Chris, does it have bits of real panther in it?
That there is funny, I don’t care who you are.
1995 Araujo Estate (aka the “Super Elegant Wine”).
Served to me (and three clients) at a business dinner at George’s on the Cove in La Jolla. The waiter asked whether we wanted a “big” wine, an “elegant” wine, or “perhaps, a super elegant” wine. We all looked at one another and said – “We want the ‘super elegant’ one.” He brought us several bottles of 1995 Araujo. A very nice wine.
I spent months trying (yes, in vain) to find bottles of the stuff in Austin, after I returned. I eventually learned about the whole cali-cab-cult phenomenon, and the fact that a plebe like me was unlikely to ever get that wine in the future. Hey, no hill for a climber. I eventually got some, and got on Araujo’s mailing list.
I have since dropped off the Araujo list, lost interest in cali-cabs, and lost interest in californy wines in general. I, sadly, got the burgundy bug, and have learned that I now work for (small quantities of ultra-expensive, highly allocated) wine. BTW, where is the champagne step?
60% of the time, it works every time.
I know I’ve said this elsewhere, but…
I grew up with wine because of my father (my mom too, but it was my father who bought the stuff). He’s been buying/drinking wine pretty much for as long as I can remember - so I “learned” it as something one has with meals (mainly dinner, as that’s the time we’d see our dad - he was very busy as a young lawyer).
I always liked wine, but, took it for granted. The day I got married and moved out (18 years & 3 days ago - I’m 44 now, by the way), I had to start buying my own wine - no more father to rely on to choose and pay for it. So, by necessity, I had to start learning what’s from where, where to buy, what I could afford, etc. Seems like so long ago…
1991 Monte Bello. A few months after we were married in 1996, my wife and I were cooking steaks on a little indoor grill in our rental duplex and I grabbed the box of 6 mixed wines some friends had gotten us for a wedding present adn pulled this out. As our friends were, like us, not wealthy at the time, we just popped it open thinking it was probably a $10-20ish bottle of cab…that is, until we drank it. Total wow moment.
Two thoughts as I just read through the thread;
First, I’m impressed that folks can actually pinpoint this to a bottle. I do know the first wine I ever recall drinking was Boone’s Farm Wild Mountain Grape (I forget the vintage ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
), but I have no clue what wine it was that actually started me down the road to serious drinking,
and Second, man, I feel old! With people citing wines circa 2000 or later, I realize I am clearly at the “grayer” end of the hair spectrum on this Board.
I can remember the first time wine came on my radar as something that was delicious. I was pretty young (6 or 7th grade?) and my dad and I were driving from the Ski Resort of Sun Valley Idaho to Boise. We stopped off at a rest stop and for some strange reason out of the blue I told me dad “I want some wine and cheese”. He looked at me like I was crazy but decided “what the hell” and got me some. I remember how delicous that (generic) red wine was with the cheese. I was in heaven. It was just a little one-glass serving and Im sure my dad had some but that red wine flavor really left a mark on me. I was interested in wine from that moment forward.
My next epiphany was when I was in college (early 1990s). My GF and I were driving through Napa and I stopped off at a small store for some reason. I saw a Audobon Society branded zin and bought some on a whim. When I got home I drank some and it blew my mind. Id probablly consider it a “fruit bomb” now but back then I just couldn’t beleive that a wine could have such intensity of flavor. It seemed almost supernatural.
My next epiphany was soon after that. I was at my uncles house for thanksgiving dinner and he opened a 1970 Lynch Bages (sp?) and I was just blown away by the complexity of the aged characteristics in the wine. I had no idea wine could do that.
The wine that turned me onto how could Pinot could be was a 1990 Foxen pinot. It was the first time I understood how elegant Pinot Noir could be. I was a pinot nut from then on.
My Burgundy epiphany came at a wine bar maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Since I loved Pinot Noir so much I was always trying burgundies because I figured they would be the peak of Pinot Noir. I was always getting bottles that were closed with no fruit though. Tasted like water, alchohol and dirt. But then I had a youngish 2002 Bouchard Gevery Chambetin village wine by the glass. I got it in an instant and my wine world was turned upside down. Even at that “low” level I was quite impressed with how much intensity of flavor there was realitive to the weight of the wine. And the pure red cherry flavor just captivated me. I was in love.
+1 & Very funny!
