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

WINE TALK
101

For me, it was a bottle of 1978 Robert Groffier Gevrey-Chambertin that I inherited from my father. I was just starting to drink wine more seriously around 1984-85, and this wine showed me the power of aging in wine. A relatively simple Burgundy at its peak.

102

Love this thread…brings back good memories.

Most memorable experience: my father was given a bottle of 82 Margaux, which he stored for years in a closet in his garage in LOS ANGELES. In 1995 he brought it up to Oregon and we all went to the coast and opened it at Salishan. None of us understood the pedigree of the wine, we simply loved it and savored each sip, which had miraculously survived innumerable heat waves in SoCal. I remember the Som mumbling about the wine storage as the cork crumbled during a difficult extraction. The next day my dad and I ventured out to a small coastal wine store and asked if we could purchase some more of this remarkable wine. Our jaws dropped when the guy said “I’m sure I can locate some for you…but you know that it is around $600/bottle.”

The next epiphany came a few weeks later…a much more humble wine but it was the 93 Bethel Heights SE Block PN that really blew my mind. I simply couldn’t believe that such delicious wine was being produced in “my backyard”, and it has been a ridiculously slippery-slope since then…

103

1987 Beringer Reserve Cab in Mendocino(1994) while staying here…

104

1986 Château Prieuré-Lichine, drank around 1996, which really showed me the beauty of nicely aged high-quality Bordeaux.

105

My dad opened a '75 Yquem for me that changed everything. Then maybe a few weeks later, he opened a '71 Leroy Echezeaux that cemented the deal.

106

I was (am) lucky to have a father with a large (by my standards) cellar who let me drink wine well before the USA would…and the two bottles I remember flipping the switch for me were a 1994 Pesquera Ribera del Duero and a 1997 Vieux Donjon CdP…I had always appreciated it, but these two bottles showed me what aging could do for a wine. If only I had the patience to lay bottles down for more than a year or two…

107

1985 Fisher Coach Insignia

108

Sea Ranch?

109

A house(Sea Drum) we use to rent, just north of Fort Bragg. Lot of good wine/times in that hot tub at the edge of the deck! [whistle.gif]

Btw, did you see the notes I posted from Weds?

110

Just saw them Brian, you are an animal with the TNs!

111

I am 56. My parents were not wine drinkers but every Christmas Eve they would open some “Champagne”, which in reality was something called “Cold Duck”. Hey, they were children of the Depression. I do remember when very young being allowed to take a sip or two, and this warm fuzzy feeling going from my toes, up my back to my brain.

College was all about beer - any beer. There were no “craft beers” back then, we drank anything that came from a tap or a keg. Preferably in gigantic plastic cups.

I was exposed to the wine culture of California in 1977, after graduating college June 76, and going straight to Navy OCS in Newport, RI, then being stationed in San Diego for 8 months of school in January 77. Yes, it was the basic starter stuff, Mateus Rose, Christian Brothers, “Eye of the Swan” Rose, lots of cheap Barbera, which we nicknamed “Barbaric” 'cause that was how we felt after a bottle or two.

However, the seed was sown, and three years in Hawaii statoned on a frigate out of Pearl Harbor, allowed me to read and learn, while drinking slightly better stuff from the local supermarkets and the package stores on base. Mostly Cali stuff. By the end of the tour I was a confirmed wine geek, and was then transferred to Wahington, DC to work for two years in the Pentagon. DC is a very cosmopolitan city with many good wine stores, and so I began exploring European wines for the first time.

That was where my true love, Italian wines, first entered my consciousness. After 2 years in the Pentagon I left active duty to go to graduate school at Penn, in Philadelphia, and ran across many interesting things just across the DE river in Jersey, where all the good wine shops were (PA having it’s socialist State Store System). After graduating and going to work for Dupont in Wilmington, DE summer of 1984, I began to buy wine for laying down, almost all Italian, for the next 20 years or so.

I don’t remember the producer of the first Barolo I ever had, all I knew was I liked it, so one of the first things I did upon graduation was buy a case of Giacomo Conterno Barolo, the 1970 “Cascina Francia”, for $13 per bottle from Garnet in Manhattan. I also bought a case of 1978 Pio Cesare Barolo Riserva here in Wilmington, for about $8 per bottle because the distributor had mispriced it and the store owner passed the savings on to me! (They were normally about $18 per bottle in 1984).

My first Amarone was while a student at graduate school, something my brother had gotten a case of - it came in a funny, squat little bottle, probably a coop, no big name for sure, but man was it unique and delicious. Blew my mind. So in my Amarone searches, I ran across things like Bertani, Masi, Tommasi, and the King of them all, Quintarelli. Q’s 74 Amarone and 77 Amarone Riserva were the equivalent of the best crack to this hopelessly addicted Amarone lover.

