I don’t know if perhaps I should say “curious” or “fascinating” in the title or perhaps one that makes you wonder. I actually own a lot of mass produced wines from Bordeaux and Napa. Some are trophies to me, but they do not make me think. No, in fact, the bottle I’m thinking of was really not relatively expensive nor is it any great trophy. It is practically an unknown soldier lying somewhere in the Burgundy section of the wooden racking in my wine storage room. I’d have to look for it. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled it out and shown it to anyone.
It is curious to me because in the world of Cellar Tracker there are only two bottles in inventory. There is mine and somewhere his brother. There is one note from eleven years ago from the third bottle that was ever recorded in the system. I am not sure if I’m in a stare down with the owner of the other bottle or if when I write my note it will be a love letter to him. Perhaps the owner has passed or doesn’t speak English. I don’t know.
I have no plans to open it, but it does make me wonder. 2003 Vougeraie Mazoyeres-Chambertin.
Do you have a bottle that is a talking piece, perhaps even signed by someone famous, or one that is has a fascinating story? Old or rare? I’m curious.
I have a few but the one that I think probably wines is a 9 liter bottle of Valentino Barolo 1978 Podere Rocche dei Manzoni Langhe Di Valentino. Weird size, the wine is great, but the thing I like about it is that there is a hand sketched back label of the vineyard, and of course being Italian from the seventies, it has a small tasteful medallion around the neck.
A couple of bottles of OTH plonk but with commemorative labels from a couple of cricket matches I played in (One vs. Fleet St Press and the other vs. the Bunburys charitable organisation). Probably just 2 cases of each ever labelled up.
1937 Warre’s Colheita Port. They can’t release any more, because the lead content from old valves has contaminated the wine above the allowed threshold.
Hey, I have the 2002 !
It´s labelled “Charmes-Chambertin Les Mazoyeres”
Maybe the production in 2003 was so tiny that the wine is much rarer than 2002 …
I have quite a few bottles that one might call “interesting” - be it the La Tache 1921 Liger-Belair, or La Romanee 1952/Leroy … or an Austrian Sauvignon blanc “Botrytis” - only 6 bottles filled especially for me before the wine got declassified …
But I´m quite proud of the bottle(s) with my music on the back label: DA CAPO 1998 …
I had a never released '12 Bedrock Puccini, but I drank it at a family reunion last year. So there is no use talking about something that no longer exists.
Edit, this might be pushing it a bit, but I have a '99 Jaffurs Bien Nacido signed by Craig Jaffurs, who sold the winery last year.
Mine is mostly a fun bottle that has a great bit of trivia attached. It’s a bottle of Estate Zweigelt from Wilridge Winery in Naches Heights, WA. The winery is a local place to me that is right off of a local hiking trail that I’ve hiked a bunch of times but have never stopped at for one reason or another. But on a trip to Seattle last year, my wife and I were at Pike Place Market and the winery had a small booth with a tasting for a couple bucks. Intrigued to finally taste their wines, we stopped in. They have an unusual mix of varietal wines for WA. Some of the usual varieties for WA are represented (Cab, Merlot, Syrah), but they mostly have Italian varieties and this Zweigelt.
I’ve never had a Zweigelt before and thought it was their most interesting wine of their lineup. When I said that same thing to the tasting tent attendant, she proceeded to tell me the story of how this unlikely grape made it into the vineyard. Apparently, they thought they were getting some cuttings of Pinot Blanc from a nursery and after three years on vine, the grapes came in red! They called up the nursery and asked them what was the deal. The nursery said that the Pinot Blanc field they got them from has a couple of rows of Zweigelt and they must have cut from those instead (since it was winter when they took the cuttings, they couldn’t tell the difference). The winery said that they decided to make wine from the accidental grapes and were so pleased by the results that they kept the vines instead of replanting.
I thought the wine was priced a little higher than the value I would have for this bottle but the story alone was worth the price. I copied a link the the story below.
Being an Oregonian, I have an affinity to the historical Oregon bottles. By dumb luck, I ended up with a 1978 Adelsheim Pinot Noir “First Harvest” signed by David. This was in a lot of older Oregon wines that were all signed by the winemakers. Others in there were '80 and '82 Elk Cove bottlings, both signed. They weren’t advertised as signed, so it was a surprise when they arrived. I still have a '75 Eyrie South Block with David’s handwritten designation on the label. That’s a historical artifact.
Other sentimental bottles include those I bottled myself at a now-defunct Oregon winery that we were married at. I’ve got a dwindling stash, most of which are labeled.
An interesting botle is a Virginia Dare Wine bottle from the early 20th century. I got that at a yard sale. It was thankfully empty when I purchased it. It’s embossed glass and a neat cellar decoration. It was in a box with a bunch of wine and spirits bottles from roughly the same era (to my untrained eye). As a lot, they were worth my $5.
Probably a bottle of unlabeled 1974 Ramonet 1er cru that Noel gave my husband out of his personal cellar after Jonathan gave him a gift of Rip Rye. Noel probably made out the winner on that deal.
Or maybe 1974 Gemello Petite Syrah.
Some magnums of early ‘90s Ratzenberger sekt are oddballs for sure. And one bottle of '87, which I think is the unofficial first vintage.
A bottle of 1959 Poniatowski Clos Baudoin, which was a gift from the Prince.
And there are some crazy bottles of Tokaji that I wouldn’t know how to start spelling.
I have a magnum of 2010 AJ Adam beerenauslese. It’s one of only 6 mags he bottled. Its for my son who is a 2010er (the last of the six is still available for sale at Crush if anyone is interested).
I also have a bottle of 1929 Heidsieck ‘Dry Monopole’ Champagne. I found it in my grandparents house after they passed. They werent big drinkers - wine or otherwise, so Ive always wondered why they had this bottle, why they kept it, and then how it went to be forgotten about for the next 80 years. Its unopened, but of course the cork failed after decades of passive storage at room temperature. But its a nice reminder of them and an intriguing mystery of what the year or bottle might have meant for them. its also the year of the Wall St Crash, which is interesting.
I’ve a bottle of 1959 DRC Echezeaux that Paul Draper consigned at auction.
Also a couple bottles of Faja dos Padres Malvasia. This is the most famous, historical vineyard on Madeira. The current owner will sometimes bottle some of his homemade noncommercial wine as gifts.
I have a 3L of MUMM F1 Champagne (the decorated kind they spray) that I got from a member of team Redbull… In it’s case, unopened.
I also have several bottles of Riesling, with the logos of several of the F-16 fighter squadrons I was a member of in Germany along with some Dutch Squadron bottles.
![[shrug.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/48636ebda2a440a43ad8d24c83be20ac20c53420.gif "shrug"){kind=small}
![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}