Celebratory wines and the cabernet shower: which wines are you saving?
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Congratulations to Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library in Springfield, NJ and tv.winelibrary.com on the ‘net! Known for his popular video podcasts, Gary had a great nine-minute segment on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Host Scott Simon visits the 40,000 square-foot store (wow–that’s enormous!) and tastes wine with Gary. Scott does a great job talking about blackcurrant, cough drops, and even soil-after-rain!
One thing that Gary mentions is that he has six magnums of Leoville Las Cases 1975 (his birth year) in his cellar waiting for the Jets to win the Superbowl. When they do–”please, God, please let that happen,” he says–he won’t just open one and drink it. He’ll open all six and pour them on his head! Good stuff. But also an expensive shower with each magnum fetching $350 today (and IF/when the Jets ever win, who knows what they’ll be worth).
I’ve got a few bottles of port from 2003, the year our son was born, to open with him on his 21st birthday. But otherwise not much with a “drink me” (or “shower me”) date on it. Which wines do you have stashed away for future occasions?
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On April 30th, 2007 at 3:24 am ,Paul Sharp wrote:
1947 Latour Magnum, time until opening, two months
On April 30th, 2007 at 6:36 am ,mph wrote:
A bottle of 1975 Leoville-Las Cases, my wife’s birth year.
We had a bottle for her 30th and it was quite nice, so we bought another.
A bottle of 1975 Ridge Geyserville.
A bottle of 1976 Burgess cab (my birth year). It was cheap.
We got married in 2005, so we’re buying quite heavily from that year. Age-worthy purchases so far include Ridge Monte Bello, Ridge Lytton Springs, Vieux-Telegraphe, Leoville-Barton, Kirwan, Bienfaisance, Rieussec, Doisy-Daene, and La Tour Blanche. I want to make sure we have something good for each anniversary out to at least 25 years. We had the mixed blessing of a very good vintage all over the world.
On April 30th, 2007 at 7:37 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Sounds great, Paul!
And mph, will you be making your anniversary celebrations open to the public?
Mmmm
On April 30th, 2007 at 8:28 am ,mph wrote:
Probably not, Dr. V, but maybe I can pick up some good magnums for a 25th anniversary party. I have a few years to plan that!
I thought of some more… the night we got engaged, we had 2001 d’Arenberg Dead Arm, so we bought 3 more bottles of that vintage, and are buying 3 bottles of each new vintage. We have a 2000-2004 vertical at this point. We have a bottle each year on the anniversary of our engagement, in April. My wife’s birthday, my birthday, our wedding anniversary, and the anniversary of our first date are all clustered in the fall, so it’s nice to have a celebration in the spring.
We also have one more bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon, which we had on our wedding night.
It seems like almost all of the “good” wine in the cellar is associated with these relationship events, but that’s fine. It keeps the wife from complaining about the expense!
On May 20th, 2007 at 10:34 am ,Rolf wrote:
A case of 1985 Chateau Latour, 2 cases (12 magnum bottles) of 1986 Gaja Barbaresco, and a case of 1985 Monprivato Barolo. Still looking forward.