Singapore didn’t serve any alcohol on the ground at JFK in Suites, which was really disappointing as flying out of LAX we had already finished the first bottle of DP before takeoff.
That is actually quite fun. I have only been to Bordeaux once (2023), which happened to be the week before the annual En Primeur tastings. It was impossible to visit any chateau’s, but Chateau Olivier opened their gates to us and did a full En Primeur tasting where we got the chance to try their different varieties from different plots on their chateau. Very enlightening and they still have a spot in my heart.
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That’s a meaningful connection. When I first visited Bordeaux, the most welcoming château was Chateau Siran, a “lowly” Medoc. But they were very charming people, and they let me try some very mature wines, and I became a fan of the rustic, elegant style. They have become more of a modern château at this point, but occasionally I will still pick up an old bottle for memories. How would you describe the current style Chateau Olivier? And are they still producing a nice Blanc?
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Hmm I think I would best describe them as modern but still keeping to traditions. I bought some but havent had a chance to taste recently. When we visited it was classy bordeaux with definite pencil lead, casis and blackberries. Not too heavy on the oak. They recently modernized the insides of their winery.
I remember the blanc as fresh and easily accessible.
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Not really the same as @Robert_Dentice pointed out! Mine was more around the first wine memory. Both are engaging topics as they can be different or the same. I have a few friends whose first wine memory is far from their Eureka moment (first memory=getting sloshed on cheap red wine, eureka moment=first old Bordeaux bottle shared with their dad).
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True… and yes of course I was referring to the latter example 
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Ive always had wine around me but the wine that stuck with me and made me fall in love with wine was a bottle of Domaine de la Grange des Peres 2010.
In my early 20’s I always fancied myself as someone who knew their way around a wine list, but in reality I only had limited knowledge. Anytime I went out with the GF or friends, I was always the “wine guy” even though I had limited knowledge. Probably because my friends knew my family liked wine, so I basically had the title of “wine guy” bestowed upon me - although I didn’t earn it.
When the doc Somm came out in 2012/2013 I came across it while flying to LA from NYC. I adored the doc. As someone who was known as the “wine guy” who didn’t really know much about wine, Somm quickly made me realize how little I knew.
I ended up purchasing a few wine text books on my ipad to read on the train during my commute to and from work everyday in NYC. I spent about a year studying wine just for fun so I would actually know what I am talking about. I also actively started to go to wine tastings and events to improve my palette and learn how to blind taste.
The way I came to the bottle of Domaine de la Grange des Peres was through Sommselect. I learned about Sommselect from the MS Ian Cauble who was one of the stars of the Somm doc (if you can’t tell, the first Somm doc really got me excited about wine). The first time I visited the site back in 2014/2015 they had a bottle of Domaine de la Grange des Peres 2010. It was listed for $350, which was a lot of money for me at the time. But I decided to splurge. I bought a 3 pack. My plan was to store 2 and try one now. When I opened the bottle and decanted it, it was magic. I was hooked on my wine journey ever since… all because I came across a little wine documentary on the plane.
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We’ve been scolded on another thread and can’t say that anymore. Wouldn’t want to have Todd asd a permanent label to my avatar that says “grumpy old fucker that knows everything”. 
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Pedantry? Hold my beer:
There is an “H” sound in front of the Greek word— only Greek does not have a letter for it. Ancient Greek εὕρηκα can be transcribed as “eureka” but would be pronounced with an initial H sound.
Many Ancient/Byzantine Greek words have similar pronunciations:
— Henoticon (Emperor Zeno’s theological “act of union “ in 482) is ἑνωτικόν (no initial H in Greek spelling)
— Henosis (ἕνωσις) “unification” I have usually seen spelled in English with an H in front of it when referring to the Neoplatonic principle of connecting with the Monad and spelled without the initial H (ie Enosis) when referring to the political movement to unify Cyprus to mainland Greece (that eventually contributed to the decision by Turkey to intervene and set up a puppet TRNC state in the mother half of the island.)
BTW none of this has anything to do with the alternative spellings of the Name of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus/Heliogabalus.
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I thought this was an English language thread?
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for me it was more of an “event” or two. My wife and I always liked wine, when we would travel abroad we would find a reason to spend 1 day in a “wine area” like Central Otago, Rioja, Mendoza, etc though it was never the specific intent of the trip, usually just a day trip we would book through a tour company. When out to dinner maybe we would order something but never knew what we were ordering…
In the Fall of 2019 we spent ~12 days in Prague, Vienna and Budapest. We knew we were going to spend 1 day in the Wachau tasting mostly Whites, so I went to a local wine shop and asked for a “typical Austrian Red” and they sold me a bottle of Moric Blaufrankisch. My wife and I loved it, so we contacted the winery through the website and asked if they were near the Wachau, if they do tastings, etc. Needless to say Roland wrote back, said they dont have a proper tasting room, they arent near the Wachau but they his office was en route from Vienna to Budapest so we could “stop by” in our travels.
