What Wine was THE WINE that got you into serious wine in the first place

WINE TALK
81

1996 Dom Leflaive Batard-Montrachet for whites.

1995 DRC Grands-Echezeaux for reds.

It’s interesting that indeed, I drunk some much better wines than those two but I still remember them fondly as “wow, that’s unbelievable” and those got me more seriously into wine…

82

I started pretty late (probably a good thing) and for me and my wife, it was drinking a 2001 Maison Bouachon CdP La Tiare de Pape at their chateau. We took this wine tasting tour during a Meditarranean cruise and I remember this snooty French winemaker talking seemingly forever about terroir and heavenly wine.

83

No such thing as THE WINE.

I can’t believe that this is so unusual an occurrence.

84

Me too, Lee. I didn’t have a ‘the wine’…

85

First experience, Red Mountain in a half gallon at 18. First prayers to the porcelin god.
At the appropriate age, I too went through Blue Nun, Mateus, Annie Green Springs, Spinada. Revisited the porcelin god with some regularity.

One day in 1980, Carrie’s brother shared a bottle of 1976 Silver Oak Alex. We became a groupies buying and keeping multiple cases through the 1997 vintage. Jordan was the back up at restaurants and there were several wines at a lower cost with similar characteristics that we bought for occasional drinkers, though we both generally drank Scotch.

86

1990 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve for me. I grew up in a wine desert of a family … farm folk; beer and rye … usually in that order. I had a girlfriend in university from Ottawa and she took me to a wine bar, Vines (still there I believe) and I tried the most expensive flight and thought, "Holy Crap, some of these are ungodly good. As I was trying to be a professional bass fisherman, an really expensive hobby, like wine, and I had no money, I thought I need another expensive hobby like I need to take a big crap and fall backwards so I didn’t consider wine again for ten years until my wife and I started dating. She was huge on the Trimbach so I tried it and voila, prior to kids we amassed a 1000 bottle cellar and centred all our travel around wine. Its been a beautiful thing!

87

I’d been interested in wine for a while, subscribed to the WA, bought some '85 Bordeaux futures but the wine that turned my mild interest into its current level of insanity was the 1990 Drouhin Bonnes Mares.

88

1996 Mouton. And I can say that I called this as a profound wine years and years before it started receiving the accolades that it has lately.

89

It was a 1953 village St. Julien at Taix Restaurant in downtown LA in 1958. I really got serious about wine in 1961, when I started dating Carollee and we’d go for dinner at Los Feliz Inn, on the corner of Hillhurst and Los Feliz, and started drinking white and red Burgundies. That’s when when I moved forever from Bordeaux to Burgundy in my tastes. Shortly therafter we also tried and enjoyed Rhônes and Spanish wines. In the mid to late sixties we also got into Italian wines. It’s been a fun ride ever since.

90

1997 Solaia

91

1989 Latour a Pomerol. Jerry Casale, the bass player from Devo remains a huge wine fan. In the mid 90’s, he enjoyed working part time at the Winehouse in Los Angeles. It was his recommendation to try a Bordeaux. Thank you Jerry!

92

Cool to hear Jordan got you into wine. I work there. Your first vintage, 1986, would make for an interesting comparison to 2006 when John Jordan took over and began making wine quality enhancements.

Cheers,
Lisa

93

A 1974 Barolo when I was a waiter in 1982.

94

Sorry to say it was Lindeman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay. Maybe that was more of my Ah-ha! wine moment though–first varietal wine tasted in my first wine course in college. Serious must be a 1996 Bouchard Pere & Fils rouge from barrel tasted in the cellars.

95

When we next have a drink remind me and I’ll tell you a great story about wine-by-the-glass @ Nepenthe.

96

This was the wine that really cemented it for me too. But I did grow up with wine in my house and had been tasting it as long as I can remember. For some reason this wine made kick-started my wine passion.

97

Everyone is picking reds or dry whites… my first was a sauternes: the 2003 de Fargues.

I had been drinking wine since childhood and never really noticed it, but the first red wine that was notably exceptional was the 1994 Seavey, followed soon after by the 1992 Maya.

98

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99

1967 Chateau Yquem
1968 Haut Brion

100

For me it was in the early-90’s and a bottle of CdP I had on a field trip with my college French class to a French restaraunt in Windsor, Canada. I have no idea what the bottle was. By coincidence I had a friend who was into wine and I asked him about CdP and he started pulling bottles out of his cellar - '88 Beaucastel I remember specifically, also Chateau de la Gardine, Guigal, Pegau, Paul Autard. Shortly afterward I bought case of '90 Beaucastel for $300. Those were the days.