We’ve heard the, “Daddy, the wine man is here” when the UPS guy shows up but these two were special to me because they reflect that wine can be not only a way for collectors to bond with other collectors, but also for parents to bond with their children.
Younger son, age 27, working with me in the kitchen making Potato Latkes for family Thanksgiving/Hanukah party last year. I had opened a SQN At the Moment and we were both standing there with a glass of it while grating potatoes and mixing up the batter. He turned to me and gave me his first ever serious TN. “You know, Dad, this is really good!” Then he said, “I’m gong to go get some more.” My response, “No you’re not, I just took the last glass.” He said, “Oh rats.” I took his glass and poured him half of what I had left.
Older son, home after finishing his class work in medical school, says to me yesterday, “You know Dad, when I get my MD, we’re going to open a Scarecrow.”
Kids sure pick up a ton. My kids are much younger, and I don’t often drink wine until they are in bed, but they know I like collecting wine.
Last year for Father’s Day, my daughter (then in grade 3) brought home from school a picture that she had made. The teacher had told the class to draw things that their dads most liked. Apparently the other kids had drawn things like sports, skiing, cars, etc. My picture had wine bottles all over it and wine glasses filled with red wine. Ooops!
Prior to our last holiday to California, apparently my daughter had overhead me telling my wife that I was going to visit a wine store while there. As soon as the plane landed, my daughter turned to me with a big smile and said loudly, “I guess you are going to go get your Bordeaux now, dad?”
She also has overhead me say that 2005 was a good year for Bordeaux. That is her birth year, and so she’s brought up the connection on a couple of occasions. She doesn’t know, but I’ve stashed away a few 05’s for when she is an adult.
Last night with dinner we had a 2000 Bordeaux which is the birth year of my son. My son, last to the table as usual, sits down, takes a look at the wine and says, “Dad, stop drinking my wines!”.
Haha two hours ago I was putting wine away in the cellar. Im way behind and my 8 year old daughter has a large stash of toys in the basement, next to all the cases that I have yet to put in CT. Whenever I go down there for a few hours she comes down to rummage through her toys. I was watching her rummaging through the piles and said “Damn Bean, you sure have a lot of toys.” She gave me an incredulous look and said “Uh, Daddy” and pointed at my cellar. Touchee.
Yup, Jay…no doubt on that one. You have no idea how many times I heard coming from the back seat: “Awwwww, Dad…do we have to stop
at anuther wine store??”
One time on our way up to see the cousins in Longmont, I stopped by Argonaut Liquors to check things out. Hot July day, about 95 degrees. I rolled down the
windows of the van & told them I’d be right back out. About 45 min later, I came back out, lugging a case of wine, and get this raft of $hit from
them about why did it take so long. Every time my daughter tell this story to a friend about being abandoned in the Argonaut parking lot by her
father, the quoted temperature rises another 5 degrees. We’re at 180 degrees F now on the last retelling.
Tom
I remember my daughter declaring a wine to be “corked!” She was maybe 10. I don’t think she was wrong, but my date (whose bottle it was) sure didn’t appreciate it. Turns out she has an exceptionally astute palate, and a pretty good nose.
Best thing she ever said regarding wine is “We have it, Mom. This is it.” That was when she helped me put together the 2010 Special Selection. So sure of herself; so delightful.
I bought a 2007 Old Sparky for my 7 yr old’s birth year. I told him at 25, you can either drink it, or sell it for x (current auction value). He asked, “Can I sell it back to you, and will you drink it with me?”
At 7, he’s thinking this way. Such a proud moment!
I always let my daughter smell my glass, she now insists, one time when she was six in front of some immediate family, I opened a “crowd pleaser” chard she said “lemony but with…marshmallows?” ummmm. First course Pinot “cherry berries” i seeeee. Next Cali cab “blueberry and blackberry”.
What’s weird is I’ve never lead the witness, we don’t sit around and exchange tasting thoughts that she’s overheard. I suppose she’s just got a good sniffer.
Great post, Jay. The best in recent history was from my daughter on my back deck after finishing of the last of the 2011 Myriad Napa Cab: “Myriad is my favorite. Do you have more?”
She’s 20, and yes dear, I ordered 10 more the next week.
GF “I hear there is a new wine store in town that a coworker was talking about.” Kid: “We were there last week, It’s all crap”. I busted out laughing on that one!
Then the kid looked into my wine cellar one day and says “Don’t you have enough wine?”
My 13yo reflexively says “alcohol” when I give him a sniff. I’m pretty sensitive to hot wines so maybe he’s the same way. More likely, he’s just a 13yo. (or my cellar sucks)
The “Scarecrow” son, about 8 years ago when I said I was going to boycott Pax because they had these big, fat ecologically unsound bottles, said, “But dad, it’s Pax!”
Apparently it’s a universal thing that liquor stores give out suckers. My 3 yo has figured this out. Me: We need more beer. 3 yo: “Let’s go to sucker store!”
Apparently she said this at daycare as well.
“My daddy likes to go to sucker store”
“What does he get there?”
"Beer. "