Fast forward, while in Vienna we went to Steirereck and did the wine pairing. When they poured a White Burgundy for us my wife and I were both floored. We called the Somm back over and asked what is this, so he repeated, its a White Burgundy and a few other fancy words. we said yes, but what’s the grape. He said Chardonnay and our mouths hit the floor in gasp and shock. We liked a Chard? WTF!!
Then we hired a car service to take us to Budapest so we took up Roland on his offer and stopped by his office. Turned out to be his house. It was us, Roland, his dog and later on his daughter, sitting at the kitchen table tasting all of his wines and just talking travel, culture, food, politics, my Eastern European heritage, etc. Was one of those moments you just cannot believe even when I look back 5 years later…
Shortly thereafter we got back from this great trip, my wife’s boss moved and emptied his cellar of some single bottles he didnt want to move to his new place and gave us a lot of really amazingly aged wine from all over - Rhone, Bordeaux, Napa and some Italian wines as well. Then the pandemic hit, I remembered we had this “nice fancy” wine from my wife’s boss. I went to look up some details on the bottles, found this forum and really fell down the rabbit hole…
That trip to Europe + the collection we received all within 3-4 months or so really cemented our deeper journey into wine.
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Omg! Yes it’s without the H 
I remember you telling me this story which was great. I got into wine really while living in Vienna too. The wine culture in Europe is just more ingrained and less performative than here.
Good memories of that trip. I’d love to return to Austria and spend more time maybe doing a 10-12 day drive through a few of the smaller cities, the Alps, etc. One day I’ll go back…And yes the European view on wine is way different than here in the US - and I can gather that just from our travels over there even though we are “tourists” you can still see and feel the difference.
Certain I have told this before but while I was already a wine drinker, it was at a dinner in 1994 where the light bulb really went on. We were out with friends at The Delaney House (which used to be really good in the late 1980s to mid 1990s), and as I liked wine I got the duty of the wine list. With the use of logic around price points (e.g., don’t order the cheapest wine on the list - look a few bottles higher in price - thanks Dad) and what little actual wine knowledge I selected a 1992 Arrowood Merlot. It was amazing. Dick Arrowood was a fantastic winemaker, and this was before the ripeness boom. I was totally hooked. I immediately started hunting around for Arrowood wines, and asking at shops for similar things. Somehow that got twisted to Ravenswood Zinfandels, and then I went really nuts on vineyard designated wines.
The German wine epiphany is another story told many times.
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Somewhere around 1989. Was 31 or so, sitting over at my in-laws drinking a red wine offered by my brother-in-law, Chuck. Chuck was very into wine, getting deliveries from Kermit Lynch, their news letter, etc. After a glass or two that afternoon I looked up at Chuck and said something to the effect of “this is really good wine!” It was a bottle of Ridge Zin (was either the Lytton Springs or the Geyserville bottling), to which he responded “well, yeah dude, this is about the third time you’ve had this wine here!” So, that was it. I started buying red wine, mostly Zin (all the usual suspects at the time) and branching out to Cabs and blends. Within a year or so I took the difficult emotional leap of purchasing . . . a whole case!!! Mixed, with (at the time) an “expensive” bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (I believe it was the '82; something like $28 at the time). A couple of months later I opened that '82 BV Georges de Latour and experienced another one of those eureka moments. Went back to the wine store to pick up more of it (there had been around a dozen or so when I purchased the one bottle) . . . and it was all gone!! Thus began my recurring dreams of being in wine stores searching for that ever-elusive bottle . . . . 
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Lol, soon as I read the second paragraph I knew it had to be Abe. Coincidentally, Abe was the first winemaker I visited as well… when you have no context for what a winery visit usually involves, and Abe is your first, it definitely makes an impression!
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I assumed it was some aristocratic Euro thing, kind of like the fancy Swiss watch. It added a little class to the thread!
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A few false starts on the way. I remember in college buying a bottle of Harvey’s Beaune that was both expensive and disgusting. Put me off Burgundy for a while.
Post grad studies at a business school appropriately nicknamed Thunderbird got me started, but it wasn’t until I got to New York, that I started to get seriously into wine.
A trip to Bordeaux and a course taught by an MW at Chateau Loudenne was when it happened. Gilby’s the owner of Loudenne distributed Giscours and we went to the chateau to taste. It was the 1979 that was my Eureka wine, only six years old but so interesting, balanced and complex.
After that, it was downhill.
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