Disambiguation required… full, or, empty?
I’m hopefully hanging onto a bottle of 1946 Château Mossé Rivesaltes until I’m 70…and it’s 100. Does that count?
I expect to drink all of the bottles I’m sentimentally attached to. They’ll just be opened with the right person or on an anniversary or birthday. It’s usually the occasion and the people rather than the wine itself that creates the attachment. If I’m really attached I’ll save the empty. One of my favorite empties is a magnum of 1961 Château Margaux signed by Corrine Mentzelopoulos and Paul Pontallier. From a dinner with them at the Château in 2005.
I was holding onto a bottle of Diego Maradona malbec purchased at the gift shop at the Bombonera, but during one of my many office moves it disappeared.
I also have a 97 Buena Vista cab, which is one of the wines that got me into this hobby when I was out in the Bay Area for school (and which I doubt I’ll ever drink).
someone fairly attached to a bottle:
https://www.google.com/search?q=rectal.bottle&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#imgrc=0zvA3qMS0CFh1M:
But not wine.
I have a couple bottles that aren’t necessarily “special” wines but they were signed by the winemaker so I have them on display and don’t plan to drink them. I also have a couple bottles left from cases of birth year wines we purchased for our kids and served at their bar/bat mitzvahs, and I am holding onto those to give to them.
Can I ask why you wouldn’t drink the wines and keep the signed bottles? Unless you plan to sell them, which it doesn’t sound like you are — quite the opposite.
I’m particularly smitten with 1970 Pape Clement, a great birth-year wine that holds nostalgic value for me. But I am not “attached” in the sense I won’t drink it (much less physically attached). To the contrary I drink it, have a few in the cellar, and buy more as needed. I don’t drink it “often” but I do drink it, and it is special every time.
I have a number of 1983 Oregon Pinot Noirs that I keep for sentimental reasons. As a retailer back in the 80s, I jumped on the Oregon bandwagon and was rewarded with the monumental '83 vintage (that is still considered one of Oregon’s finest vintages). I remember what a struggle it was to sell these wines (I had a lot of customers snickering back then) and these bottles are a reminder of the early beginnings of the Oregon wine industry.
Two commemorative bottles from a couple of cricket games I played in. I suspected the contents were plonk, so it felt better to save them as they were.
Other than that, plenty have a story (e.g from winery visits), and a few too many are awaiting meeting up with people I think would enjoy them, but I’m trying to get better at just drinking stuff whatever it’s stature (as long as it ought to be ready to drink).
Was at a pretty casual mid-tier restaurant two years ago with my oldest friend and was offered to look at a couple of wines they had “inherited” from a former owner, that didn’t fit in with their current wine card. Among them was a 2006 Vogüe Musigny that I bought for ~120$. I’ll casually open it the next time I see him and see what it’s like. Meanwhile, it’s been a joy to behold and a funny story - plenty of sentimental value in that one!!
I don’t keep empty bottles and I like the way the signed bottles look on display. I guess I’ll drink them at some point. I hadn’t really thought about - just was responding to the question.
I just recently bought a bottle of this from K&L. We lived in Europe in the 60’s and 70’s and my dad told me that Pape Clement was his house wine for a while. My plan is to drink it when my brother visits us this winter, probably with a more recent model, maybe 99 or 00.
Yes. 1922 Madeira. My mother’s birth year wine.
The DM in my avatar. I intend to drill it and turn it into a lamp as soon as I can work on the drilling the hole in glass without cracking it part.
The only other bottle I cared about saving was a 375 of Kracher signed by Alois Kracher for me about 15 years ago, but I decided the bottle meant little, so I think I tossed it.
I have a bottle of 1993 Drouhin Musigny that I bought myself on my first fathers day (1997). Bought two, drank one way too early. Saving the other…
Sorry if I hurt feelings, but I think it is kind of weird to be attached to a bottle of wine.
I’m not attached to a bottle but I do remember certain bottles with fondness. Either because they opened my eyes to a new experience or because of the occasion or camaraderie that occurred while sharing it. But the glass itself…not so much.
I find that the bottles themselves are like keys into memories, and will save those that trigger fond recollections. Smell is supposed to be tied into the hippocampus at a fundamental level, and I wonder if memories of smells can work the same way. As you all might imagine, I have way too many bottles at home
I can’t separate what the wine is from how it is. If I’ve visited the place, drank it in some memorable circumstance, etc, it means more to me. If that wasn’t the case I could probably not justify paying more than $35-50 a bottle, where you can get crazy good wines for roughly the price of a great meal.
We went so far as to put up racks in our stairwell to hold the bottles
