Experiences with sharing birth-year wines upon maturity

WINE TALK
21

My oldest daughter was born in 1990, and we had a blast drinking through various Bordeaux, Barolo, Burgundy and California Cabs over the years - still have a few mags of the '90 LLC for a special occasion someday.

The younger daughter was born in 1998 - for her 19th birthday I took a picture of her posing next to the '98 Giacomo Conterno, Mascarello Monprivato, Cavallotto Vignolo and Borgogno Riserva that we drank for her birthday dinner.

We’ve had a lot of fun drinking birthyear wines - unfortunately, I myself am a '56 baby, which I believe RMP once dubbed the worst post-war vintage, so I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to try my own birth year :wink:

22

My wife and I went to dinner tonight and took a 1995 Fattoria di Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia and a 2012 Lillian Rousanne with us. The waitress looked pretty young and so I asked her when she was born, 1995 oddly enough (she had not seen the wine). We shared a glass with her and she said it was the oldest she had ever had as most of her experience comes from the restaraunts wines.

While she was no relation to us, it was cool to share a birth year wine with her.

23

Yes, it’s a little nuts, but I dove deep into 2016 for this reason. I see me and my wife opening birth year wines for milestones, like her 10th birthday, first prom, etc. And of course, her 21st birthday if that’s what she wants.

24

I have kids born in 1992 and 1999. I cellared some of pretty good wines from those years and it’s always fun to share them. The 1992 daughter likes red wine a lot and we’ve drunk a number of hers, but the most interesting thing has been finding random 92s and trying them. We just recently had a Whitehall Lane Morisoli that was really good, and for her 25th birthday we had a 3L Joel Taluau St. Nicolas de Bourgueil that was really good. At that same party we had a 92 Fonseca: She doesn’t like Port but her friends had a good time with it. I have quite a few other 92s that we’re waiting to drink. The good thing about an off vintage (in many places) is that the wines are inexpensive.

Tha 1999 daughter isn’t into wine yet but I hope she’ll get there. Even if not, she’s mildly amused watching the rest of us.

25

Our son was born in 2005. Buying birth year wines “for him” actually got me back into cellaring wines–after doing so briefly in the late 80’s, for complex reasons, I no longer had access to a cellar or to those wines.
I bought mainly Bordeaux and Burgundy and Zeke (our son) is already quite into it; he knows the good Bordeaux vintages back into the '70’s and Burg into the 80/s. When we taste, he sniffs and even takes notes, and after this October, when he turns 13 (and has his bar mitzvah), we’ve agreed that he will be able to start drinking small amounts of some of what we pour. The '05’s, of course, will have to wait a little longer.

26

My daughter was born in 1989. She has a pretty good palate and can describe wines well but isn’t that interested. She seems to appreciate it when i open a 1989 Bordeaux but the only one thst gets her really excited is Yquem.

I recently sold a 6L of 1989 Guiraud that I had anticipated opening for her wedding. Decided it would distract from rather than enhance the event.

I plan to drink most of her birth year bottles rather than give them to her. Still holding a case of 1989 Lynch Bages for her though.

27

Our son was born in 2011. He loves to go into the cellar and look at his section of wines. we have had discussions about how the corks in the bottle come from the same trees that Ferdinand the Bull sits underneath and how wine is made from different varieties of grapes, etc.
sure I mentioned it before but my favorite son wine moment thus far is last year he asked for a wine glass for his grape juice at a Passover sedar. I gave him a tasting glass and the first thing he did was smell the empty wine glass. Was a great moment for me.

28

I’m an '88. we had a great Las Cases last month for my 30th!

29

I guess I am one of the old fa’s referred to in post #13…Will admit I prefer to be considered venerable and well aged…Our girls were born in 85 and 88 and over the years, we have enjoyed Monsanto Il Poggio, Tignanello, Beaucastel, Ch Montelena, Lynch Bages, Pichon Baron while celebrating their birthdays…

30

My standard Christmas gift for my wife is a birth year wine (and we are only seven days apart, so it’s mine too) from 1949. She never seems to think about opening them, however. I did have some 375’s of Champagne from that year but they were out of bubbles and undrinkable. I still got credit for having thought of it, though. :slight_smile:

I bought a case for each of our children, '79, '83 and '85, but my provision has been that it is for their wedding reception. Only the '79 birthday is married, and only two years ago. The Brane-Cantenac was drinkable but not super-duper. We’ve been discussing what to get for their son who was born last year, as well as their son (she adopted her husband’s son from his first marriage) who is now 10, so 2008. (January 1st birthday!) Her husband is planning to add an underground cellar to their house in Santa Ana. All three kids drink wine, although our son, '85, the least enthusiastic, which is a shame because he sounds like a wine critic whenever he talks about what he’s tasting. He likes Scotch better. The '83 daughter is planning to build her own house this year, with a wine cellar and has her own collection in offsite storage. She went tasting with us when we were in Germany, France and Italy, so it’s a family thing.

31

My father was born in 1928, so we’ve had the opportunity to drink a fair number of 28’s over the years. He still has a great palate and gets the most enjoyment from the oddball bottles that drink beyond expectations (e.g., a negociant Fixin 1er from a few years back). My spouse has said that our small stash of 28’s is the only untouchable part of our cellar.

