Spend a fun week or so in London stocking up at BBR, AWC, Hedonism, Harrods, Fine & Rare, Farr, Roberson, Corney & Barrow etc. (as well as a few more suits and Old Bond St. would remember my name!).
A couple of cases of Bollinger VVF, old Salon, old Krug, a few cases of various Selosse, a case of ‘78 La Chappelle from AWC, a bunch of pre-1960’s Chenin from Hedonism, at least three horizontals of La-La’s, D’Yquem from the last 12 decades, a case of ’89 Haut Brion Blanc and another of ’61 rouge. All for the long week-end where I bring a couple of private jet loads of a fair number of my wine friends with a few other friends to a Country house in England that I’ve rented. Book/rent the entire kitchen staff of Rules to cook a full on Game menu on the first night to lull everyone into a false sense of “Wow” before Massimo Bottura shows up to hang out and cook for us (with his Sous and assistants coming from our group) for the week-end.
First thing I’d do is some real damage to the lists at Troisgros, Tour d’Argent, Taillevent, etc.
I’d buy a few “bucket-list” bottles, and I’d get a proper (i.e., large) wine cellar. Otherwise, I’d carry on as before, although I suspect my per-bottle limit would creep up.
Helicopter and do a low altitude fly by at Screaming Eagle and buzz the tower. I would then fly up to get Mike Smith, Thomas Brown and Joey Bertolino and head to lunch in San Francisco where I would meet with Ed Kurtzman and Kelley Fox who has flown down earlier in the day. We would party like 1999. Once Ed stands on the table with a napkin around his head and starts to sing showtunes I would call Uber for him. I would put all my friends up in the best hotel SF has to offer and have a limo ready in the morning ready to whisk them back to their pockets of the world. I would then fly into Rome’s Fiumicino airport and grab a Uber-o to my favorite pizzeria in Prati called L’Archetto and order a pie with that cold Czech beer I liked so much. I would then call the best realtor in the area and purchase a rooftop apartment complete with garden and views of all of Rome. Then I call everyone that I like and invite them with first class tickets. You will see me in and around October…
Expand and convert my back porch into a walk in cellar / tasting room.
Buy up as much 80’s and 90’s Ponsot and Drouhin I could find.
Fly to Napa to purchase quantities from certain wineries.
Of course, this would all come after my driver took me into Manhattan to the Breguet boutique, which would be followed by a ride down the Parkway to the Henriques dealer in Margate. While the remodeling was being done at the house, I’d be in Florida looking for my beach house somewhere between Tampa and Naples.
Realistically, put several $10k into building a nice cellar and stocking it. Otherwise pay off debts, fix up the house, and live comfortably, rather than extravagantly. Oh, except for a bottle of '45 Mouton.
Extreme idea: Buy Banfi, for their sheer range (for me to drink) and big market share (to keep the money coming).
I think I’d take a year off for travel and to get everything figured out. Part of that travel would be visiting some of my favorite wine regions. Once I figured out my living situation I’d spend some time building a modest cellar, and most certainly would drink better than I am now.
While theoretically I’d like to be more involved in the wine business (i.e. owning a winery), I know nothing about the business side and have no reason to assume I have some sort of skill that would benefit me there. And I definitely don’t have the motivation to.
It’s remarkable how many people would buy a winery – i.e. take on more work – when winning a billion dollars. Most people in that situation would look to work less.
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