I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about which bottles really pushed us into a passion for wine.
So What bottle did it for you and do you remember how it took place.
For me I can remember the exact situation I was in when I tried it. It was a Wine Spectator Grand Tour Event. While I “liked” wine before that event I went in knowing nothing about wine. Anyway I tasted way to many wines, to even remember, but the bottle that stuck out the most, and I could not get over how good it was, was the 2001 Mouton. After that night I made it a goal/passion/addiction to taste/learn/enjoy as much as possible.
It was a 2005 Patrick Lesec Châteauneuf-du-Pape Pierres Dorées. I was a “value” drinker up to the point, satisfied with just about anything that tasted okay and spending a lot of time in the Spanish section (this is not a knock, I love Spanish wines, it is just that I love different Spanish wines in 2012 than I did in 2007.) The CDP was the first wine I tasted in which I understood what the writers were writing about and wine lovers were talking about. I could actually visualize the structure of the wine and the complexity of flavors amazed me: they were distinguishable and integrated at the same time. I’ve been chasing the Holy Grail ever since.
55’ Cheval Blanc. I was ITB and had tasted many great wines but the one that still, after all this time sticks out the most is that wine, aged, complete, probably at it’s apex. Since then my cellar has been stuffed, aging wines, trying to find that perfect tasting moment again. I don’t think it was the wine being Cheval Blanc but a complete harmony of all it’s parts, at it’s peak.
While I already had a passion for wine and had started “collecting” a few dozen of bottles in the mid-90’s, it was the 1989 Cos d’Estournel that has drove the passion into obsession as now I have 100+ cases of wine.
That sole bottle of 89 Cos has been by far the best bottle of wine I’ve ever tasted. While I still hope to fine a perfect, 100 point bottle of wine, I would rate that bottle of Cos at 98 points. Subsequent bottles of 89 Cos I’ve had have been not on the same level and probably the best one of the several others I would put at 93-94 points.
Although I wouldn’t buy this wine today, my “aha” wine was the 1994 Silver Oak Napa.
Before that, I can remember being a starving college student buying 1987 Buena Vista Cabernet to impress my hot senior-year college girlfriend. I think it was around $10 - not really a king’s ransom, but at the time that was a month’s worth of Ramen noodles.
2005 Chateau de Beaucastel.
I was also a value-wine drinker, buying exclusively sub $15 wines, and bargain hunting as best I could in that range. My “special occasion” wines were anything above $15 (but always below $25).
I couldn’t figure out what to get my parents for Christmas, but I had remembered that their favorite wine was Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I went into a store, asked the merchant what a great CDP was that he was selling in the $100 range, and he picked that one out.
At Christmas, I advised them to cellar it for 10-20 years (what the merchant told me), but at their urging, we opened it 5 days later - they wanted to share it with my then fiancee and I (now wife). We did, after a short decant. Anyways, it blew me away. It took me a good 2 hours to finish the glass, as I was just savoring it. I haven’t looked back since. My finances were never the same.
1978 Stags Leap Cask 23 relished in 1991 returned my focus to wine. I was lucky as in the 1970s I got to drink a lot of French and Italian while growing up in NYC; Haut Brion Blanc was a favorite and remains the style of Sav Blanc I love best.
By the late 1990s I was basically done with spirits.
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