Top ten events that really spurred your interest in wine

There is a wonderful thread refloating around about the 10 wines that most influenced your interest in wine, your palate, etc. Your ten most influential wines - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers However, it made me think that in many cases it was not a specific wine but an event or series of events that did so. So, I thought I would start a new thread regarding specific events that influenced you on wine.

For me:

1. Thanksgivings at my parents’ house. My father really is the one who taught me about wine. He owned a wine store and as I got older he and I would share bottles at Sunday night dinners at home, etc. But, the big event every year was Thanksgivings. My parents had a large crowd to our house every year for Thanksgiving and dad would put away wines to open at Thanksgiving each year. Most of the crowd could not have cared less about these wines, but there were a few of us who sat around a table many years after dinner and did a more serious dive into great wines. In those days, the wines were mostly Bordeaux and Burgundy, with some German wines as the whites (that is what my mother liked). My wine drinking at these Thanksgiving events probably was mostly from around 1973 or so when I started college through 1985, after which these dinners were too much for my parents and decreased in scope. But, they really helped form my palate.

2. Meeting an old friend in DC. When I first got to DC, I reconnected with a childhood friend who finished law school when I did and also started working in DC. We had both become interested in wine (we are still in the same monthly wine tasting group, etc.) and started spending some Saturdays going around to wine stores in DC where a number had wines open for tasting. I learned my ways around DC finding stores like Morris Miller, Eagle, Harry’s at the Waterside Mall, Calvert, Woodley, MacArthurs, A&A, etc. We also found a wine bar at the time in the basement of a Vietnamese restaurant called Chez Maria and got to taste wonderful wines there. [Disclosure: I think I took my now wife there as early as our second or third date and several times thereafter.] And, I learned a lot about wine, leading to:

3. Heublein Wine Auction Preview Tasting. Somehow, this friend or I (I cannot remember which) found out that there was going to be a Preview Tasting for a Heublein Wine Action at a hotel in Woodley Park in DC. This would have been I believe in 1983. For the cost of $35, we took the afternoon off from work got to drink some of the greatest wines in the world including Essencia from the 1950s, BV Private Reserve from like 1968-1978 (Heublein owned BV), 1959 Petrus, 1928 and 1971 Yquem, 1934 Chambertin, 1940 la Tache, 1945 CdV Musigny and others. We now have another good friend who we found out years later was at the same event. Really got to see what great wine is really like.

4. Robert Parker and 1982 Bordeaux futures. I had started reading wine books and a few wine magazines but was not impressed that much by any of the wine magazines of the time. Then, I found out about the Wine Advocate. Starting subscribing - I think the first issue was about 1979 Bordeaux. But, obviously, the big issue was the issue where he raved about 1982 Bordeaux. Like most wine lovers of my generation, I bought as much 1982 Bordeaux as my wife would allow. [We were pretty much newly weds when futures came out in 1983 as we were married in 1982 so I still thought I needed to listen to her back then. ] My 1982s have long formed the bedrock of my Bordeaux collection, although the number of bottles I have left are dwindling over time.

5. Three days in Beaune. In 1984 my wife and I thought we should go on a big trip before we had kids. We thought about going to Napa, but with the dollar so strong at the time vs. the Franc, we went to Paris instead. And, I got to spend THREE DAYS IN BEAUNE. It quickly became my favorite place in the world to visit and we have gone back in 2002 (my first visit with Jacky Truchot (with my kids)), 2007, 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018.

6. David Schildknecht. Back in the 1980s, there were no emails from Envoyer or websites with wine lists. I found about about wine sales from the Monday Washington Post. In around 1984 or 1985 or so, I saw the first ad focused almost entirely about German wines. So, I went to a store called Rex and met their wine buyer - David Schildknecht. From that point through around 1991 or so when he left DC, I bought most of my wine from David, learning about Terry Theise, Bobby Kacher, Loire Chenin Blanc, Jacky Truchot, Bachelet, etc., etc., etc. After my father and probably the people in my wine tasting group, David was probably the biggest influence on my developing palate.

