Which Bottle Was Your Epiphany

K_John_Joseph · March 22, 2012, 5:57pm

rachel mcdonald:

OK, you’re right. My two wines as previously stated:

83 Margaux tasted in 2003
91 Panther Creek Beaux Freres Pinot tasted in 2001

The story: I am the youngest of three children. I have two older brothers who are 10 and 12 years older. My parents have traditionally had a pretty liberal attitude about alcohol and staring when we were 16, we were allowed to have a small pour (2-3 oz) of wine with dinner. Only with dinner, no refills, no exceptions. I think it was as much a matter of making my parents feel cultured and “European” as it was to make us cognizant of alcohol. Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of friends because I had a speech impediment and it made me the butt of a lot of jokes and made me feel pretty isolated. Coupled with the fact that my brothers are 10+ years older, I grew up feeling like an outsider. Being able to drink wine with dinner made me feel adult and grown up and made me feel like I was a part of a different world. I always liked wine and had seen my parents swoon over certain bottles, but these were two wines that struck me personally. They really spoke to me and with each one of them in their time and place, I couldn’t imagine a wine that could be more perfect. I understood the swooning and the passion. They were two wines that struck me personally, where I wasn’t trying to see or understand what someone else was experiencing - it was really much more about what I felt and my own experience. I was like I finally got it and understood. You could talk about the wines, but how they seemed to me was really beyond words. Describing them just seemed to cheapen the experience. And no matter how anybody mocked me or made fun of me, they couldn’t steal that experience or the memory. It was liking encountering a small piece of perfection in an otherwise imperfect world. They were both glimpses into something grander. I’ve had both wines since and while they were awesome, they weren’t the same. It was really a matter of the time and place.

No perfect wines - just perfect bottles.

This is really a wonderful and touching story. It takes an incredible amount of internal fortitude to reveal your insecurities and, even moreso, how you cope with them and how they affect you. Thank you for sharing those moments.

Ryan_Kilkenney · March 22, 2012, 6:47pm

Robert makes a good point about context, so I’ll add that the key element of the experience of drinking those brunellos was being near the source. When I got back to the States I read a lot about wine, and tried wine from all over. (All the French wine I own is from around that time period.) That’s typical - I tend to take up a subject, exhaust my interest, and move on to something else. I might’ve done the same with wine, except my wife proposed a trip to Napa. And I realized on that trip that what really draws me to wine is a sense of place. Not in the “terroir” sense, but an actual place, or maybe the memory of it. I’m not literally thinking about Napa or Tuscany when I’m drinking cabernet or sangiovese (although sometimes I do). It’s more indirect, but it’s real to me. So, like a lot of folks here, I might find some day that I like Burgundy best. But not until I’ve actually been there.

rachel_mcdonald · March 22, 2012, 7:02pm

Ryan Kilkenney:

Ryan Kilkenney:

2000 Cupano Brunello di Montalcino and the 1999 Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino, tasted side-by-side in a wine shop in Montalcino in 2005.

Robert makes a good point about context, so I’ll add that the key element of the experience of drinking those brunellos was being near the source. When I got back to the States I read a lot about wine, and tried wine from all over. (All the French wine I own is from around that time period.) That’s typical - I tend to take up a subject, exhaust my interest, and move on to something else. I might’ve done the same with wine, except my wife proposed a trip to Napa. And I realized on that trip that what really draws me to wine is a sense of place. Not in the “terroir” sense, but an actual place, or maybe the memory of it. I’m not literally thinking about Napa or Tuscany when I’m drinking cabernet or sangiovese (although sometimes I do). It’s more indirect, but it’s real to me. So, like a lot of folks here, I might find some day that I like Burgundy best. But not until I’ve actually been there.

I get what you mean and feel very similar. Some wines make me completely aware of the time and place. People talk about the importance of stopping to smell the roses and appreciating moments in your life, and some wines, for me, are those moments. It’s a very Proustian idea of memory - they encapsulate a moment and I end up with a memory where the wine and the time and place are all all intertwined. In that sense, the wines, like the moment, are perfect.

Mark_Pecken · March 22, 2012, 7:16pm

Me too. I wonder if they were from the same “batch”?

David_White · March 22, 2012, 7:35pm

Failla’s 2005 Estate Syrah.

Even wrote an article about it for an Indian luxury magazine: http://blog.terroirist.com/?p=8646

Gerry_Morrisey · March 22, 2012, 9:21pm

1992 Spottswoode is what opened my eyes to fine wine beyond Beringer white zin.

1955 Ch Figeac is what sent me over the edge on Bordeaux

Robert.A.Jr · March 22, 2012, 10:05pm

Agreed. I do not know Rachel, but her’s are some of the posts I recently enjoy reading most.

Ron_Kramer · March 22, 2012, 10:28pm

I think it was in '58-60 we starting hanging with Michael Goldstein now of Park Ave W&L and getting invited to MANY Austin Nichlos TN’s an auctions in the early '60’s. Tasting wines you would not believe. We graduated from Hearty Burg to serious wine. Invited to a Martin Ray event I had a '47 Chard, mid '50’s Cab and PN, strangely as I remember from champagne bottles and that did it for me.

Rob_Hansult · March 23, 2012, 7:38am

The '50 Yquem.

Knew (at the time - 1977) wine could be very good, great even.

Didn’t know it could be a mind-blowing work of art.

Wine became a revelation, & a calling.

Cheers to the good stuff!