Serge,
Randy & I will open an every day drinker or even a special bottle to share but it never tastes as good when there isn’t someone you enjoy sharing it with. You’re right, there are many things that can be enjoyed solo, wine is not one of them IMO
While I agree with this, as I usually drink bourbon or vodka if alone, you are really just begging Serge to get this moved to NSFW with that kind of statement.
i can drink good wine solo but i will experience some degree of regret.
I don’t have a lot of wine buddies, and my wife doesn’t drink wine, so I occasionally open a nice bottle for weekday dinner. Sometimes I end up wishing one of my wine drinking friends were tasting it with me, but I also usually really appreciate the wine itself when I drink it this way. In a more social setting, I don’t always pay as much attention to the wine. So, yes, I’d rather drink with friends, but tasting alone has its advantages.
Yeah this is an issue for me too. I like a glass or two with meals, but I can’t open up a great bottle, or even a really nice one, solo. Well, I can and have, but I don’t like to. Partly because it’s more fun to share, but also because I don’t like spending, say, $50 on a bottle, carefully aging it for a decade or more and then hoping the half bottle I don’t drink doesn’t oxidize, etc over night (I usually decant half a bottle into a clean 375 and put it in the fridge).
+1
I’ll open an everyday drinker if I’m drinking alone, but not a nicer bottle. Fortunately, my girlfriend appreciates good wine, so it’s not hard for me to find someone to enjoy it with. If that weren’t the case, I’m not sure what I would do. I’d probably open the nice stuff and regret it a little bit, like Glenn’s talking about.
Serge,
Well I don’t open the really good stuff solo, but there’s a lot of bottles in my collection in the middle - for example premier cru Burg, Barolos, nice Tuscan wines (Fontalloro, etc) - on the one hand, they’re $40-$70 wines which isn’t THAT much and they’re sunk cost. Nor do I want them to go over the hill. But I’ve also spent years waiting for them to come to the place where I like them so I don’t want to 1) waste half a bottle (freezing sounds interesting though) and 2) It’s more fun to enthuse over the subtleties with someone who cares about them.
I play golf alone. I drink wine alone. But I never play a special golf course or open a special bottle alone. Never.
I don’t open a good/special bottle or cook a stellar dinner without company present…that could be my wife or the crew.
As anyone who reads my posts can tell, we open what we want to when we want it, independent of company or by ourselves. When you are as old as we are, with as much wine as we have, it doesn’t make sense to save wines.
I very seldom drink a bottle of wine by myself; generally it’s with Carollee or with Carollee and others.
I usually don’t drink by myself and if I do I open a half bottle of Champagne to enjoy with dinner… Great bottles I always open with company of friends/winos because the memories last a lifetime…