The first eye opening Chianti to me was the 1971 Carpineto CCR, bought at a small shop in Flushing, Queens (my home town), on 162nd street, around 1984, for $4.99. Amazing red orange color, floral nose, delicious flavor - who knew Chianti could be like this? Later I would discover Monsanto, Antinori, Selvapiana, and my all time favorite, Badia a Coltibuono.

Well, that was my progression. Back in the day, there was no Internet and Italian wine fanatics were hard to find. So when you did find one you stayed tight with them. I do want to shout out to the wine store that enabled me in my addiction to Italian wines early on, the Goldstar Liquor Store on Queens Blvd., owned by Lou Iacucci. It truly was the Italian wine lover’s Mecca in those halcyon days, until Lou was tragically killed in a car accident in Italy on a buying trip. His assistant Rod Cisco was also terrific.

Nowadays, I have a whole famiglia of Italian wine lovers met through the Internet, and others who love all wine, not just Italian.

dc.

112

Mine happened when my Italian uncle came over for a BB-Q. We had a few monster NY strips grilling and he casually came out and gave me a glass “to drink while you BB-Q”. It was a glass of Grgich Hills Cab and I loved it! It was followed up by a bottle of 03 Dominus, which had the longest mouth coating finish I had experienced at that time. I remember thinking I was going to have to stop drinking wine until I could afford to buy bottles like the Dominus.

113

1995 Marcoux VV
1994 Montevetrano

114

1996 SLV Fay

115

1989 Rayas, purchased two cases on release. Still my all time favorite wine. Wish I had purchased 20 cases.

116

Actually, there were a couple before the Rayas that probably got me started earlier. 1987 Calera Jensen and Reed. And also a 1988 Ponzi Reserve Pinot. All outstanding pinots at that time in my early wine life, and it unfortunately sent me on a path of buying red burgundy…that was painful. [truce.gif]

117

1996 Auguste Clape Cornas.

This will always be a special wine to me.

118

Well, that´s not a short ´n´easy story.

I hesitate to tell, but for me, a total French wine freak, the initial was a Greek and a Californian wine - and only with the 3rd step a French one.

In 1987 during holidays in Greece we drank a lot of (mean) Greek wines. I had no idea of wine in those days, only like them or not, but on the trip back we found a good looking bottle in a duty free shop called “Chateau Clauss”, vintage 1982. I though “Chateau” is French, so it would be a French wine, and French wines are always good. neener
Back home we liked the wine, but discovered from the label that is was Greek indeed. I said to myself: “I can´t stand that, I have to educate myself about wine” - and I bought some books.

Later that years my sister, studying hotel-management, made a flight with her college to Paris. I asked her to bring me a “good bottle of French red wine” (ok, today the list would comprise several pages … [snort.gif] )

After her return she proudly gave me a bottle, explaining: “Most bottles were very expenisive, but this one looked good and was affordable”.
We opened it and liked it very much …
Later we discovered the words on the label: “Made in California” !
[tease.gif]

Ok, I bought several more books, including the 1st Parkers “Bordeaux” and “Rhone Valley”.

In early 1988 we made skiing holidays in Austria. On a wine list in a nice restaurant I detected a Chateauneuf du Pape (name never heard) vintage 1981 for (then) some 25 $. I knew already CdP is a good Rhone wine, and 1981 was a good vintage - so we ordered it.
It was a revelation - the best wine I´ve ever had!

Back home I quickly searched my Parker-Rhone-book: it was “Pignan 1981”, the 2nd wine of Chateau Rayas.

Since then I´m in love with French wines, and Rayas in particular!

In summer 1988 we had our honeymoon in France. flirtysmile

  • and since then I´ve been in France every year with two exception.
119

1997 Truchot Clos de la Roche

Poured at a retailers’ tasting class with 6 Grand Cru red burgs.

While everybody else in the class voted bigger wines as their WOTN, my wife and I were head over heels with the Truchot, and have been ever since.

120

I’m 58, and got a late start. My wife’s buddy who is ITB brought 4 bottles to a BYO dinner in 1999, and the last one poured was a 1996 Bonterra Syrah, which was so unlike anything I had tasted prior.

I then dabbled aimlessly for a for a few years, and in 2001 picked up a 1998 La Fleur de Bouard, which became my first multiple-bottle purchase— 2 CASES! First wine lesson learned.

Then, another year or so later, a 1995 Ornellaia, the nose of which still lingers, and convinced me to up my per-bottle ceiling, and there went the dream of a farm in Antarctica.

[snort.gif]