That Boone’s Farms was surely better than the wine coolers we drank in college, no?
I share your surprise re vintages. I kept reading this thinking “damn, I’m not all that old, am I?”
The wine that showed me how amazing this stuff could be…1961 Talbot.
The first wine I bought in quantity (first trip to Napa)…1978 St. Clement cabernet.
Cheers!
Marshall
THE wine: 1999 Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino and 2000 Cupano Brunello di Montalcino, both on my honeymoon in Italy. A trip to Napa a few years later sealed my fate, although no one wine (or winery) stands out. It was more about the pursuit.
Actually the first wine I remember tasting (vividly!!) was a Port, served chilled by a lady we knew when we had a little party in her back yard. It was served in a tiny glass and I must have been maybe ten years old and perhaps my parents were shocked that she had given me wine. But that flavor honestly struck a chord with me and I can still remember the sweetness, the purple color, the cold, and the beautiful interesting flavor of Port.
In the same category, another sweet wine, the Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry that they used in my church for Communion. My parents would also buy that on occasion and it became a familiar flavor to me long before I was 18.
I still love Port but I don’t really buy Harvey’s Bristol Cream any more.
The decent bottle that had the greatest impression was a 66 or 69 (can’t recall) Prieurie Lichine that Alexis opened in his library for a sweaty, stinky cyclist.
He opened it to demonstrate that slightly off vintages if stored properly can be really good and this one was like liquid velvet. He hooked me up woth an American couple and we tasted 82 FG in the early summer of 1983.
There wasn’ one specific wine that got me to where I am now, but there are definitely a few highlights that have paved the way.
Growing up, my Italian side of the family (dad, grandfather, etc) made their own wine, so I had plenty of exposure to it. But no one bought or cellared anything… and why would they I guess – if you wanted to drink wine, all you had to do was siphon off a jug out of the demijohn in the root cellar. Then I went to college and drank beer and whiskey with the occasional bottle of wine interspersed, but never thought anything of it.
At my college graduation party, I was staying with an uncle (on my mother’s side) who was into wine and had a pretty substantial cellar. That night after coming home from dinner, he opened a 77 Fonseca and omfg. Wow. I’d had port before, but didn’t like it. This, however, was a nectar of the gods. Later that week while I was staying with him, he opened a 94 Heitz (this was in 2001), and I thought it was amazing. But I was broke and had other things on my mind than wine after graduating, so I kinda stuck these experiences in the back of my mind and tried not to think about them too much.
It took about 5 years for me to get my act together and find a place to store wine, as well as make enough money to buy anything worth cellaring. I had been getting more and more interested in wine and branching out a little more from the grocery store stuff like Ravenswood zinfandel and Liberty School cab… Then I bought a 2001 Eyrie Reserve Pinot Noir on close out at Costco, and I had another omg moment. Thus my current obsession started…
Oh, fess up, Bob. You were passed out drunk on the floor in college and woke up with the taste of the oak flooring in your mouth and thought to yourself, “I gotta find me a Barolo that tastes like this!” 
Dad was an investor in something called “The Monterey Vineyard” back in the 70’s. They were always pulling out something to plant something else. He had a glass with dinner almost every night.
I was a beer guy until the 80’s when I was turned on to Ridge Zins. Enjoyed visiting the So Cal and Paso wineries but it was Xmas eve dinner around 1985 with a whole beef tenderloin and a bottle of 1979 Lascombes (RP76!).
Yes but just think what those youngens would have to pay to duplicate your cellar!
RT
1994 Wynns Michael [thanks to an early column by John & Dottie].
A few years later, the 2001 Germans really kicked it up a notch.
Paul Anheuser seems like a property which has been under-performing recently.
I wonder what a Helmut Donnhoff or a Tim Frohlich could do with that terroir?
I’d have to thank Dave Caffaro in Dry Creek for sending me down this path. I enjoyed wine but drank much more beer until I met Dave and started tasting his wines and hanging a bit with him in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I got hooked and would buy 5 cases or more each year from him…mostly zins. Started going every year to passport weekend in Dry Creek (not lately), bought a 240 vinotemp and was on my way to spending a lot on wine…and enjoying the fun.
I grew up with wine, but was more of a beer drinker in my 20’s. A 1982 Pichon Lalande rocked my world and sent me down this wonderful depraved path.