I was reflecting the other day on songs I wish I could hear again for the first time, that changed my brain permanently…and I realized there are wines that have done the same.
For me, wines I wish I could taste again for the first time:
Muller-Catoir Mandelgarten Spatlese
Burlotto Barolo Monvigliero
White Hermitage with age (can’t recall the producer!)
Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noir
Bernard Levet La Chavaroche Cote Rotie
2013 Corison Kronos. Kicked off my interest wine. Tried it while working at a restaurant and made me realize there was a world beyond Josh and Prisoner.
2019 Cecile Tremblay Echezeaux. Tried this at a Burgundy tasting 2 years ago and I’ll never forget the smell - was like walking through an incredible flower garden. I had 0 familiarity with Burgundy up until this point.
Jacques Selosse Inifial - got to try this as part of a champagne tasting a few years ago (against other producers I hadn’t heard of - Cedric Bouchard, Ulysse Collin, etc etc). Absolutely blew my mind. Ended up visiting the winery and proposing with a bottle of this (and a Dujac Morey St Denis) a few years later.
Two, SQN 17th Nail and Chateau Rayas. Both possessed qualities that I was unaware of until trying. I still remember the moment and also the taste and nose of each.
Back in the '80s my friend’s father, who had stopped drinking, gave us access to his cellar. After cocktails and while grilling and eating ribs, three of us polished off 2 bottles of '61 Trotanoy and a bottle of '62 Haut Brion. Man, I would love to taste those again.
I hope the proposal was accepted! I love Selosse Initial (and Dujac).
Memorable first tastes…
1992 Panther Creek Reserve Pinot Noir (a Ken Wright wine that had aromatics and ripeness and was just in that spot on that day…other bottles around the same time never got back there)
1986 Leoville Las Cases (courtesy of @Herwig_Janssen and the Belgium crew at an unforgettable dinner at Het Fornuis…still buying a few LLC here and there hoping to one day have another aha like that)
1986 Rubicon the day I finished my last final exam of undergraduate years in 1996 (my first Rubicon and another one of those at-the-right-time moments)
Cheers,
fred
I can’t say I really understand the premise. I am who I am today as it relates to wine because of the wine I’ve tasted and those experiences that I’ve had. I continue to enjoy drinking amazing wine - new cuvées, new vintages, as well as another bottle of a previously enjoyed wine.
I take each of the previous amazing experiences with me into the next bottle of potentially life changing wine and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Also the best bottles of wine have been especially enjoyable because of the company and those people and those communal experiences are a big part of what made that particular bottle very special.
I don’t think we’re seeing things that differently but I’m happy that you enjoy wine in whatever way works for you!
Yes you can.
Nothing fancy – 2015 Volnay 1er Cru – really made me take notice of how well a wine can go with a meal
The first time I had 1997 Bryant Family Cabernet was the single greatest bottle I have ever had.
I enjoyed several other bottles over the years but the first was the best.
The wine I really want to taste is the 2060 Haut Brion. Seems unlikely.
we can start converting all those unused underground cellars into cryogenic storage
Mainly due to price but it was also that good:
Tremblay Chapelle-Chambertin
I think you do. It seems to be about going back in time to relive a special moment from the past.
Obviously a bit silly and we know it can’t happen. And yes, the rational mind doesn’t get hung up in dwelling on the past. But, we all dream from time to time!
I had lots of moments in my early wine drinking that were special (don’t we all), and where I was drinking things I would appreciate differently now. I think some of the most vivid were just being in the different European regions and drinking wine with the surrounding nature, foods, the broader ‘terroir’, the smells and sounds hit harder than they do now as I age!
1987 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet…not necessarily for how great the wine was, but more so for the textural sensation on my palate, from having a red wine, for pretty much the first time in my life(early 90’s)…that dry tannic sensation of all my saliva being sucked out of my mouth…like having a mouthful of sawdust…it was WILD…and remember taking little tiny sips, and thinking one glass of this stuff is going to go a LONG LONG way! I was fascinated with every sip, but could only drink one glass!
Now, being desensitized to tannins, and no problem drinking a bottle+…that is a sensation that I will never experience again. I do have a bottle of that 87 Beringer PR left though! 
For me it would be the 1994 Clos Roche Blanche Côt around 1996, which totally changed the way I look at wine.
Ok, so I do firmly remember my first bottle of Tâche. Life changing. I was into Harlan and Hundred Acre and stuff like that and my buddy says, that ain’t nothing - Tâche is where it’s at. I had already had a 90 DRC Ech and it was amazing, but didn’t really move me. But the Tâche indeed changed my life as I started pursuing the white whale and ended up where I am today.
in the mid 1970s, my father was going to open for a dinner a bottle of Haut Brion. I was really excited to have my first first growth. But, it was the wine that followed the Haut Brion that blew me away - La Romanee. Started my love of Burgundy. Would love to go back and retaste these two wines and see what vintage they were.
1985 Truchot Chambolle-Musigny Sentiers. My first Truchot. Unlike anything I had ever tasted before. Still my favorite producer.
The 2001 barrel samples I had at Truchot when visiting there for the first time in 2002.
Staatsdomaine Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube BA 1989 - one of the greatest German sweet wines I have had.
2011 Yquem - Yes, the 2001 was better and probably so was the 1971. BUT, I had the 2011 while visiting Yquem!!!
2005 Bouchard Montrachet that I had at the winery in 2007.
La Tache is a winner for sure - smells like rose petals.
Opus One, before I became jaded