most indelibly etched on your memory?

bottle, glass or just a taste. what’s the one you had that left the greatest impact?
2 for me. 1990 monfortino and a 78 rousseau ruchottes.
both wines blew me away from first sniff to their incredibly long finishes. but mostly it was the soaring aromatics that left their impressions on me.

was thinking about this last night as i was trying to find some reasonably priced older monfortinos. yeah, right.

My first tasting at the cellar of René Rostaing in 1990: after leaving we drove to Burgundy 2.5 hours North, and I still had the smell of his Cote-Roties in my nose (erspecially the La Landonne) … I looked back several times to my purchased cases of wine thinking a bottle was broken … so intense was the memory of this smell …

2001 Chateau D’Yquem… other worldly.

1982 Mouton
1991 Ridge Monte Bello
1990 D’Yquem

61 Laguiche Montrachet from a Double Magnum
67 DRC Montrachet - the wine that taught me about DRC Montrachet and everyone elses Montrachet

LOTS of old red burgundies but I’ll never forget a few, like 61 Faiveley Tastevin Amourueses, 49 Clos de Chenes from Bichot, many many 62’s, and lots of old and well stored DRC and Leroy before anyone was chasing them.

A 1976 Heitz Cellar Bella Oaks Vineyard Cab. Had it at the Top of the Cove restaurant in La Jolla. First wine to make me say wow this is good.

1976 d’Yquem - This was my “a-ha” wine that clued me into the idea that I did like dessert wines. We had it at the tail end of a tasting of white wines that were all “past their prime”. Three cases of old '92 Montrachet, Alsace Grand Crus, and other wines that got forgotten in the basement of the wine shop. This was the surprise blind wine of the night…what a treat.

1995 Musar - My first experience with this wine (2+ cases ago) was in the summer of 2007. In a grouping of '97 Napa Cabs, '97 Brunello, '96 Bordeaux, and a mystery wine. There were 5 sets each containing one of each group. When I got the the Musar initially I thought it was a Brunello as I’d had little experience with Brunello at that point and didn’t know what to make of it. In a set of 20+ wines that had wines like Penfold’s Grange, and other stars…this shone the brightest. At that time is was $32 off the shelf ($29 with a case discount). To have an “affordable” wine blow others 3x-5x the price was an eye opener for me. This was the start of my love affair with Musar.

not that it’s a competition but it’s going to be awfully tough to top these wines

1999 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses, in 2012.
I know this is rather modest, but this wine showed me what all the Burgundy fuss was about. I can still taste in my mind the focused, earthy beauty of this incredible bottle. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to buy much Burg at this point and none of the Burgs that I have tried since then have lived up to that bottle (including a 2000 DRC Echezeaux a few years ago).

1961 Leroy Musigny, 1953 Margaux and 1985 DRC RC…three way tie.

+1 (My descriptor has been “ethereal”…)

1964 Cheval Blanc from an impeccable cellar (not mine, my date’s). Brought to La Folie (Rolland Passot’s restaurant in SF) and served with their (excessive, but fantastic) truffle-oriented menu. Good Lord.

1970 Petrus and 1970 Cheval Blanc served side by side in the same blind flight. I can still clearly recall both wines nearly 20 years later.

Four separate occasions, unable to pick just one:
1959 Lafite
1929 Bouchard Pommard Rugiens
1947 Marc Bredif Vouvray
1989 Haut Brion and 1989 Petrus

A different list if the occasion, not just the wine, counts.

Lots to choose from, but a good friend and his father opened 71 Gouges Les st Georges and 64 Pousse d’or ( think it was Clos de la Bousse d’Or ) , that I always think back to fondly. 1863 Latour in 2000 at a Latour vertical, before a Christies sale that will always stay with me, and a '29 Latour in Macau,also before a Christies sale that was better than the '61 that night.I’ve written before about a '71 La Tache in Jero, served for a charity event in Toronto, that was mind blowing.I guess I shouldn’t leave out '85 Ramonet Montrachet that was otherworldly.

'59 Petrus

29 d’yquem, 90 rc

A major birthday with a lunch at Ridge hosted by Paul Draper, drinking a vertical of Ridge wines going back to the late ‘60s, and all my close wine friends there.

1992 ZH Rangen
1996 ZH Rangen
1953 Lafite
1989 Lynch Bages

I have a bottle of the 92 Rangen standing in my cellar right now. When did you drink it?