32

I disagree with the OP comment that this practice is a thinly veiled attempt to rationalize buying expensive bottles - the rationalization is not veiled at all.

I agree with David L about including riesling - it will age, and the kids will like it before they’ll like the other stuff.

Despite my first comment, I also agree with Fu that it’s a hopeful gesture re their future love of the stuff.

We have a '93, a '95, a '98, and an '00. I made a point to buy a handful (6 bottles per kid, some large format) of wines outside our normal price range to open at 21, 25, 30, 40, etc.

I also made a point of opening a birth-year bottle from our regular stash every year on their birthdays up to 20.

As for the kids’ reactions - I would say that when they were younger, one (who to this day doesn’t like even to sip any alcoholic beverage) really got a kick out of “her” birthday wine being from her birth year, even though she didn’t drink it. The others kind of nodded to Dad’s weird habits and eye-rolled and tasted sips and generally hated them (all dry reds).

Things eventually changed. The '93 really liked the Giacosa Barbaresco on her 21st and the Haut Brion on her 25th, and has saved both bottles as souvenirs. She’s unlikely ever to be a wine geek, but now drinks the bottles I open with pleasure. The '95 was lukewarm on the Angelus we opened for her 21st, but has started enjoying reds more since then and I’m sure will enjoy her future “milestone” bottles.

Having failed to do so timely, I did pick up some '93 and '95 rieslings on backfill specials (Garagiste, etc.) and they have loved those. Good college graduation wines.

The '98 is the non-drinker, so those we’ll just enjoy in her presence, and the '00 is too early to tell but I’m hopeful.

No regrets in buying and opening any of these, and as they’ve gotten old enough to really understand the concept, I think the kids appreciate it.

I also started loading up on wedding year ('88) wines way too late to start drinking them at early anniversaries, but we had one for our half-25th, and then for every anniversary from the 13th to date. Each a different wine, all the empties decorating our dining room shelves, and enough in the cellar to take us through our 50th. Fun stuff.

33

I like Dave Dyroff’s post a great deal.

I agree that we should be honest about this being more for us as collectors than for them. And if they dig it, then it’s a bonus.

To the extent there is any rationality to this, probably sweet wines like Sauternes and German rieslings make the most sense. Safest to age, not a big splurge, better odds a 21 year old will like it than an old claret or something.

34

Well, I have tasted a good many bottles of my own vintage (1957) which is not a great one, and I managed to open a lot of excellent and outstanding bottles, some drinkable ones … and some “interesting” and in decline …
Usually I refuse to buy this vintage now - with rare exceptions - because it isn´t going any better … (and I still have some).
For my wife 1964 is much easier … and we had many really fine bottles together …

I bought vintage wines for my two sons: 1992 was difficult, so I bought several Mags in addition, and almost all 0.75 opened so far were very good to fine, rarely “really great”, but there were 2-3 (no Bx 1er crus however).
1996 is much easier, but only a few are in maturity now … (no need for mags except 3).

BTW: since my sons went with me to France in summer since they were 2-3 years old they know quite well what I have for them …

35

I love he tradition and have wines for each of my three kids. I focused on Bordeaux, Champagne and dessert wine. I didn’t go overboard on the number of bottles, just enough to enjoy some milestones here and there. I backfill every once in a while. My daughter graduates from college in June and I anticipate drinking a number of the bottles to celebrate. Its more about enjoying the sentimentality of the moment, but I certainly have hopes she will appreciate it as well.

36

A magnum of '87 Dunn Howell Mountain was enjoyed when our daughter turned twenty-one. All the more so because she doesn’t drink wine. [thankyou.gif]

37

I receive plenty of eye-rolls from my wife and kids for lots of wine-related excesses! Actually, I wish I’d bought more anniversary and birth-year wines if only because they’re good wine years! I really didn’t buy much that I wouldn’t have otherwise bought, other than backfilling some 1962 barolo for us. I’d have been wary about going too far out of my comfort zone. That said, my favorite two wines in 2017 were probably:

  1. 1995 Phelps Insignia celebrating our oldest son’s college graduation - fabulous, showing youthful maturity, and exceeding already high expectations (yes, both son and the wine!)
  2. 1932 Cazes VDN Rivesaltes celebrating my dad’s 85th birthday - special way to wrap up special night

So, such a practice may be sappy and self-serving, but it can also be REALLY nice.

Regards,
Peter

38

I’ve shared many birth year wines with four generations of family members - from my grandmother (1917) to my daughter (1996). All of them have been “moved” by the wines, especially the older generations. Have also shared many birth year wines with friends especially those from 1964, as well as several celebrity types who happened to be dining at a table near me when I coincidentally had their wines. Always a fun experience.

39

Not a birthday wine story, but Ray’s post reminded me that in January my family all got together for my Mom’s birthday, and I brought a '52 Borgogno Barolo that was from their wedding year - first time my Mom ever asked to have the empty bottle :wink: .

40

So, for my 70th, my friends got together and I go together and bought a 1947 Cheval Blanc. Bought it originally in 2007 for $10K. It was amazing. When I first read the OP, I wasn’t sure if it meant the wine or my maturity. The wine was certainly mature. Can’t say the same for myself.