Epiphany we later named “Ten Thousand Dollar Tuesday.” Six wine nuts, one chef, six hours…the conclusion was we need to buy more Burgundy. Wine of the afternoon was the 1969 Jaboulet, but not a “dog” in the bunch.
I had only minor exposure to wine as my family only drank wine during major holidays or when they had guests over and it was almost always Chenin Blanc, Grey Riesling or Green Hungarian. While in college in the early 80’s i got a job at a chain liquor store because they had the best selection of beer. The wine guy took a liking to me when I noticed that some wine from a German producer all had the same price but some of the labels were fancier. He took me under his wing and ask me to work with him when not on the register. He even started to offer me tastes when sales reps brought in samples. One day we received in a bunch of 1976 Christian Brothers Mont La Salle Napa Cab for $3/btl. He said it was a steal and I should buy a bottle. I did and that night I discovered that I really liked good red wine. And I’ve been in this hobby ever since.
Where was this? Those are some old Cali wines, for sure.
Liquor Barn in the SF Bay Area.
Mine will irritate some since its a wine that brings out emotions. Late 1980’s I was traveling to San Fran on business and I was in my late 20’s. Salesman trying to get on my good side left a gift basket in hotel room with 2 bottles of Silver Oak. Don’t even remember the vintage. I had never heard of Silver Oak. I was in my late 20’s in the 1980’s and drinking swill. First time the wife and I thought “wow, there is some really good tasting wine out there that is better than what Kroger offers”. Hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 30 years and here I am.
1980’s Silver Oak was a whole lot different than later iterations…I drank my share, particularly of the Napa and apologize to no-one. Solid and fairly priced.
My epiphany wines were the Bordeaux wines of 1966. First drank them in 1980 and hooked ever since.
Seemed like it might be that. Did your parents also live here and buy their wines at the old Ernie’s chain of stores?
We’ve crossed paths here and there, but I don’t think I ever realized you went to school out here. BTW, the last of the old LB stores finally renamed itself a while ago, about a year or year and a half–it was at the south end of Yreka in Siskiyou County. I did an assignment for the British guys who bought and wrecked the chain in 1986 or so. I think we were hiring a CFO for them, a challenge when you saw how much they had loaded it up with debt.
When I was working as a waiter at Scanticon Princeton just after college in the early 80’s, a bottle of 1974 Barolo did the trick.
We seem to be from the same era. My parents mainly brought wine from a liquor store that was attached to a market where they did their shopping that had the same owners. Once CA repealed their fair trade laws and an Alpha Beta opened across the street the market and liquor store went out of business. Well of aware of Ernie’s and as of a few years ago there were a couple left.
The British guys were a total cluster for LB when they took over. The chain might have had a small chance to survive when it was bought out of bankruptcy in September of 1989 but then the Loma Prieta earthquake hit in October and they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory and never recovered.
A simple Sandrone Nebbiolo Valmaggiore. I did not know wine could be so good compared to the cheap supermarket shit i was drinking.
2008 Rayas, sent me out on a Grenache exploration. Reynaud is probably still my favorite winemaker.
2011 Overnoy Savagnin. Sent me out on a real Jura exploration. I have since had many amazing Jura’s. But this was the one that really grabbed my attention. Today Jura is my second largest cellar holding.
1997 Jamet. I did not know Syrah could could taste like the most beautiful smoked sausage. Sent me out on a Northern Rhone exploration. Northern Rhone is today my largest cellar holding.
2003 Ganevat, Les Vignes de mon Pere. Reconfirmed my love for Jura and exploded my mind.
2016 Wasenhaus Vulkan. I like Burgundy but i have never had that really special moment with it yet. And then i found out that the Burgundy i want actually comes from Baden in Germany, and is made by these two young guys who has worked at some of the best Burgundy estates, but now has returned home to start their own estate. Bought a lot of Wasenhaus since (2016 was their first vintage).
