Does There Come A Time When The Search For Epiphany Experiences Ceases?

[Peter_Chiu]

After you’ve been at this for a few decades, you come to realize that the truely remarkable experiences with wine are far and inbetween. While those with regular access to top tier wines may be the exception, even those with high quality collections are more apt to have good to excellent experiences than anything that just changes one’s understanding of what wine can be. (I’ve deliberately avoided using the word profound.) And I would guess that for many, the search for the holy grail played a large role in the pursuit of this endeavor. So, does there come a time when you relax and enjoy what it is you have, having let go of the search for a wine that exceeds all expectations?

Does there come a time when the search for epiphany experiences ceases ?

The answer is : yes…it normally comes with one’s age and his personal life-style.

For the burgundy lovers, here is what …Jasper Morris wrote in his Inside Burgundy – 2010 - page 15 at the end of the paragraph Understanding burgundy:

((((Among the beautiful things in my life have been some wonderful bottles of burgundy. Not necessarily grands crus, not always great vintages – but wines which, from the first sniff, have demonstrated that the vigneron has done the best possible job with the grapes available from that vineyard, in that year…)))

[Peter_Chiu]

For me it is about continuing to learn whether that’s about a new vintage, how long to age wines in my cellar, visiting different countries and tasting at the wineries. Last year we visited Badia a Passignano and had glasses of that, Tignanello, Guado al Tasso and Solaia for a tasting. The Solaia was among the best wines I’ve ever tasted. Chasing that dragon to find greatness and then to monitor that wine in 10, 15, 20 years if you have multiples is what I like to enjoy.

Jeff…so you visited Badia and tasted Solaia !!

That is excellent…but if you are thinking of visiting burgundy, please think twice

Take my advice…don’t join the dark-side !


Chasing that dragon to find greatness and then to monitor that wine in 10, 15, 20 years if you have multiples is what I like to enjoy.

[Marc_Hauser]

In this regard, wine is a lot like playing the slots. Or fishing. Or discovering a new band. Or opening a pack of baseball cards. You wait to get that hit, and it succeeds or fails, and then you do it again, because it’s never quite perfect, but you always have in mind that chance of hitting the jackpot.

[Jeff_M1]

For me it is about continuing to learn whether that’s about a new vintage, how long to age wines in my cellar, visiting different countries and tasting at the wineries. Last year we visited Badia a Passignano and had glasses of that, Tignanello, Guado al Tasso and Solaia for a tasting. The Solaia was among the best wines I’ve ever tasted. Chasing that dragon to find greatness and then to monitor that wine in 10, 15, 20 years if you have multiples is what I like to enjoy.

Jeff…so you visited Badia and tasted Solaia !!

That is excellent…but if you are thinking of visiting burgundy, please think twice

Take my advice…don’t join the dark-side !


Chasing that dragon to find greatness and then to monitor that wine in 10, 15, 20 years if you have multiples is what I like to enjoy.

Ha. No Burgundy for me yet. I’ll eventually find my way there. We’ve done trips to Chile (Colchagua, Maipo Valley), New Zealand (Otago), Australia (McLaren Vale, Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Magill Estate), Spain (Rioja), Italy (Chianti Classico and Chianti, Montalcino) and next year we are headed to Bordeaux. I haven’t booked anything yet but I have a feeling Bordeaux will be a very expensive trip for me.

[Markus_S]

I’ve stopped searching for that moment after about 2 years and 200+ bottles. 95% of wine is meh. Very few even stand out.

So true.

[Markus_S]

… Epiphany implies novelty which by definition becomes more elusive with experience.

Not exactly, it implies a religious transformation, one of bringing God to us.

[Rob_S1]

If by epiphany you mean a transformative first encounter with the possibilities of wine, then obviously those are going to be less as you get older. But I still regularly have profound experiences with wine where I am surprised by the complexity, depth, and beauty of what I am drinking. If that stopped and wine was just another beverage that tasted really good I would sell my collection, the prices are in excess of what I would pay for something that just “tasted good”. (One reason I roll my eyes at “this is delicious” tasting notes – milkshakes are delicious and a whole lot cheaper than wine).

This. I don’t chase “first taste of something new which changes my thinking”. They happen sometimes and it’s cool when they do.

If by epiphany you mean that bWaaaaaaaa!!! Light from above from the Heavenly Host, Choir and trumpets, bring a tear to your eye and weaken your knees. Then yes I still chase after things that I think/hope will do that to me. I’d actually rather overweight my new buyings towards that and drink less in totality. There are wines I can still taste and smell a decade later, however there are a lot more $50 wines that I’ve forgotten about that could easily have been $30 wines and paid for more lifetime memories.

[Lee_Short]

Wine for me has never been about the search for epiphanies. Nor has there ever been I wine I drank to which I think that word could be appropriately applied.

[Nathan_Smyth]

I’ve stopped searching for that moment after about 2 years and 200+ bottles. 95% of wine is meh. Very few even stand out.

That’s an exceptionally important lesson to learn in this infernal hobby.

[David_Glasser]

One of the points of this hobby is to find the wines that aren’t meh. That’s not too hard with a little experience and advice. The transcendent experiences are few and far between, and as others have said they aren’t predictable.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

A valid case can be made that there are many more disappointments to be had with aged Burgundy than with young Napa Valley Cabernets.

