor for life. I’d like to try a Superfin grown well by someone else to see if its my climate or the pear itself that I don’t like.