7. My first two offlines. I started participating in wine bulletin boards fully early with the old AOL wine board. Over time, I did a number of wine boards culminating at the time with Mark Squires (which later became ebob). I saw a notice there about a couple of offlines over time at a restaurant called Lavandou in Cleveland Park. It is amazing to me how many people I met at these two wine tastings. Most importantly, I met my good friend and board member Randy McFarlane, who invited me to come to his wine tasting group dinners (also at Lavandou). Although some of the names who come to these tastings have changed over the years and Lavandou has closed, I still go virtually every month to wine tastings with this group (at least did until social distancing started), still see Randy, and some of my best friends today are in this group.

8. John Gilman and two nights of the wines of Jacky Truchot. The best wine events I have ever attended. I had bought wine from John Gilman for a number of years and so had started subscribing to his new wine newsletter A View From the Cellar from issue #1. He knew I loved the wines of Jacky Truchot. He wanted to do a feature for issue 2 on the wines of Jacky Truchot and came down to DC where two dinners were organized on consecutive nights to taste about 40 wines from four vineyards (first night, MSD Clos Sorbes and Clos de la Roche and second night GC Combottes and Charmes Chambertin). Hands down the best wine tasting I have ever attend, even including the Heublein auction preview tasting and the various Paulees. Frankly, the only things that have come close are a couple of tastings with Jacky Truchot in Burgundy.

9. Dom Ruinart. Never was much of a Champagne drinker. Didn’t love the stuff. Started changing my mind with the wines of Cedric Bouchard and other things people brought to our monthly wine tasting group dinners, but still liked but did not love the stuff. That all changed one night when I was invited to a dinner (organized by the same Randy McFarlane) with the then (about 2007) new Chef of Caves at Dom Ruinart Frederic Panaiotis. Boy, was this dinner an eye-opener. Have been liking Champagne more and more ever since.

10. The Paulee Grand Tastings. I first found out about the Paulee Grand Tastings in NY on a wine board - cannot remember whether it was this one or eBob. Two friends of mine and I went to our first Grand Tasting in NYC in 2006 (for the 2004 vintage) and have been going back every time the event is in NY (although the number of friends who go have increased over the years). Have learned so much more about Burgundy producers from these events.

1. At 10 years old, we had Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn. She served Andre Cold Duck, and between consuming too much wine and I’m sure too much food, I ended up asleep on the living room floor after dinner.

2. As a freshman in college, I liked a young lady who liked Zeller Schwarze Katz and that become the first wine I ever bought. Later in college, another young lady liked something called Chardonnay.

3. After moving to Los Angeles at age 24, I lived with my best friend from high school. He liked Champagne and he liked James Bond movies, so there was Bollinger in the refrigerator for special occasions. The first memorable Champagne I drank was a 1979 Bollinger R.D.

4. When I was 30, I was at a party and one guest turned the host and asked, “Is this wine dry?” I wondered what ‘dry’ meant, so…

5. When I was 31, I started taking classes at The Wine House. After an introductory class and a “how to taste wine” class, I started taking survey classes of wine varietals and wine regions. From the beginning, I liked Champagne, German Riesling, aged Rioja, aged Nebbiolo, and various Pinot Noirs. Then I tasted a Leroy red, and it was all over.

Monday night wine dinners in the - a med school housemate was into food and wine. Monday nights he’d cook up a feast and we all had to bring a bottle. That combined with the owner of a shop a couple of blocks away who would advise me on what to bring kindled my interest in wine. Led to my first bottle of Haut Brion, which took things to an entirely different level

Discovering my father had developed an interest in wine. He opened a Gruaud Larose for dinner when I was visiting from school. The next day we took a drive to Scarsdale. I was like a kid in a candy shop wandering the aisles at Zachys.

Discovering the back room at a local shop - The manager would open something good and sneak a couple of us back there in the days before it was allowed. The wine experience was undoubtedly enhanced by the feeling of getting away with something a bit illicit, but the wines could stand on their own. The first time it happened was a 1982 Penfolds Grange Hermitage.

