I love special wines on special occasions. I think most of us would agree we open special bottles on special occasions - birthdays, anniversaries, holidays - and it’s a great thing to do. Sometimes I’ll poke around my wine racks when I know a special day is coming up, and I’ll think to myself, ah, that’s the perfect bottle for this occasion.
But something occurred to me recently - the wine is there, whether I have a special occasion or not. The wine doesn’t care what day it is - it’s going to peak at some point, whether I have a special day picked or not. That means that I’ll be saving a good bottle and perhaps go past its peak time because I might be more concerned with opening it at a particular time instead of when the wine tells me it’s ready.
That leads me to this thought - what if the wine itself is the special occasion? Sure, we like to save bottles and tag them for special days. But why can’t the opening of the bottle make it the occasion? Why not plan around opening the bottle? A wine coming of age, especially a bottle that we’ve been waiting for, is indeed a special occasion.
I’ve got several special aged bottles that need to be opened soon. I do have a birthday coming up in a couple of months, and Thanksgiving and Christmas aren’t far off, but I have a lot more than just 3 bottles that are ready to be opened this autumn/winter. So I’ve decided that with some of them, I’ll be celebrating opening the bottle. It won’t be a birthday or holiday. Opening and experiencing the wine is quite special enough, and worth celebrating in some way. Those bottles can make any day a special occasion.
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| 2000 Chateau Clerc Milon Pauillac - for a special occasion |
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