In the early '90s I knew little about wine other than it had alcohol in it and alcohol was good. I took a business trip to Bermuda, met some clients, we went to the 4 Ways. Client wanted wine, we said “pick whatever you want”. He picked 1982 Latour and 1982 Margaux. HUH! I didn’t know wine could taste like that, was incredible. Relative to what I thought wine tasted like, this was just a whole other level of delicious.
Then in the mid 90s, a friend said we had to go to a small restaurant on 8th or 9th avenue in NYC (at that time, and maybe now again, was not the greatest place to go). The restaurant had great food, but the attraction was the wine list. My friend said they had this Calif producer that he really liked, they made great chardonnay. Was Marcassin. I knew nothing about Calif chard, nothing about Marcassin. We opened a bottle. Again, just radically different vs my expectations, incredibly delicious. I went back there for a year, finally drank them out of Marcassin.
Also in the mid to late-90s, trips to France. So many great Rhone and Burgundy wines on wine lists for what seemed like nothing. Great Rousseau and DRC for $100 on a restaurant list. Fantastic.
I got engaged in Paris in 2006. My parents were along for the trip (wife knew it was coming). We went to La Tour D’Argent to celebrate, mostly for the wine list. Had 1990 Roumier ‘Amoureuses’, ‘Bonnes Mares’ and ‘Musigny’. All 3 bottles, for about $2,500 all in, incl tax and tip (no tax and no real tip there).
I was a teetotaler, or close to it, up until I was well beyond college age. I would try a glass of wine or a cider here and there (never could abide the bitterness of beer) just to be sociable, but nothing that made me want to repeat the experience. Until, that is, my wife completed her Ph.D. and signed up to be a post-doc at Cal Berkeley. There were wine tasting trips on a reasonably regular basis, of course, and I would go along as the designated driver because “I don’t really like wine.” After we’d been there several years, we were invited to a friend’s house for dinner and he pulled out a bottle of T-Vine. He insisted on pouring me some, because he said it was the best wine he’d found in the local stores, and he was sure I’d like it. Much to my surprise, he was right. It became the first wine I actually remembered by name: T-Vine Cabernet Sauvignon, and we turned to it as the only wine we kept in the house.
But after that, I realized that it wasn’t the ONLY good wine in the area (Napa, duh!) and that it it wasn’t wine I didn’t like. What I didn’t like was lousy wine.
I don’t consider it an epiphany wine in the same way many of the stories here do, in the sense that I wasn’t truly wowed or thunderstruck by the wine. But it was game-changing for me, just the same. T-Vine has since been sold and rebranded in a way that doesn’t interest me, but it’s a name I still remember. It’s the one that got me started on the journey.
I’d like to explore this if there are any in good shape that can be found for a reasonable price (<$300). Any particular producers you recommend?
“We seem to be from the same era. My parents mainly brought wine from a liquor store that was attached to a market where they did their shopping that had the same owners. Once CA repealed their fair trade laws and an Alpha Beta opened across the street the market and liquor store went out of business. Well of aware of Ernie’s and as of a few years ago there were a couple left.”
If that was the Alpha Beta on YV Road in Walnut Creek, we’re also from the same place. It had an Ernie’s in the parking lot. I have seen a couple scattered around the area over the last few years, and 3 in the SJ/Sta Cruz area show up when you search.
Those Brits who bought LB were something else. Next time you get out this way, let’s have a drink and I will tell you about them personally. I’ve worked with some crushingly stupid business people, but they are very near the top.
Close Richard. Grew up in Cupertino. It would be nice to share stories over a drink or two ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
2007 St. Cosme Gigondas Hominis Fides. Made me realize what a fools game it is to chase after scores. A RP 100 that I anticipated would be better than any southern Rhone I’d had previously. While it was an outstanding wine, I didn’t enjoy it as much as “lesser” wines. Learned to pay attention to my palate far more than any critic from that point forward.