{"id":34257,"date":"2016-02-24T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=34257"},"modified":"2016-02-12T18:26:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T23:26:33","slug":"qotd-a-lesson-from-a-wine-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2016\/02\/24\/qotd-a-lesson-from-a-wine-tasting\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: A lesson from a wine-tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then it was my turn. I was ready to rock the house with a little treasure I wanted to share with the group. I had kept it under wraps until nearly the very end and I was about to BLOW SOME MINDS (well, that was the plan).<\/p>\n

First pouring the wine into 18 glasses, I then introduced this secret weapon: a \u201cFirst Growth\u201d Bordeaux, Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1987. It is the most famous chateau in the world, Benjamin Franklin\u2019s go-to wine, the most collected wine on the planet and the wine most copied for fraudulent gain. People have gone to jail because of this wine! Just read the Billionaire\u2019s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World\u2019s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine<\/em> by Benjamin Wallace, and you will understand the essence of Lafite and why people who can afford it would do anything to get their hands on a bottle. Despite all the mystique and romance of Lafite, it is truly a thrilling wine and I brought a bottle of it to the Yukon, likely the first bottle of Lafite ever consumed in the territory\u2019s vast wilderness.<\/p>\n

It was old, a bit tired in fact, but had those mushroom-y, graphite, earthy-fruity notes on the nose that led to a complex palate, now totally integrated, with pretty red fruits, bramble and depth through a silky finish. It was down, but it was not out. At least my mind was blown. But I didn\u2019t hear applause like there was for the rose.<\/p>\n

There was just stunned silence, like \u201cwhat the hell is this?,\u201d until someone finally asked what a bottle of that would cost.<\/p>\n

Well, if you could find one at auction, it\u2019s goes under the hammer anywhere from $600 to nearly $1,000 a bottle, according to wine-searcher.com<\/em>, I said.<\/p>\n

More silence. And puzzled, icy stares.<\/p>\n

Lee Mennell, a former teacher of mine, an artist and full-time Yukoner living the life in Carcross with his wife and family, finally spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really like it. It tastes old.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was like a dagger through the heart.<\/p>\n

Old? Of course, it\u2019s old. It\u2019s from 1987. It\u2019s Bordeaux, it\u2019s supposed to be old. But, but \u2026 don\u2019t you see the beauty and gracefulness in the evolution of the wine? A living, breathing thing that can transform into this grand old dame who can still impress with one sniff, one sip \u2026 don\u2019t you see it?<\/p>\n

Nope.<\/p>\n

It was head-scratching time for me; a reality check, a very important life lesson.<\/p>\n

Rick VanSickle, “Buying wine as a gift isn\u2019t rocket science; but sometimes it sure seems like it”, Wines in Niagara<\/em><\/a>, 2016-02-05.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then it was my turn. I was ready to rock the house with a little treasure I wanted to share with the group. I had kept it under wraps until nearly the very end and I was about to BLOW SOME MINDS (well, that was the plan). First pouring the wine into 18 glasses, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,131],"tags":[977,1058],"class_list":["post-34257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotations","category-wine","tag-bordeaux","tag-yukon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-8Ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34258,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34257\/revisions\/34258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}