1996 mount veeder reserve got me started
1985 dujac clos de la roche got me mad
The very first was a white burg tasting that featured 6 or 8 differet wines from the Cote d’OR. Not sure exactly which ones we drank.
The next one was an 1989 Marcel Diess Gewurtztraminer
The next was a 1990 DRC Richebourg. All within 6 months or so of each other
By that time I was fully hooked and on this endless journey. Since that time, there have been side journeys along the way with dead-ends in CA, Australia, New Zeland, and some great side trips to Rioja, Tuscany, Rhone, and Bordeaux but all roads lead to Burgundy, Piedmont, Alsace and Germany 
1995 Panther Creek Shea.
A simple bottle of 1982 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bottled Rutherford
Drank with my dad after a long day building a 100 foot cinder block wall in 1993. Thought I had died and gone to heaven. ![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}
I have two, both tasted when I was a teenager. Both seemed pretty much perfect at their particular moments in time.
83 Margaux tasted in 2003
91 Panther Creek Beaux Freres Pinot tasted in 2001 (I think 91 was the last year Beaux Freres sold fruit to anyone else but I could be wrong)
I blame my parents for getting me hooked early…
It was January 1982. My wife of about 4 months and I had dinner at the Top of the Cove restaurant in La Jolla CA and asked the sommelier for a recommendation. He suggested a '76 Heitz Cellars Bella Oaks vineyard cab. We both agreed that was a fabulous wine.
A '97 Giacosa Santo Stefano and an '85 Guigal Brune et Blonde.
2000 Cupano Brunello di Montalcino and the 1999 Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino, tasted side-by-side in a wine shop in Montalcino in 2005.
I blame my parents and their unwillingness to spend more than $6 a bottle on my getting hooked on wine late in life
'45 DRC Romanee-Conti
To continue as to the “how” part of the question. I moved to NYC in 1993. While there, I started to drink a little bit of wine, because everyone eats in restaurants. When my SO and I moved to the burbs, I started to cook and started to buy wine, because I had a buddy who had gotten into wine (eventually changing careers) and was encouraging me on. At this point (probably like a lot of people get into wine) I was grabbing Wine Spectator and looking in shops for Cabs that got great scores but were good values. (So maybe by some standard the Hess Collection was one of my revelatory wines.) I’d never really cooked before I was 30 - and because we have a rule that whoever doesn’t cook washes the dishes, and because I hate washing dishes, I took over some of the cooking and got good at it, which got me even more into wine. Anyhoo…
…I had a stretch of a couple of years in which I went to Seattle a lot on business. And this was when I was getting more and more interested in eating local foods. In the Northwest, that meant salmon. I asked “what do you drink with this” and Oregon Pinot noir was the obvious answer. Wherever I was (Chez Shea? Flying Fish? who knows) I got a splt of 1995 Beaux Freres (funny as I have never otherwise seen them selling splits) and it was like “wow, I’m on to something here.” Shortly thereafter, I found some dude who was running the “Pacific Northwest Wine Club.” Blanking on his name, but he was a good guy - recommended and sold to me lots of things before leaving the business, but the one that most blew me away was the 95 Panther Creek Shea. The next day, I picked up the phone, called the winery, and introduced myself to Ron - “how do I get some more of this?” Wasn’t long after that that I took my first trip to the Willamette Valley.
Mine was a 1998 bottle of Silver Oak Napa Valley. I was at dinner with a group of business associates. My wife and I had bought a few bottles of wine, having graduated from Beringer White Zinfandel fame a bit earlier. Most of the guys at dinner were “beer drinkers”. Only the host was a wine guy. So when it came time to order the wine, he said someone get us some wine. I was the only other guy there who drank wine so the table looked at me. I had no idea and certainly didn’t know what the “budget” was. So I looked at the wine list as the host did too and he said, “Russ, why don’t you get us a couple of bottles of Silver Oak”. It was the most expensive wine on the menu. After drinking it that night, I was hooked on California Cabernet.
+1 Random 1957 Chateauneuf in about 1967, when I was 16.
My kids blame me too. They can’t drink wine when they go to parties unless they bring something from my cellar.
Spring Mountain 68/69 Lot H cabernet sauvignon and an early vintage of Sutter Home (don’t laugh) Deaver Ranch (Amador) zinfandel.
No laughs here. I remember when 1977 Sutter Home Amador County Zin was by far the finest wine I had ever tasted.
93 Havens Reserve Merlot out of 375. Blew me away and have been on the trail ever since. Unfortunately I was drinking alone that night so no witnesses!
Lately I have been getting the same joys from $15 bottles of wine! Easy to please these days as long as it is lean and lots of acidity.
Here neither, had a very good example of 1974 Sutter Home Deaver last summer.
I believe it was a 1982 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon. Getting hooked on red wine was the best thing to come out of that relationship… ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
The 83 Groth Reserve got me started then the 84 GR set the hook, I still really like Oakville Cabs.