You may have the same moment in time that piqued your interest in fine wine.  It usually starts with a memorable aged Bordeaux or Burgundy or perhaps a very special tasting.

My real appreciation in fine wine can be traced to a Thanksgiving in New England at a well-to-do couple’s home.  At the time, my parents were living in Florida and the couple’s children were grown, so we sort of adopted each other.  He was a glass blower that used his skills to create a pipeline insulation product, and he went on to sell this to oil-producing countries, Russia’s Siberian pipeline for example, also many middle eastern countries.  They were a very interesting couple, and I enjoyed very exciting adventures with them. They were very well-connected too; for example, they had the Shah of Iran as a guest at their daughter’s wedding.  I am telling you this so that you can imagine their wine collection.

The husband, Ralph and I were tasked to go to the wine cellar and choose the Thanksgiving wine.

At 20, I knew very little about wine, but I knew enough to know anyone with this sort of cellar and racking, took thought and a lot of money.  I tried to choose the bottle with a plain label.  I did not want to pick a stinkingly expensive wine.

I looked around and Ralph asked me, “So Suzi which one do we want?”  I timidly pointed to a wine and Ralph, he was no wall flower, yelled up from the wine cellar, “Micky, she picked the ’61 Rothchild!”  Even at 20, I knew Rothchild was a big deal, and the wine was older than I was.  I begged him to put it back but he insisted, “No, this is what my Suzi wants; this is what she is going to get!”

The dinner and the wine were magical; that was my introduction to fine wine.

My first fine wine:

’61 Château Lafite Rothschild

Now I want to know, what is your story?

Your first wine – your first eye-opening wine – Collectible time – the memorable experience that left you wanting more – tell me what your wine story is.