There’s a small winery in Wichita Falls Tx. I and my girlfriend at the time used to love to stop there and grab a couple of bottles of their Wichita red wine. We normally struck up a conversation with the owner and his wife every time we were there. Now fast forward 5 years. I and the girlfriend have parted ways several years ago and I stop by with my wife. I haven’t been there in 5 years, I also haven’t told my wife about taking the old girlfriend there. I and the owner were discussing something and I hear the owners wife say to my wife, “honey I don’t know what your doing, but keep it up, you look better than you have in years". I had a lot of explaining to do.
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Ex wife's alumni association used to do wine tasting at one of Detroit's higher end restaurants. Sommelier would pair 8 wines with 8 hors d'oeuvres. I always cheated and tried the wines ahead of time. About the third year they did this, food #3 paired so well with food 5, I had the sommelier try it. She looked at me and said you're getting really good at this
The flavor of both the wine and the food exploded in your mouth. It's made a difference in my own wine making and pairing the right wine with the right food.
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Way back in the early 80's an ex g/f and I stopped at a winery in MI. We bought a LOT of wine, several cases worth, basically filled her Porsche 944. Fast forward about 20 years, my wife and I stopped at the winery, and I told the person working in the tasting room, that I really enjoyed their red from that era, and he said they were never able to duplicate that batch again. I said yeah, my then g/f and I bought a bunch of cases of wine. He said, and you were in a Porsche too. I was impressed that he remembered after that many years.Originally posted by Oak Smoke View Post
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I always joke when I drive past a winery..."Oh, I need to stop! I think I'm down to my last hundred bottles." LOL
As far as "ridiculously expensive" goes...yeah, we won't go there. LOL
Years ago, nearing the end of a London to Los Angeles flight...a flight attendant asked if I would like a bottle of wine. Naturally I said yes. She discreetly gave me a bottle and I placed it into my carry-on. A couple of days later, my wife & I opened it up. Turns out it was a champagne. And OMG, it was amazing. Don't recall if it was a brut or extra brut, but it was amazing. I later went to a couple of wine merchants to find more. One had it and I went into sticker shock. LOL I passed and somewhere over the years I've managed to forget the winery. But it was outstanding, so the search is on. ;-)Comment
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There was a bonfire, a joint, likely 3, not a lot of clothes…and. I think a few bottles of wine.Last edited by Richard Chrz; October 7, 2023, 07:10 PM.Comment
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Two experiences, both with my late, beloved parents (who were also my best friends) and my lovely bride.
The first was at a French restaurant in Riverside, California, called La Vie En Rose. My Dad ordered a very fine bottle of French red wine to go with our meal. I don't recall what the vintage was (this was around 2000) but it was spectacularly good, and the wine was served in this leaning decanter over a tiny candle, I'd never seen such a thing before or since. It was a few days before Christmas, just the four of us before the rest of the family descended in the coming days, and one of the most memorable dining experiences of my life. Carolers came by our table during the meal, and a young woman selling single, long-stemmed red roses, which Dad and I both purchased for our wives.
The second was sitting at the kitchen table with the folks playing Trivial Pursuit after my Mom's basic but excellent pot roast dinner (originally misremembered as red-sauce spaghetti). We'd shared a bottle of Bolla Valpolicella with dinner, which we were finishing up as we started the game, and then had another bottle while we played. A great deal of hilarity ensued. I remember my Dad getting a question, who was the inventor of the mimeograph machine? And he bellowed out, "Sal Mimeo!" (you can't be young and do that). A very VERY basic wine, but proof that the company matters more...
Very glad this thread was resurrected so that I could relive these precious memories. I sure do miss my folks.
Last edited by DaveD; October 8, 2023, 07:45 AM.Comment
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That’s awesome. Such great memories. And “Sal Mimeo” is brilliant.
And that candle decanter…that’s an old school way of decanting aged reds. Old reds will “through a deposit” which naturally collect on the bottom side of bottles stored for years. Few, including me, rotate stored wines. It’s mostly tannins and, indeed, some of the pigments from the wine. Most modern screens will catch that. The old way was to stop as those deposits made their way to the neck…which the candle helped illuminate.Last edited by surfdog; December 8, 2023, 12:10 AM.
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When I was in college, I chugged 2 bottles of boons farm back to back....but what happened after that isn't memorable as I can't remember. Not gonna talk about how and where I woke up.Comment
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On our trip to California this summer, my wife and I spent a day being driven from winery to winery for tastings. We hit four vineyards, tasted a whole lot of wine, more wine at higher price points than we would have ever purchased at home. To avoid having wine shipped in the summer heat, we told the wineries to send the wine in October. So we should be getting our bounty in the next few weeks.Comment
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Boones Farm in High School. All over the back seat of my friend's car.
