What is your epiphany wine?

[JimHow]

1986 Chateau de Lamarque, circa 1997, Les Chenets Restaurant, Montreal, Canada.

[tim]

1990 J. M. Boillot Volnay Les Chevrets, served on the Concorde LHR to JFK in July 1997.

[Musigny 151]

Giscours 1979. Still going strong.

[Claudius2]

Hmmm.
I am hoping that it is in the future rather than past.
So far there have been a handful of wines that are earth shattering but no one is unequivocally the best.
1982 and 83 Margaux and the same vintages of LMHB would rate highly.
So too would Bonneau de Martray Corton Charlemagne. Plus several red Burgundies.

[OrlandoRobert]

1990 Chateau La Louviere

I still remember it to this day, and have easily had 2+ cases since that moment.

I was fresh out of law school, had lots of jingle in my pocket, so wanted to expand my wine appreciation beyond California. I had clerked in San Fran, so spent a lot of time in Napa that summer, drinking some really fine wines. Recall how good Caymus was back in the early 1990s?

So my local retailer had tons of Bordeaux from 1982-90 in that 1993 timeframe when I’m looking. I had the Wine Spectator ratings book in hand, and just started grabbing things. I recall 1990 Lynch Bages,1989 Pichon Lalande, 1990 Lalande (and I think a 91), 1986 Montrose, a Clearc Milon, and then to be honest, I really loved the La Louviere classic label. Saw that it had a 94 rating, and boom, ended up in my case purchase. It was the first of the group that I tried. Mostly cause it was the cheapest, $24 back then. I did not know how much better Bordeaux got with age, but brought it to Thanksgiving with my family, and we paired it with a 1991 Caymus, 1991 Silverage, 1991 Ridge Geyserville and a few other things. The La Louviere stood out head and shoulders above the rest, I was smitten by that dusty, earthy, gravelly complexion.

And since then, Bordeaux has remained my favorite of all wine regions. In fact, two years later, my wife and I took our honeymoon there.

[DavidG]

One of my med school housemates is quite the amateur chef and wine enthusiast. He had a difficult time deciding between attending the Culinary Institute of America and med school. His passion was a boon to the 4 of us living there as a "Monday night wine dinner" where he cooked and we all brought a bottle became a tradition.

May 1978: Our last dinner before graduation he brought an Haut Brion of forgotten vintage. It opened my eyes to the complexities possible in wine. I wonder if that’s why Haut Brion remains my desert island wine.

[JimHow]

So far there have been a handful of wines that are earth shattering but no one is unequivocally the best.

Not looking for the "best" wine you've ever had, Claudius, but rather the epiphany wine that opened your eyes and made you look at wine in a different way.

A lot of people like wine but they have not been touched by the spirit like we have, they don't "understand...."

I've had "better" wines than that 1986 de Lamarque in 1997, but prior to that moment I was a mere mortal.

[jal]

1990 Lynch Bages

[William P]

Interesting question and hard to answer. If I had to list my epiphany wine for wine, it probably would be a 1972 Pichon Lalande. While not the best vintage it introduced me to Bordeaux. It was also within the budget at $3.00 a bottle from my local wine shop in 1976, so it was my first case. It was down hill after that.

The next wine, mirroring Claudius, was a Bonneau de Martray Corton Charlemagne. I never understood that great whites wines evolved and had wonderful concentration. I don't remember the vintage but I do remember that some of the bottles had the pox but the healthy bottles were sublime.

Bill

[hautbrionlover]

I had never had a fine bottle of red wine before, and I suddenly found myself drinking a bottle of Chateau Latour 1976 which had been mismarked (priced way too low) at a Paris restaurant. That was the “light bulb” moment for me, my wine epiphany. It’s been my passion ever since.

[Blanquito]

First, several bottles of the 1975 Lascombes that my dad opened at Thanksgivings in the early 1990’s. I don’t know what I’d think of them now, but in my early 20’s these were magical old wines with that aromatic complexity and suave palate only fully mature wines attain. It started me on a Margaux kick that lasted for years, I was always looking for that floral, sweet, Margauxberries bouquet after that. My dad bought them not really knowing much beyond that they were a Margaux and that Alexis Lichine was on the label, a wine influencer my dad always admired.

Second place has to go to the 1989 Meyney which was my first case purchase.

[jckba]

1997 Pichon Lalande in 2005 - this wine had a highly perfumed 100 point nose that just drew me in from the first sniff and even though the wine had a feminine somewhat thin mid palette with a rather short finish, none of that mattered as I was completely enamored. And so the journey began.

[Claret]

Working in a restaurant in college in the early 80's, it was a 1974 Barolo.

For Bordeaux, 1982 Poujeaux.

92 Latour Corton Charlemagne in a red plastic cup on the NJ Turnpike OTW to Medieval Times was my white revelation. I was not driving.

[s*d*r]

1973 Mouton Cadet in 1976.

Ordered off the restaurant list by my host who knew nothing about wine at a fancy French restaurant in Miami. Can’t remember if it was second from the bottom or at the bottom of the list.

So “smooth.” Stunning. Got me started on my journey.

Stu

[stefan]

I love your answer, Stuart.

