For the over-21 crowd - any wine lovers out there?

Hi All,

I hope it's okay to post this here on the general discussion forum.

Per doc's orders, I've pretty much cut back on my once favorite hobby - searching out and finding great wine deals. Now it's the gym, pretty much a vegetarian diet, and real clean (okay - boring!) living for me

Have quite a few 1988 Burgundies, including some grand crus and premier crus, some good Chateauneuf-de-Papes (including a few Beaucastel and Chateau Pegau) from the same vintage or so, even one or two Chateau Lafites (1979, I believe) and one other Bordeaux first growth (can't recall offhand which chateau) from about the same time. I also have a few bottles of Tokaj Essencia (I believe 1976s), etc., etc.

While most look beautiful - when I can bear to look at them, realistically speaking, they'll probably just be eye candy for me at this point. Fortunately, I have a good memory, so I have many pleasant memories of those tasting days. Anyway, currently, most of the stuff is stored away in a cellar (it's a cool place, but it's not a wine cellar). If any of you all are interested, I'm willing to consider swapping some (even most) for some nice gear). I also have some pretty nice scotch and other miscellaneous stuff, which I picked up in my travels here and there.

Even if not interested in any swaps, I'm curious to know if any of you all are oenophiles as well? (I still enjoy talking about fine wine, even if I don't drink it that much anymore!)

Cheers!

Uh oh - watch out Actually, it's a great hobby, and in many ways, not all that different than our headphone hobby, in the sense that what it's about (at least to me) is appreciating art and workmanship (be it music, really well-built gear, or winemaking). Plus, with wine, the tie between nature and the bottle is a real draw (any visit to a vineyard is really a treat, just seeing the grapes on the vine)...

Now to wax nostalgic and/or long-winded...

My real favorites are the red Burgundies (Bourgogne). While some are tannic when young, it's fun to see them develop in bottle and soften up - the very best wines are the ones that are old enough that they take on a redish-orange brick color. Those were the wines that first got me hooked, and are so hard to find - as most wine is consumed young.

A few years back, I scored a lot of premier cru and even some grand cru for a steal because a wine distributor went bankrupt, so those wine merchants that had purchased wine futures from this outfit were able to claim "containers" of great wine. I ended up with a lot of Daniel Rion (from the Pommard area premier crus, as well as various other producers (I have the wine up at my house in Connecticut, so I haven't taken inventory lately), several Gevrey Chambertins, Chambolle Musigny, Volnay, etc., etc. The whole gamut from the north end of Burgundy down to the Beaujolais reason. I never bought many white Burgundies, though I love them (sigh) - and I scored several nice Sauternes too (though no D'Yquem). Mainly 1988s, as I mentioned. I guess the "hot" wines nowadays are the Rhone Chateauneuf de Pape Chateau Pegaus and the Beaucastels - I have a few Vieux Telegraphes (I'm just naming a few offhand)... The best wine I ever had was pure serendipity - I went into a wine store, and they had a cash and carry (literally - you were not allowed to take out more than you could carry). I bought three bottles of 1987 Echezeux (grand cru red burgundies) at 10 dollars each! The first one I had was probably the most well-integrated, absolutely delicious and perfect wine I've ever tasted (sounds almost like a description of the Orpheus or the R10s? ) I decided to save the other two and try one each year afterwards. Needless to say, the other two, while great, just weren't in the same league as the first.

Probably my biggest wine score, though, was down in Texas at some small place where I picked up those two bottles of Chateau Lafites - I think I bought them for something like 15 dollars a bottle? - and still have them. I know I also bought another Bordeaux first growth from that place - maybe a Chateau Latour, which I still have too! I haven't checked in a while, but I think, though, that the Chateauneuf de Papes are maybe worth more than them (probably due to Robert Parker and other Rhone lovers). I tried one of the Chateau Pegaus about a year ago or so, because the label was torn, and it was incredible (that great brick color!)

The rare times I drink a little now, it's mainly from my favorite US producer, Navarro, from Medocino county - they make great pinot noirs, as well as gewuerztraminers, rieslings, and chardonnays. Another favorite is Melville, out of California - great Chardonnay Inox Bin 76 (stainless steel) and very nice pinot noirs too.

As for the harder stuff, during my travels, I used to always pick up a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue at the duty free (some places it was a relative steal), and, just as a couple of examples, some higher end tequila from Mexico, and in Guatemala, nice Ron Zacapas (rums) XO, etc. A real melange-

One of my favorite stories: I was in Bali several years ago and stayed in a little village called Sebali. I got to know a few of the locals during the couple of weeks I was there, and, the day before I left, I popped open a bottle of some Johnnie Walker Gold - not the Blue, but not plonk either. So, we were all sitting around the veranda, overlooking the beautiful green terraced rice fields, and I was explaining to them (as best as I could, since they spoke very little English) the fine art of sniffing, and then slowly sloshing the liquid gold in your mouth before swallo.... when I looked at these nice guys, and they had polished off their rather large size glasses in one gulp! Put me in my place I must say!

Anyhow, the enthusiasm is still there, but, as I mentioned, I'm kind of a health nut these days, and into yoga, I really just don't drink that much any more.

Another interest I had over the years was to find nice quality used books. Offhand, I also have a lot of nice art books I've purchased over the years - really haven't inventoried them for quite a while, but beginning to think of downsizing (it's the yoga thing, of course, plus the realization that I won't be able to really read everything in the 30-40 or so years I hopefully have left It would take me a bit more time to inventory them, though, than my wine (I think I have about 8 to 10 cases or so of fine wine, perhaps a little more, plus two or three cases of the nice harder stuff (scotch, cognac, etc.)...

16??????!!!!!!!!! As Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz might have said, "Wow, that sure ain't Kansas!"