What's the most meaningful glass of wine you've shared with someone?

WINE TALK
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The first one, because it usually means the beginning of a fun wine journey for us moving forward. It’s one the the things I love about wine the most.

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Here’s the first time they ate egg together…

If you have 90 seconds to spare…

1-VHZAGQYks

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My first born - JACQUELINE NICHOLE KEIM - 32 years old this year.

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This one from August 2016 is up there;

My mother in law went to the ER on 7/27/16 with some gastrointestinal issues. When I popped this bottle, I knew she would be back in the hospital soon for a Whipple procedure for duodenal cancer. I popped a bottle with a little age on it, something that I would otherwise never pop on a random weeknight and we celebrated life that evening with family.

She lost her battle with cancer yesterday, 7/28/17.

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[cry.gif] My condolences.

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That looks like a happy moment and a memory to cherish. I’m sorry for your family’s loss.

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So so sorry to hear it. She and you look cery happy in that photo. I’m glad you got to share that special moment, among other special moments.

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This was a really wonderful thread. I have had many, many memorable wines, but I had to think very hard about meaningful ones. I agree with most of the people here that this is about family and sharing with loved ones.

I ended up deciding it was a bottle of Chablis we had on our honeymoon on Monhegan Island in Maine. We had been invited to a party by the locals to celebrate the installation of first telephone line on the island that could call the mainland. We ordered pizza by telephone, opened up a the first bottle of a case of Chablis brought by one of the Wyeths, and started calling someone in each of the 50 states. Nobody knew anybody in Montana or Wyoming, so we just called people at random. The wines were lovely the lobster pizza a little weird, but it’s one of the honeymoon memories I will always treasure.

29

The bottle of Pol Roget Winston Churchill I popped for my dad on his 80th birthday. Last glass of wine he ever drank. It reminded me how fleeting life is but bubbles help.

30

Here are 3 that come to mind:

Our wedding wine: A 5L of 1990 Gaja Rennina. Here is a photo of me and my BiL and the near empty bottle:
d34.jpg
My father died in a car accident in 1983. I inherited the few bottles of wine he had put away in his basement. I opened a bottle he had of 1975 Groffier Gevrey Chambertin from his stash with his cousin. It was magical. Some of my wine obsession is a continuing connection to my father.

Just a few weeks ago: A glass of the 1954 Mario Vietti Barolo Riserva with Luca Currado. A birth year wine for me made by his grandfather. Luca had never had tasted this wine before. (Courtesy of Jamie Wolff at Chambers St.)

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I was just searching through some posts when I re-read Mark’s post I thought this topic deserved a bump…

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Look at all you softies!
This is like watching Oprah. [wink.gif]

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Another one way up the list was a bottle of '88 Krug just after my now-wife accepted my proposal for marriage. It was WAY more than I was comfortable spending at the time, and we were way up in the wilds of B.C. at a cabin. Pretty memorable I’d say.

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Or Hallmark Channel. [snort.gif]

Don’t know if I could point to most of anything, however. There are wines and times that blend together, with special people, family, and friends and certain winemakers with that special bottle that wasn’t released commercially, or that carafe of locally made, anonymous wine which captured a place.

35

Every year my dad and I play a member-member golf tournament at his club and the last day there is a dinner. He had mentioned in passing how he had never had DRC, so I brought a bottle of Echezeaux that was way too young, but the look on his face was pure joy. Was very happy to see my dad so happy.

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My dad and I play golf together now and then, and he told me on the course that he had never had a DRC. A little while later, I opened a '98 DRC Richebourg for his 65th birthday. It was also too young, but damned fine wine, and a great moment.

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HI DAD!!!

It’s great when you can have 2 dads!! [give_heart.gif]

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1998 Ristow Estate QDP Vineyard. September 11, 2001. Four months prior to that my brother met me in Wayne, NJ where I’d moved to take a stab at NY greatness with a dot.com pre-ipo. He brought two of the bottles and we drank one. He was well-ahead of me with wine and this was easily the best wine I’d had. I suggested we open another bottle and he stopped me and said, “Share it with someone. It’s the memories that matter, go make some.”.

Fast forward to that tough day. I’d moved to Jersey City and saw the event from the park. Soon a line formed at the docks by our nearby harbor and a bunch of us assisted the first responders with towel and water handouts to those feeling Battery Park. The two people next to me in line happened to be people I’d seen in our apartment lobby getting mail. I knew them by nothing other than “Hey, how are you?” odd conversations. Four hours later the boats ceased to cross and I turned to them and asked if they needed a drink.

We went back to my apartment, sat on the couch, opened that bottle and shared it. And, wept. My brother was correct. Wine is about the memories. It is about the people. I firmly believe no great bottle of wine can be drunk alone. To be great, it has to be shared.

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April 2007 and I was taking a month-long portrait painting workshop in Poitou-Charentes, France. My wife came along for a vacation. We had a rental car and invited a fellow painter and her husband to explore nearby Muscadet with us one Saturday . I tried to squeeze in a last minute, unannounced visit to Michel Bregeon after a lunch in Clisson. These were pre-GPS times (yes my young ones, times were hard), and the last few turns were very uncertain. We arrived at an unassuming place and saw an unassuming middle-aged man, mustachioed, unkempt hair, in knee-high muddy garden boots working his garden. I approached in my hesitant manner and with my hesitant French confirmed that he was Michel Bregeon and asked if a short visit and tasting might be possible. He hesitated, looked over to the car with my wife and companions, smiled and exclaimed “pourquois pas!”. He cleaned up a little and led us inside his small cellar to an unpretentious table. As we tasted his wine, the tasting became more personalized and customized as he sensed my great interest and appreciation despite my struggling French. (Fortunately my wife could help with the translation.) It was rude of me, but I let the tasting and conversation become between just me and Michel. This was the time when the “village” Muscadet was getting off the ground, but Michel was very proud of his “basic” bottling and was excited about this year’s wine which had yet to be bottled. He led me to a spot on the cellar floor, opened a hatch, bent down and withdrew some wine with a large pipette like instrument. He poured some in my glass and some in his. We both tasted. We both smiled.

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A very good question, Barry. Not bottle, but wine night(s). If I’m allowed to expand to that, then these two:

TNs--Lifting Spirits (non-alc)--Drouhin, Bouchard, Girardin, Comtes, D'Yquem, Gruner - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers (doubled up because I was serving a wine from the commune that my dad loves the most)

I did forget to add one bottle, a bottle of 2005 Kutch Pinot Noir—my last bottle of Jamie’s first vintage which I saved specifically to share with him at a dinner when he came to Toronto. Given how intertwined I feel I was with my friend’s initial journey, it was very special for me to do this with him.

Sorry, Chris–I hadn’t read yours when first responding to this thread—that is heartbreakingly beautiful.