A Wine Obsession? Are You Talkin' to Me?
Whether it's hard to find or just too expensive, certain bottles can be frustratingly out of reach
Posted: Sep 12, 2012 11:00am ET
Finding
good wine in Northern California is not a problem. It's sold everywhere. The
state's alcohol laws are so liberal I'm waiting for Home Depot to add a wine
aisle. (Near the garden section, not the power tools.)
That
doesn't mean I can get my hands on every wine I want. There are limitations
even for someone who writes about wine for a living. If I could track down the Joseph
Drouhin Musigny 2009 (97 points, only 28 cases imported), I couldn't afford
$594 for a bottle, unless my daughter dropped out of college.
As wine
dilemmas go, two of the biggest must be 1) obtaining a rare bottle you're desperate
to taste and/or 2) paying for it once you get it. All of us have faced the
first one and most of us the second.
I remember
the first wine I obsessed over owning: Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Martha's Vineyard 1985. I waited in line outside the St. Helena tasting room
for an hour on the day it was released in 1990. I loved the wine and talked my
brother into splitting a case with me, but careful what you obsess over. As it
aged, its trademark hint of mint and earth became too pronounced for me, so a
few years ago I sold my remaining bottles at auction.
I was on a
handful of winery mailing lists back in my B.C. days (Before Children), but as
the kids got older, I weaned myself off most of them. I wasn't flashing cash
for the likes of Screaming Eagle and Harlan, but when you want Carlisle
Zinfandels or Pinot Noirs from Dehlinger or Williams Selyem or Rochioli,
getting on the mailing list is the best route.
I'm over
that compulsive stage that so many wine lovers and collectors go through, and
when I do get a hankering for a wine that's hard to find, it's usually from some
small European winemaker I read about, a tiny-production rosé from Provence or
a grower Champagne or something like the M. Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Les
Meysonniers 2009 that arrives in the U.S. in tiny quantities.
There must
be some good stories out there, about wines you dreamed of tasting but either
couldn't find or afford? What was your biggest wine-buying obsession?
I have been on the hunt for some time now for a bottle of Burt Williams produced Williams-Selyem Pinot (pre-1998). The hunt has proven frustrating as I simply don't have the means to buy a case of it, and the provenance of many I have seen is dubious at best. I've been on their list for 4-5 years now and always buy a few bottles, but I know that the more time passes, the less likely it will be that I can find one. Maybe someone on here can point me in the right direction? I want to try one more for the sense of participation in the history of California wine, but at the same time I don't want to pay a load for a cooked, leaking bottle either.