I read/hear all the time that great food and wine is all about sharing.That’s certainly the case sometimes, but I wonder what people’s thoughts are on enjoying food and wine when alone.
I originally got into wine with my wife. We had a small collection of some nice bottles, would enjoy them with dinner, even blind tasted wine on each other. Never really branched out into finding other wine friends. But then divorce happened, and the pandemic happened, and now I’m a few years into enjoying wine, with some pretty nice bottles in my possession, but without people to share it with on a regular basis. My friends don’t have any interest. I’ve tried to get my current partner into nice wine on a few occasions, but she seems utterly uninterested. Different strokes…
So I’ve found myself cooking nice meals and cracking open some nice bottles all on my own. And I’ve enjoyed the experience. I enjoy cooking (learned to cook while living alone, so I’m used to that), and I always enjoy something nice to drink alongside my cooking, so it’s felt natural. But I have been reluctant to open my nicest stuff when I’m by myself, for whatever reason.
But I’m curious what the experiences are among all you wine enthusiasts. Do you open nice bottles when you are by yourself? What about your best bottles? Some people will resort to frozen TV dinners and Bud Light when alone. Thats definitely not me, but what about you all? Just curious.
I live alone, and most of my friends aren’t into wine, so a lot of the time I’m cooking for myself and often opening up a bottle to go with dinner.
Most of my ‘best’ wines I don’t drink alone. For the most part because I think there is something special about them in one way or another and I want to open them with others who’d enjoy it as well. Though that is not to say that I don’t drink some of of my best wines alone. Sometimes the mood just strikes for a really nice wine, and I have no qualms about opening such bottles by myself if the mood strikes. Can’t wait to resume offlines and meeting some more Berserkers face to face
My wife and daughter are out of town, and I cooked dinner at home tonight with my teenage sons. Popped open a half-bottle of ‘06 Haut Brion, consumed it all by myself, and enjoyed every second of it!
Why not? You cannot wait for ‘Chance’ to happen, and…you’ve got all that wine. Even if I was alone I would still cook the meals I want to eat. If people were there to share with, great, but that did not prevent me from opening something up.
Nowadays, with a spouse who really doesn’t drink and one who is cutting back, a bottle lasts a lot longer.
I’m married, have kids that can drink, have friends to casually enjoy wine with and a focused wine group who pre-pandemic, got together a number of times each year to drink, learn, share, discuss and enjoy good wines together.
I believe almost everyone enjoys eating with others vs. alone. Eating is communal, friendly and social.
However blasphemous, I tend to think wine lovers will generally enjoy 1 bottle more alone than with others. The few times a year I have the house to myself for an evening ends up being very fulfilling because of the time I can spend with a glass or three of wine with food, without hurry or distraction.
Great bottles are contemplative. You need space, time and to some extent quiet to actually think or ‘feel’ about the wine in front of you. Even when in our wine group, we spend some quiet time with the wines once poured without much talk before discussing further, enjoying with food and socializing over them during an evening.
I’m not suggesting parties, celebrations or family dinners aren’t special and memorable, they are. You will have more fun with others present but if this is about what’s in the bottle, being alone is best. I just wouldn’t wish it on anyone long-term.
With a cellar comprised of good inexpensive bottles, good moderately priced bottles, good expensive bottles, and good stupidly expensive bottles, good being the operative word, on the rare occasions when I’m gloriously home alone, and depending on my mood, I’ll drink something in the range of inexpensive to expensive. Stupidly expensive are saved for very special occasions and high end wine dinners where you have to pay to play.
agree. Best memory is an entire bottle of 1990 Leroy Musigny. All by myself. Wasn’t lonesome after two angels came down, hoisted me on their shoulders, and flew me around the room. They didn’t drink.
I have no problem opening an expensive bottle of wine when I’m the only one drinking, but I use Coravin so that I can enjoy the bottle over a couple of nights.
I suspect people bang the “wine always has to be shared with other people” drum so hard because of the stigma (are you becoming an alcoholic???) of drinking alone.
But as everyone else has said, it’s fine, and there’s no reason that someone who is single or has a spouse or partner who doesn’t drink should be shut out from enjoying wine.
What I would suggest is that you find method(s) that work for you for preserving wine to day 2, 3 and 4, and that way, you can enjoy good wine without overdoing it and without wasting part of the bottle. Whether you use Coravin, QikVin, Wine Squirrel, mini Boston rounds bottles, or whatever, get a good plan that works for you and produces results you’re happy with, and that way, you can enjoy good wine in reasonable amounts as part of your regular life.
The other thing would be if you can find or cultivate other wine-loving friends in the area, where you can go out, share some bottles, learn from each other, etc. I know that isn’t always present for everyone, or the way everyone is wired, but if you can make any connections that way, it might round out your experience in a good way, too.
Last year during the COVID lockdown, I had occasion to open some mature high end wines alone.
But more often if I do that- it is something very young that I expect will take a lot of time and concentration to evaluate such that I really want to enjoy sipping the wine slowly over several hours without distraction to get a really good read on it.
In such cases I will usually have a glass with lunch, revisit every hour or so for a small sip, and then a glass with dinner. All at home with home cooking. And when I first open the bottle I will pour off 4-5 100mL sample bottles to share with friends who might like the wine as well as the store that sold me the bottle if it was a local purchase.