Setting that aside...Years ago, my Aunt took me on a wine tour in Napa valley. It was almost the whole day and it included lunch and dinner of Delicious Napa Valley foods and of course....the wine....It was truly AmazingComment
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The Boone’s Farm “people coming out” makes me laugh. I grew up surrounded by wineries. And drank it, watered down it turns out (grrrr LOL) when I was a kid…at holidays & celebrations and, literally, for medicinal purposes. Mum KNEW it would fend off the flu & what not. So, for me, that never stuff was off my radar. Seeing the aftermath of some friends, I was ok with that. LOL
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Prob should not admit to this, but I will. New Orleans ~1994, went to conference and was going to meet an old friend at Emeril's for dinner. She had family emergency and had to go home, I went anyway and told them I would be alone. Thought they'd refuse to seat me, but the guy said "sure, or maybe you'd rather eat at bar?" Yes, so they laid me a place setting at the bar, Menu> I had nothing else to do, and it was first time I'd ever been able to go to a "nice" restaurant and pay my own bill, so I ordered tasting menu. Including the wine tasting add on. Took me hours to eat, I had to take a few breaks for water and people watching, bartenders so nice and the chef came out a time or two to check on me.
By the time I was leaving, I was snookered. Had the remains of my last glass in a to go cup, walking through parking lot to my rental car. I only had a couple blocks to my hotel. A NO police officer caught up to me, asked am I having nice night? I said "guess I'm caught, but it's been lovely so far." He said "glad to hear it, welcome to New Orleans!", walked me to my car, and made sure I had good directions back to hotel. Waved. I will never forget it.
PS. I'm loving this thread
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Yes, Carolyn, I am well aware I was very lucky. This was at the Emeril's on St. Charles, called Delmonico now I think? and I would have been cooked if the person approaching me was not a police officer. Even though I was about twenty feet from the front door. I learned a huge lesson, but it still sticks in my mind as a memorable night. -
acorgihouse Sounds like you had fun, and was treated well by everybody. I just couldn't believe that cop took off on us like he did. We weren't expecting a ride from him, but good grief he could have offered to call a cab or something. We obviously made it ok, but it was scary.
One thing I miss about living in that area is all of the great restaurants.
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Back in 1984, I was gifted a bottle of Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I don't know the vintage, I just remember it made the flight on military jets starting in San Diego and ending up in Atsugi, Japan. I'm no oenophile, but I can taste and appreciate good wine from average wing. This bottle is the best wine I've ever had.
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I wish I had a good memory of wine. I did order a case of Dornfelder from Schlossadler wines, which is a German red wine. Kind of a sweet wine, which I loved, but I discovered that I am allergic (and that includes wine coolers.) Wine gives me a migraine that is a scary kind of headache, like my entire head is being crushed. I can't even eat food that has a Burgundy sauce. I have the same reaction to Hydrocodone.
We did have a couple bottles of a red wine by Coppola at a steak house that I enjoyed (until I didn't.)
I had a couple/three (can't remember) glasses of some kind of wine cooler or something at a restaurant, and I got the worst case of vertigo by the time I got to the car. My friend was driving and thought it would be hilarious to make hard turns. When I got back to the house. My husband had to make the bed because we had washed the sheets. While he was doing that, I passed out on the floor, and then had to crawl to the bed. It was horrible. Something similar happened to me at a conference. I had 2 glasses of wine and got seriously bad vertigo almost immediately, and had to go up to my room. Can't do wine. I tried, though and regretted it every time.
I can drink a vodka drink without issue.Comment
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WayneT Thanks. I am not much of a drinker to begin with, so I don't indulge much, but I have been able to handle a mojito and a margarita. I made a poke-cake using Kahlua in the icing, and I sure loved the taste, but it gave me a massive migraine just from the icing. I can't explain that one. These days most alcohol makes me feel kind of yucky, but those migraines scared me because they were so bad. I like a Moscow Mule now and then. -
I have a similar reaction to Budweiser.
One of those and I’m darn near hallucinating…and that quickly changes to violently ill. That can easily last for two days, sometimes three. O_o
No other beer, or alcohol, does that. I’m guessing it’s the beechwood because nothing else in there gives me that reaction. It’s horrible. A juice glass of the stuff is enough to take me out for a day & a half.
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Ex wife's alumni association did a yearly wine / Hors D'oeuvres dinner. Usually 8 wines accompanied with 8 Hors D'oeuvres. I always sampled all 8 wines ahead of time. Last year we attended, we got to food #3, and I said to myself, this would pair better with wine 5. Both the wine and food exploded in flavor. There is no comparison when you peg the pairing that well. I pointed it out to the Sommelier, and she said you nailed this one!
Few years ago, I made a Zin/cab bourbon barrel kit. Just finished the last 2 bottles for a dinner a couple of months ago. By far the best wine I have ever tasted.... that is until a batch I've recently blended. I tasted it just before we left for our snow bird travels. It's bulk aging at the house. What I tasted, was obviously juvenile, but, I have extremely high expectations for what I already tasted.
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