Nice story, Buzz!
First bottles I collected were in the mid/90’s. You
could go to Phelps and buy from their library right
out of the cellar door.
Wish I had bought more!
No, but close. I think the first bottle of our “collection” was a 1972 Mouton that we got as a wedding gift in 1976 just after graduating from law school. We drank that during the 1980s. Soon after that, flush with money from my first job as a lawyer ($16,500 per year), I bought a bottle of 1973 Mouton that I still have.
Bottle from my first full case? 1974 Fetzer Cabernet, and yes I still have one of those. My wife and I were the wine experts and when our friends were getting married in 1977 at a “make your own” low-cost wedding, we were tasked with making the wine punch. I bought a case of 1974 Fetzer Cabernet, $30 for the case, and we used half of it for the wedding. We saved the rest and drank four of them over the years. By the early 1990s, it was excellent. We met the couple in NOLA in 2002 for their 25th Anniversary and brought a bottle. I had to threaten the Maitre D’ to be allowed to open my BYO at Brennan’s, but it turned out to be mostly DOA. I have one left as a curiosity.
Over the next week, I will be looking for a bottle of Mouton Cadet. A few raised eyebrows I am sure, but our next Zoom is about your first memorable wine, and this happened to be it.
In 1981, I was in graduate school in Phoenix and was invited by my then girlfriend, a professor at ASU to my first Thanksgiving. I arrived at the house clutching the Cadet, thinking myself a real sophisticate. The front door was one of those arch affairs, and it was opened by the mother whom I had never met before. She was short but big, filling most of the bottom half of the door.
Two quarrels were in progress one on each side of the house; both with raised voices. One was a routine fight between her brother and wife, the other newly married brother was fighting with his wife about the paternity of their child.
My girlfriend’s sister sees the wine, grabs the corkscrew, opens it and starts drinking out of the bottle. Halfway through, she puts the bottle down, gives a polite burp, and then finishes the rest of the bottle. She then lies down on the couch and is out for the rest of the evening.
I can’t remember much else except that the turkey was burnt and raw, I discovered I hated the taste of pumpkin and I managed to escape early.
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This one wasn’t the first bottle if my journey, a friend had introduced me to Williams-Selyem Pinot which got me hooked, but this was my first Zinfandel epiphany. I liked Zin and all but never understood how gracefully they would age when produced and stored properly until I had few of these. Still have the two empties.
I don’t remember the first bottle that I bought with the goal of cellaring. Probably a 1993 Whitehall Lane Morisoli or Seghesio OV Zin that was drunk within the year. (My initial cellar was a wire rack in a room that got too warm each afternoon, so the lack of patience was probably optimal.)
I took a wine appreciation class during my senior year in college and then a couple of wine and cooking classes the following year. I remember a comparison of the Felsina 1988 CCR to the 1989 CC, which hooked me on Felsina. The first expensive bottle of wine that I ever bought at a restaurant was a 1990 Fontalloro. I felt very sophisticated for being able to recognize anything on the wine list! Lots of Felsina in the cellar right now, but none of it is older than 2006.
The first bottle I bought to cellar was a 1989 Lafite. I bought it in expectation that I would open it up for my Daughters wedding and ended up never having any kids. I have the bottle down in the cellar still. Parker had declared it was going to be a wine of the century (or similar) so I pre ordered a bottle for $79 and called the San Diego wine shop every day to check if it had arrived yet. I remember strapping it on the back of the motorcycle extra secure so I wouldn’t lose it. $79 was a lot of money to me back then, that was when I was buying 12 packs of Milwaukee’s Best for $3.15.
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Long gone. The oldest purchase I still have is a 1995 Poujeaux I bought at Garnet Wines back in the day.
First stop at a winery for me was at Joseph Phelps. I do believe I have a few bottles from that tasting in the cellar. I had bought a library bottle of Insignia, which is now long gone.
Buzz, parts of your story sound familiar!
Decided to road-trip to a wedding in Oregon with my girlfriend- summer of ‘92, fresh out of college and broke. After a week of camping through the Badlands, Yellowstone, Montana & Idaho we found ourselves driving into the Columbia River Valley and a bit salty.
Saw a “free wine tasting” sign and couldn’t turn into the parking lot fast enough. An hour later, all was right with the world and we were arguing about whether we should buy the Gewurtz or the Riesling.
I think the bottles were $6/each, but the gentleman pouring our tasting took pity on us and my $10 bill for both.
It took a few years to have a cellar (crawl space), but they were the first bottles of wine we didn’t drink within hours of purchase. The “girlfriend” and I are coming up on 24 yrs of marriage!
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This wasn’t my first bottle ever purchased but since you mentioned 1992 with a photo of Flora Springs you have to know the Flora Springs 1992 Reserve Cab was killer. Hopefully, you were able to try that one because it was the best Cab they ever made.
I drank the bottle of ‘89 Penfolds Grange Hermitage last year during lockdown.
1985 Guiseppi Quintarelli Amarone Riserva, $80.
A half-bottle of 1964 Ch. Latour was the wine that got my attention. It’s still on the windowsill in my office.
First wine I bought to put away was 1994 Taylor Fladgate. I was still a kid and was coming back from a track week-end and my dad had said to stop at a big Penn liquor store on the way home and if I saw any to buy all of them (the 100 point scores had just been released) and he’d pay me back. I think I got 14 of them, all they had, and kept two for myself and got him to pay me back for the 12.
I still have the 2 sitting in my cellar. The other 12 are long gone. It will be one year in May that he died, I think I’ll open one and save the other for his birthday when my two boys (10 and 6) are of age and have it on his birthday in 15 years or so.
Nope. Closest I get is a bottle of 2004 Chappellet - Cabernet Sauvignon Signature purchased in June of 2007, six months after I started building our cellar.
Nope, bottle is long gone. My parents gave me a bottle of '72 Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet, Leflaive for my 21st birthday in 1975. I cellared it for some 15-20 years. I got lucky and opened it at just the right time. It was glorious.
This is a great story, Tom. I have a strong suspicion that the gentleman pouring was likely Rick Small, who is still there as owner/director of the Woodward Canyon brand, that has grown quite a bit, but still has a personal feel, imo.
My first “aha” bottle of wine was discovered in Yakima Valley on a job interview trip in 2008. My almost newlywed wife was with me and the bottle was 2004 Masset Petite Sirah. I took the job offer in Yakima, not entirely due to the good wine but probably some influence, and my wife and I are never moving “back east”. I don’t have that Masset bottle, but have revisited the winery a few times over the last 13 years and have enjoyed the Petite Sirah of later vintages, but never recreating that first bottle “aha” moment.
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Long gone. The '94 vintage in Napa had gotten rave reviews, and I was indiscriminately grabbing whatever Cabs I saw in SF shops that were 94s and from Napa or Sonoma. I don’t think I started properly cellaring wine until 1999 or so…but I might have a 94 Monte Bello from that early scattershot buying, now that I think of it.
Like shooting sardines in a can, back then.
So sorry. My mother and I still have some 1927 Pedro Ximinez Alvear Solera 1927, which my father enjoyed as his birthyear wine. We plan to enjoy it when she moves to Noo Yawk eventually.