Have had quite a few amazing wines in my life…a recent 2010 Coche CC comes to mind…but still feel like a flee on an elephant compared to a lot of others in what they have been able to experience. I could throw out dozens of wines that could answer this question for me…but the ONE wine that keeps popping up in my mind when asked questions like this…
1968 Heitz Cellar Chardonnay Pinot Chardonnay LOT Z-82- USA, California, Napa Valley (2/24/2016)
Acquired from Barney Rhodes(planted Martha’s Vineyard, owner Bella Oaks V) cellar……maybe Hanzell fruit?..…decided to go with a PnP…and this was SPECTACULAR all night! UN believable how youthful this wine was……as soon as I smelled the cork, I knew we were in for a treat! Montrachet meets Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc……brilliant gold, green color…RICH buttered pears/apples, grilled pineapple….fresh and alive with lemon curd, crushed minerals….perfect oak integration……complexities of lantern oil, antique wax, hot buttered rum spice, cold green tea. NO WAY this is 48yrs old! Amazing freshness, sweetness…yet perfect balance of salinity and unique aged complexities……and it didn’t waver all night! Thought it might die out…but it kept on going….just an amazing experience! (99 pts.)
I kind of posted on this when there was a thread on the ten most influential wines of your life.
OK:
NV Gallo Zinfandel (from gallon bottle). This was in 1963, I was 16 years old. I had been drinking NV Louis Martini Mountain Red (from 1/2 gallon bottles) in High School, and then when I started college, where I had both of these, NV Gallo Burgundy (from gallon bottles). This was a revelation. Probably pretty similar to a good bottle of Turley today, I’m guessing at the time probably 100% Old Vine Sonoma. Gallo was probably making this more for themselves, family and friends. Was anybody else bottling a Zinfandel back then? In any size?
Dan,
I just noticed that you are in Harpswell Maine so I wanted to send you this note that today I am (coincidentally) wearing my " BAILEY ISLAND EST. 1758 " t-shirt.
Cheers,
-Jim
1945 Latour, with my old high school buddy at our 40th birthday dinner in 1994. The bottle came from Ab Simon. It was as close to perfect as makes no difference.
In 2003. After a crazy ‘64 right bank horizontal that I really was not even close to worthy to attend. I have no idea how I scored an invite, but the host and I have become good friends since.
After 1964 Laville and Pol Roger BdB. After 1964 VCC, Cheval, Ausone, and Petrus. After 1948 VCC. After 1934 Ausone.
I highly doubt there will ever be a night like that again.
One of the youngest bottlings mentioned, but mine was a 2009 Harmand Geoffroy Gevrey Chambertin Clos Prieur. Served to me by a friend who loves Burgundy, paired with a lamb roast and several Lebanese dishes. The wine was like perfume from the other side of the table. When I thought about it the next day and the next, the taste memory was so acute. The wine probably wouldn’t wow me the same way now, and I am really not that deep into burgundy, but the experience created that itch that got me started.
I’ll follow Jay’s lead and note that a 2012 Lail J.Daniel cuvée at the French Laundry and 2006 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova BdM were right behind for me
2001 Charvin CNdP at a friend’s house, along side a 2003 Alban Reva Syrah that I had brought. It wasn’t the greatest wine I have had, but it was the kick in the ass that I needed to start leaning more toward the Old World, and getting off of mailing lists. The Reva, which I had enjoyed a few times prior, was made to look like a boorish simpleton that evening.
Celebrating a friends 50th, his brother opened a 06 Bouchard Montrachet. It changed my perception of what Chardonnay could/can be because of that. I had at that point always avoided chards based on my Cali experience.
Fun topic! ‘70 LMHB that was handed over to me from another table at The Ranch House here in Ojai. Just wanted to smell it for hours.
Barrel tasting with Manfred back in ‘05 also changed my whole view of what wine can truly be…
1975 Joseph Phelps Eisele Cabernet, brought to Le Cirque when the restaurant was on top, and, theoretically did not allow corkage. This would have been about 30+ years ago.
62 Montrose - I’ve had a decent amount of 20-30 year old Bdx, but this was one of the first ancient ones and showed what it really could become. Yeah I’m calling all you 50 year olds ancient.
81 Dunn HM - birth year wine, was just starting to enter it’s drinking window in 2011.
1982 Pichon Lalande on a night with 11 other truly spectacular wines. This was head and shoulders above the likes of 66 Latour, 83 and 86 Lafite, 96 Margaux, 90 Beausejour Duffau, 97 Abreau Madrona. Only other wine that was similarly complex was a perfect bottle of 1997 Harlan. But the Pichon was something different and in a truly perfect place. The most seamless, complex, and stunning wine I’ve ever had.