Bill Weaver, John Layne - not a single event but a couple of tastings with these two that led to formation of my first tasting group, the Tannin Pigs. Oh the times we had and the wines we drank. This led to some life-long friendships with people we hold very dear.

Lots of other amazing experiences that fed the flames but these were the ones that lit the fire.

Schmidt’s Beer

Miller Hi-Life

Asti Spumante

Gallo Hearty Burgundy

Veedercrest Chardonnay

Pommery Greno Champagne

Christmas Eve

Barbara

Sally

Sharon

Love these reminisces. Howard, are there any more VN restaurants in DC like Chez Maria? Sounds cool and funky.
I’d like to add some of my own. Perhaps I might have seen you at some of those DC stores before, who knows? But certain shops have been instrumental in getting a base of knowledge about wine. I remember one in particular in a small city suburb that would open up bottles among the cases in the back, just…because. And these were nice wines, like Cornas, and 2nd growth Bordeaux and the like. Very informative and casual. Offlines definitely, some of the best memories of wine and food and friendship.

An interesting question, Howard. For me:

1. A visit to Dry Creek with some friends, one of whom went to Sonoma State and knew some wine makers. We visited Pedroncelli and what was then Sonoma Vineyards. At the latter’s tasting room, they had table service and they’d bring several glasses. It was my first chance to taste different varieties side by side.

2. In law school in the east, my roommates and I got interested in wine and started trying different things, and we occasionally organized dinners where we tasted wines side by side.

3. Back in SF for a visit, I attended a blind tasting group that Claude Kolm ran where we tasted eight classified growth Bordeauxs.

4. My last year in law school, I connected with a tasting group of grad students and tasted some 20-year-old premier cru Drouhin wines – a revelation.

5. After taking the bar exam, I went on a three-week trip through France and Italy with one of my wine-loving roommates. This was September of 1983 and we managed to taste barrel samples at Mouton, Palmer and Margaux. We went on to CdP and visited Rayas, then made an unplanned detour to Chianti on our way to Florence. We circled back through Austria and Germany to Burgundy and Champagne. I found that being able to visualize the vineyards when tasting made it much easier to absorb and remember what I was experiencing tasting.

6. By the time I returned to San Francisco to start work, Claude was running two blind tasting groups, which I joined. I also started going to another long-standing blind tasting group with several people from the trade and some academics who had decades of experience.

7. The '82 Bordeaux futures were coming in and went to Premier Cru’s tasting bar nearly weekly to taste them and Northern Rhones. I lived near Singer & Foy in SF, which carried pretty much all of Kermit Lynch’s wines and had a tasting bar, which I frequented.

8. When Claude started his Fine Wine Review newsletter, I tasted through oodles of wines with him – often several nights a week.

9. A number of tasting trips to Bordeaux, the Rhone and Burgundy with Claude between the late 80s and the early 2000s were hugely educational. Tasting intensely in Burgundy, where producers typically have vines in different towns, allowed me to grasp the archetypes of the different communes.

10. In 1996, I made the first of ten visits to the Langhe. Each trip I made a point of visiting some producers I hadn’t been to before. The most informative tasting was one at Vietti in 2002. Steve Tanzer had been there the day before, so they had all their '98s and '99s open. That was the first time I really grasped the differences across the Barolo zone. Later visits to Burlotto and Vajra were particularly revelatory.

11. In 1997, I made my first visit to the Mosel, and spent two hours with Hans-Leo Christoffel of J.J. Christoffel. He offered a dozen or so pairs of Urziger Wurzgarten and Erdener Treppchen of the same level side by side, working our way up through the Pradikats. Magnificent! On other trips, I visited other regions. The other real high point was at Rudolph Furst, where his son ran me through the extraordinary range of whites and Spatburgunders and Fruhburgunder. Another real eye opener.

I have to admit that the biggest “event” outside of some dinners or tastings was our man Morley going on national television and telling us all that it would make us healthy and thin!

That provided the excuse to turn it from a luxury that we probably couldn’t afford to a necessity of healthy living. By the time it started coming out that maybe he was a bit over his skis, it was too late!

