Buddy of mine and I were having dinner last weekend. Our wives went out for “one drink” with friends and we decided to stay home with the kids. We were going to be opening a nice 2006 Darioush Cab. later and I thought it would be good to get it open, breathing and decanted. Well the girls ran later than expected and one taste of the OOOSh turned into two which turned into the two of us drinking the whole bottle before the girls got home. So what did we do?
We filled the decanter with 2005 Turnbull and quickly hid the Turnbull bottle in the trash and placed the empty Darioush next to the decanter…
I doubt many would know the difference unless they had quite a bit of experience with either Darioush or Turnbull.
I’ve never done it, but I have hidden a bottle when dining with non-wine-geeks. Serve them the ‘good stuff’, serve the ‘great stuff’ in some hidden location. Shhh.
Oh yeah, I do that all the time when I have a mixed (winos and just drinkers) at my house. Those that just want a drink get one wine and the winos get the secret stash. Everyone is happy because my lesser wine is almost always better than what they are used to. I love to share, but if great wine is not really important to you, why waste the stuff appreciated by a different crowd?
As a non tea lover/appreciator, I would be fine if you served me your regular tea (or a cup of coffee) and served your tea club the good and fine stuff. (sorry, that was the only example I could think of off the top of my head)
One of our members who shall remain nameless unless he outs himself was the victim of a bottle switch back in about 1999. I may not have the wines exactly right but you’ll get the idea. His “buddies” poured a Taylor Ruby Port (or a Grahams Six Grapes - something like that) into a 1970 or 1977 Taylor-Fladgate bottle to see his reaction. Sometime after the eye-rolling, animal noises and mini-orgasms, they let him in on the joke.
It’s a brilliant thing to do, especially when you’re around people who either aren’t big into wine or have already been drinking. Had a date over this weekend (no, not my sister Tex), and she wanted some wine. Fortunately I had a bottle of 08 La Crema sitting on the counter still in the Safeway bag, so I wasn’t even tempted to open up any of the good stuff. It was surprisingly good to go. Maybe it tasted all that much better because I felt I pulled a fast one and got away with it, who knows?
I admitted to doing that on Eric’s board (CT) and I was bashed and I was called “BAD PEOPLE” by folks who had no clue who I was. Why should I pour expensive, high quality wine for someone that thinks top shelf is Black Tower or Riunite? One English guy said I was a Shame for doing that and if a guest asked him for an ice cube, he would RUN TO THE FREEZER to get him/her one…I thought that was a rather stupid statement. I don’t mind sharing ANY of my wines with wine friends, I have done it time and time again, but with someone who can’t appreciate it, why bother , why waste it.
I have done this twice. Once was when we were having relatives over that put a F’en ice cube in white wine (one of my absolute biggest pet peeve’s). Then a co-worker of mine did it right in front of me, my wife gently grabbed my arm and held me back from yanking the glass away from her…I then remembered the bottles of white I put out was a rather good $12 white burg and just bit my lip and smiled…
Serge knows my secret hiding spot…he was one of the few benefactors of such behavior
Todd, thanks for showing me that I am not the only “Bad People” and I don’t suffer alone, lol.
I got guilted so bad on the other forum, that I stopped doing this because I felt really guilty after getting bashed for this type of behavior.
I have found that cheaper Italian and French wines make great cellar defenders. The good one’s drink well and folks that don’t know any better think you’re breaking out the good shizzz…
![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}