For Lucie and me it is 1962 La Lagune. A wine shop owner in Houston convinced us to spend $5 on this wine in 1970 when we had never before paid more than $3 for a bottle. We had it for dinner that evening and were blown away. We returned to the store after dinner to buy more, but we had gotten the last bottle. The last time we drank the 1962 La Lagune was in the late 1970s. I came across a bottle in a drug store in Ann Arbor when I was there to give a talk at the University of Michigan. Despite the less than optimal storage, that bottle was very good.

[JCNorthway]

For me it was a 1982 Moulin St. George, purchased in a small shop in St. Emilion in 1993, and drunk at home in December of 1995. I remember that Paula and I just looked at each other after taking our first sips of the wine. Up to that point, I had drunk very little French wine, but the situation changed quickly after that episode.

[Claudius2]

Jim
Okay, I get it.
If that is the case, it would be Bonneau de Martray CC.
I drank this in Bernard Loiseau's Cote D'or Hotel and Restaurant in Saulieu, Burgundy.
The year was 1985 during summer and I think the vintage was 1982. The wine was recommended by the sommelier (and I agreed not thinking of the price, nor was I even aware of it until I paid the hotel bill the next day).
By that time, I was interested in French wine and was already buying some in Australia, including 1982 Bordeaux EP's, though I mainly saw France as a country of red wine and Champagne rather than whites.
And I had not heard of CC at the time.
Served with truffle infused lobster, it opened my eyes to how good white wine can be, and I was surprised that such a wine could have the power to go with truffles.

Unfortunately, Loiseau committed suicide in 2003.
Whilst the tabloid press said that it was due to an impending loss of its 3 hat Michelin status, the truth was that he had suffered clinical depression for some time.
I was hoping to return to Saulieu earlier this year, so it would have been somewhat bittersweet.
cheers
Mark

[JoelD]

Surprisingly, I have yet to have a true epiphany wine from Bordeaux, the two closest are wines with insane bouquet's, that ended up being great but didn't match the nose.
2010 Leoville Poyferre in 2017
1990 Rausan Segla in March, 2020- Out of 1000's of wines, this is the one I had to keep going back to the glass 3-4 times per sip to smell all those amazing aroma's

My two Burgundy epiphany wines are
2001 Bzikot Puligny Village out of a Magnum in 2017- Who knew that chardonnay could look that amber, almost orange ox color and taste like that?
2009 Jayer Gilles Echezeaux Du Dessus- Needed a 3 hour decant and then sang a song like no red burgundy had for me until that point

Also, have to mention the 1989 Huet Le Haut Lieu Moulleux Premiere Trie that DavidG brought to the first dinner I met him at in Dec 2019, organized by Marcus. This is the best desert wine that I have ever tasted. And I never knew a sweet wine could come together and be so balanced and refreshing while still being crazy complex. The only wines that have come close are rieslings with age.

[Nicklasss]

I would say the 1993 Chateau Hanteillan and the 1993 Chareau Lilian Ladouys.

Even if 1993 was a medium vintage, diluted with rain during the harvest, i felt these two wines in their youth were having a perfumed nose of blackcurrant/blackberries, minerals, light oak spices. With lot of elegance on the nose and in mouth. Perfect luncheon clarets, that give me arguments to look more into red Bordeaux... i should have stayed away.

They convinced to buy some 1993 Chateau Batailley (that i did not liked) and some 1993 Chateau Montrose (that was a step up from Hanteillan or Lilian Ladouys, very excellent for the vintage).

To prove that 1993 was better than first thought, i guess everybodies that attend the first dinner at La Tupina on Sunday night at BWE Bordeaux 2015 remember the mag of 1993 Chateau Haut Brion that was delicious!

Nic

[dstgolf]

Along the way there have been a number of epiphanies but the one that started the passion of expanding horizons and buying good wines from wherever with a goal to try the best from all great wine regions both old world and new world. It has bee a fabulous adventure being kicked into high gear when a good friend brought over the 1990 Jaboulet Domaine Thalabert that I thought was sublime in around 1996 and now I see Patrick ranked this in his top ten of 2020 so nice to see that such a lesser wine is still delivering.

The palate has drifted from collecting some Cali Cabs and a couple of great memories were from Montelena with the Estate Cab 1978 first bottled drank 3 bottles between 2000-2010 and all three were some of the most amazing Cali wines I've ever drank...right up there with a couple of all time favourites 91 & 94 Dominus but I give the nod to 94. Maybe the company was better and had 4 bottles vs 2 of the 91.

The Bordeaux that got me hooked for life was the 82 Cetan de May of which we've reviewed here many times and shared this with friends more than a dozen times with my buddy having 2 cases of this bought on futures and who better to share with than like minded friends. He hooked us all on Bordeaux and we've been collecting/drinking Bordeaux together since the mid 90's.

Like life in general the wines and memories that you develop are highly influenced by the company you keep. After a while I'm not sure if the wines were that fantastic or the memories of the evening/weekend etc elevate the experience exponentially. There certainly have been a lot of good wines but memories surrounding the joy of an incredible bottle is meant be shared. How boring/sad it would be to drink alone and I'm sure that the wines don't taste as good!