Mine can be summed up easily: travel.
I had been drinking wine for years, but never understood the sense of place until I consumed wine in its region of birth.
Chianti in Chianti on a bike tour. Same for Bordeaux, Gigondas, Napa, Douro, The Rhône Valley, etc.
You will never forget the experiences of drinking wine in and where it came from.

Exactly!

David,

We met at one of my original two dinners at Lavandou. Certainly added to the importance of the event. Unfortunately, you were at the other table from me, but I remember talking with you.

There are other Vietnamese restaurants and other wine bars in DC, but nothing like the wine bar at Chez Maria. Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple of years or so after we found out about it. The first time I went there they were pouring a flight of three Leoville Poyferres - 1966, 1970 and either 1967 or 1971. Other times I got to try things like Chateau St. Jean IDBSLH Riesling Beltaire from 1978. Lots of really interesting stuff even for about 1980-1982 or so when I went there.

I completely agree. And, this is even more true if you drink a wine where you have visited the producer. For many years, I had trouble figuring out when my wife would like a white Burgundy or not. I couldn’t figure it out by style or anything else. But, now, after we have visited a lot more producers, it has gotten really easy. If we have visited the producer, she likes the wine. I cannot say I am that bad, but an awful lot of the wines I buy and drink come from producers I have visited.

Keep this things coming. David and John are around the same age is me and while we had somewhat analogous experiences (e.g., John getting to know Claude Kolm, me buying wine from David Schildknecht), they also were very different. I think where you come from and how you learned about wines makes a huge difference in the preferences you develop.

I think the one really uniting factor for my generation of wine lovers was buying 1982 Bordeaux futures. Today, you may be a Burgundy lover, a Bordeaux lover, an Italian wine lover or a California wine lover, but if you were buying fine wines, in 1983 you were buying 1982 Bordeaux futures.

A great idea for a thread.

1985: my first trip to Bordeaux for a wine course at Chateau Loudenne. I had been reading voraciously about wine, and tasted as many as I could, but this was the first formal wine class taught by a Master of Wine, with trips to many chateaux including Lafite and Haut Brion. I later affiliated with Loudenne and ended up doing several events there.

2. Living in Switzerland for two years and working as European Correspondent for Wine Enthusiast. Sexy title for what was then a relatively small publication (it was actually called the Wine Times). But it got me a lot of access, and also allowed me to visit and learn.

3. Joining Winos of Westchester. A group of wine lovers living locally. A dozen members, each person would host once a year, and put together a blind tasting. Some really memorable events.

4. Going to restaurants with amazing lists. One was called Dudley’s owned by the Rink family and their son Mark who loved Barolo and was happy to share some of his great finds. Also the incredible list at Kittle House and their amazing sommeliers, Gustavo and later Leo. Many a happy Friday with friends buying a dozen bottles of really great wines. Cheeseburgers and Roumier.

5. Vinexpo. Every couple of years in Bordeaux, miles of displays (literally) tasting whatever was interesting and then some incredible black tie events at night.

6. Learning to speak passable French. The difference to me as a writer having to follow the fractured English of many winemakers and being able to converse properly made a huge difference to me. Much easier today, as many winemakers have taken lessons and speak excellent English.

7. My first trip to Burgundy. Took many during my time in Switzerland but the first time was truly eye opening.

8. Dinner at Mouton in a greenhouse type building for the Fete de la Fleur. Mouton 1982 was served, Placido Domingo sang, and the fireworks at the end were magical.

9. My first 100 point wine chez Guigal (see other thread)

10. The realization early on that I was in so rewarding a profession and hobby, and to the friends that I have made along the way.

Yet another great list. I like the idea of “cheeseburgers and Roumier”.

I love the combination of good Burgundy and burgers. A good bachelor meal: burgers with mushrooms and roquefort and Bize Savigny.