And far more transcendant moments too. I’m not looking for consistent, I’m looking for wines with soul and if there’s an off bottle or 10 on the road to a bottle of 89 Echexeaux that makes me weep, I’ll suffer through them gladly.

Without arguing definitions, I do continue to seek bottles that are beautiful. My epiphany was that there are quite a few out there that are not that expensive. I just have to go find them.

That led me to Rousseau back in the day(when it was just pricey) and to Pousse d’Or when Gerard Potel was the winemaker. Later to Allemand, Juge, and Robert Michel when they were affordable. Rougeard as well(at $30 a bottle back in the day). These days to Thibeaud Bourdignon, back to Olga Raffault, and back to Breton Bougeuils. Hexamer, Donnhoff, A J Adam, and Merkelbach. And to vintage champagne, which is a steal these days.

Honestly, I feel like I drink a lot more amazing wines than solid wines. Mostly from having the good fortune of meeting 2-3 amazing palates in retail/restaurants, and building an additional network of people(including a number of visitors from the boards) who have experience and gems they’ve discovered and are happy to share(thanks Mr. Tucker).

[Rob_Weaver]

I’m not completely comfortable with the term “epiphany”, but I do continue to pursue t
wines that are significantly differentiated in a good way from their brethren. I think I potentially have quite a few of those in my cellar, but will I be lucky enough to pull it at the right age, will it be a good bottle, will I have the right folks to enjoy it with, will my mood be in the right place… So many factors need to converge for it to be all it can be.

[Joel_S_Morris]

For those of us who have been at this for a long time, we realize that the epiphany comes from within. The same bottle of wine tastes differently depending on the food, company, what kind of day we have had, etc.

We don’t see the world as it is; we see the world as we are

[Marcu_Stanley]

I’ve stopped searching for that moment after about 2 years and 200+ bottles. 95% of wine is meh. Very few even stand out.

Honestly, I don’t have this experience. I’d say that 25-50% of the time when I open up “serious” bottles I get rewarded with a “wow” kind of moment, where a wine stops you in your tracks and you have to reflect on it. That is partly having collected for quite a while and learned my own tastes, partly seeking out social experiences where you can open up multiple bottles. Like I said above, I would just sell my cellar if the experience was meh 95% of the time.

But there are certainly evenings where multiple wines are opened and nothing blows me away. Those are the nights I reflect on and remember in order to curb my wine spending .

[Erik_Miller]

I drink wine with a 63-ish YO who has a license plate ‘ToKalon’ - loves Schrader, etc. Big and younger the better. For chardonnay, loves massive, well-oaked and YOUNG. Along comes a Batard-Montrachet (I don’t erecall producer) and he is blown away and on a new search. Budget be-damned! The search continues for some. For me, I love a $30 Tuscan that tickles me and drinks well with food. I look for the ‘surprise’, not necessarily an epiphany. As someone said earlier - true epiphanies are rare.

[P_WythesJr]

As others have said, sharing a bottle of wine with friends can be the most transcendent experience of them all. Some of best nights I can remember have included opening a sh*t bottle and complaining with friends about how crappy the wine is, but laughing all along the way.

[jon_leifer]

I am at an age where I am drinking down my cellar and not looking for an epiphany…that being said, am always happy to be pleasantly surprised…tho I probably will not be chasing down many, if any, of the pleasant surprises to add, or reload, to my cellar. In > 60 years of wine drinking, and probably 45 yrs of semi serious collecting, have enjoyed a number of wonderful wines…Hopefully the ones remaining my cellar will also provide some terrific drinking

[Jason_T]

I’ve stopped searching for that moment after about 2 years and 200+ bottles. 95% of wine is meh. Very few even stand out.

I’ve gone through a similar thing, and in my personal case it was that I was drinking to narrow a range of the wrong wines. My palate had both grown bored but more importantly shifted. I poked around a bit more outside of the things I was always familiar with, and got back on track.

[C_Keller]

I’ve stopped searching for that moment after about 2 years and 200+ bottles. 95% of wine is meh. Very few even stand out.

I’ve gone through a similar thing, and in my personal case it was that I was drinking to narrow a range of the wrong wines. My palate had both grown bored but more importantly shifted. I poked around a bit more outside of the things I was always familiar with, and got back on track.

I wouldn’t say its because my focus has been narrow. I’ve hit every major old and new world region. Mostly red but a decent amount of white as well. And my mind still changes week to week on what region I want to drink from. Which is a great reason to not have room for a cellar. I can just walk into a store and have my pick that week.

Yes, I’ve stopped searching for the epiphany movement but I still love the hobby and chase. Epiphany to me is that one moment that just blows you away, but from what I’ve experienced there are such subtle differences between good and great bottles of wine that I likely will never have that moment.

[David_Glasser]

Chris, your rationale for not investing the space and money in a cellar makes perfect sense if aged wines don’t do much more for you than current releases available at the local store.

Most of my better than meh wine experiences have been with well-aged bottles. If I were limited to drinking wines within a few weeks of purchase from a local store, most of them would be meh. If I lived within a few miles of retailers with great stocks of old wines that might be different. If I could afford them.