• subscribing to WS, and then WA
• subscribing to Prodigy and the wine board there, on which RP was the resident expert
• going to local wine tastings hosted by the local retail shops; at the time, some of these were really good, e.g., horizontal 1985 (and later, 1990) Bordeaux tastings
• going to Napa for the first time
• the Dilworthtown PA Offline where I met Mark Squores and Arthur Johnson and a bunch of others
• the NYC offline when the Yankees beat the Braves and I got to taste 1982 Latour, amoung others
• MacArthurs Napa futures tastings
• and maybe #1: I was a dedicated beer drinker finally shown the light at a company-sponsored luncheon outside of London, with a nice selection of White and red burgs. I was hooked.

1/I was going to school in Tours, France. A friend had gotten into three star Michelin restaurants, so I tagged along, after we smoked some kif.
The combination of wine and food at Chez Barrier blew my mind…truffles…really great wine…all for very little.

Of course, drinking wine in France opens your mind. This was 1968.

2/I got a job driving a truck of a liquor store that has morphed into K and L in Redwood City. I had never thought of wine as a career, I was just trying to postpone becoming an adult with a real job. I knew one of the guys who ran the wine department and he kept inviting me to tastings…verticals of Latour, etc.

3/The store had wines we could buy for wholesale…this included Ramonet’s wine for $4…'64 DuCru for $8…

4/The two guys running the wine department started their own store and the new owners had to depend on me…heh heh

5/I remember the Heublein tastings, which were really amazing in the beginning. Everyone crowded around the Bordeaux selection leaving me to work over the 19th century Bouchard PF selections. Who knew that I would end up selling barrels made at Bouchard while competing with Vincent Bouchard?
6/At another one of these tasting I ended up spending the day with Jean Troisgros and Becky Wasserman, who later became a business partner.
7/I got a job for Dominique Lafon at a winery called JW Morris, now gone. My friend who ran the winery loved to throw dinner parties with great wines he had bought when wine was cheap…the farewell dinner for Dominique finished with 31 Quinta da Noval. There was a 64 la Tache in there. Maybe it was 66…when my house burned down I lost all my notes.

As mentioned in 10 most influential wines thread, an Easter dinner at a friend’s home, her busband and a friend were sorta geeks, they opened some wines (nothing impressive by wine board standards) including a 1982 Gloria which entranced me. I don’t remember what I brough, but sure if I did I’d be embarrassed.

Various store tastings at Rochambeau and Zachys. I don’t love ZH these days, but meeting Olivier Humbrecht at Rochambeau was special. Zachys had memorable tastings, when I had higher tolerance for crowds.

A dinner of Niellon (Chevalier, Batard, and Vergers) at Montrachet in 2000. Some friends gave me 2 seats for my 40th, amazing night.

I had been to one offline about 20 years ago, a dismal affair with people braying about how many points their wine got from RP. I thought never again, but then Greg dal Piaz invited folks to a tasting of ’77 & ’85 Cal Cabs , mostly from his cellar (rest of brought mostly the whites) . First in East Village. . “77 Davis Bynum and ’85 Phelps Backus were best wines, but main thing to me was a good group of generous curious winegeeks- Jayson C, Jay M, etc. I owe lots of dinners to this – after first offline I was ready to give up

Mark G organized a dinner to create a Westchester group (eventually named SOBER – Several Oenophiles Being Extremely Rambunctious). Great bottle of ‘99 Ramonet Caillerets edged a ’93 Damoy Beze and my ’79 Drouhin Beze, but main thing was beginning of a new group, which accounted for a significant percentage of my greatest wines of all time, and greatest wine friends of all time.

Similarly, a look at “reasonably priced Bordeaux” organized by Arv Rao about 20 years ago led to our Bordeaux monthly group (still referred to by some as the Arv/Matt group though they’ve both been on West Coast for years). Some great wines, even better friends.

That’s six but enough. Last 3 led to hundreds of memorable events, and lots of memorable friends. Friends are more important than even wine.

Thanks Dale. I should have included SOBER in my ten.

I think we adopted a new explanation for the acronym suggested by Dan Tisch. “Sons of Bitches eating ratatouille”. This then morphed into “sons of bitches embibing [sic] rotgut”.

I remember meeting you and Randy at Lavandou. I didn’t realize that was one of the first few. It was a great group of people. Distance was the only reason I didn’t participate more.