Sharing Those Special Bottles
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:29 pm
I am generally pretty generous when it comes to hauling bottles out of the cellar. That comes from my inherent good nature (and maybe also having far too much wine).
But there are some bottles that are either rare, expensive, or especially significant that I am reluctant to bring out unless a couple of criteria are met. First, the group must be appreciative and interested in wine. Second, the group cannot exceed a certain size.
That second one may surprise you, but consider - if I have had a bottle of, say, 1970 Latour sitting in the cellar for 20 years, will I feel like popping the cork for a cast of relative thousands (even if all are wine appreciators), and getting a small dram myself, or would I prefer to share it with a small group of friends and get a really nice pour that you can enjoy over an extended period during a pleasant meal?
Put that way, it probably won't surprise you that I prefer the latter, and my preferred group size for opening the best or most interesting bottles is probably 6 people, perhaps pushing it to 8, but no more, and of course preferably at a meal where the others bring similarly memorable bottles.
FWIW, I started thinking about this issue in connection with an event where the organiser seems to have a 'more is better' plan and keeps adding to the number of participants (and bottles). At a certain point, I realized that I had taken a certain number of my choices for wines off the mental table and restricted my choices to more modest wines to share with such a large crew. I even have one guy that comes to my lunches who calls me beforehand to ask how many people will be there so he can decide which tier of wine he wants to bring, and I completely sympathize with his feelings.
Also, FWIW, the other wines that will be tasted at the event aren't as big an incentive as you might think. I don't really care if I'd get to taste a whole whack of wonderful, rare, expensive, whatever wines, I still don't want to share one of my special ones with a large group. I didn't buy it 20 years ago to be able to drink an ounce of it a couple of decades later as part of a huge flight of other wines, I bought it to really enjoy with close friends.
So - the question. Do others have similar two tier views of the wines in their cellars, and if so, what is your ideal (and also maximum comfortable) group size for sharing these special bottles.
But there are some bottles that are either rare, expensive, or especially significant that I am reluctant to bring out unless a couple of criteria are met. First, the group must be appreciative and interested in wine. Second, the group cannot exceed a certain size.
That second one may surprise you, but consider - if I have had a bottle of, say, 1970 Latour sitting in the cellar for 20 years, will I feel like popping the cork for a cast of relative thousands (even if all are wine appreciators), and getting a small dram myself, or would I prefer to share it with a small group of friends and get a really nice pour that you can enjoy over an extended period during a pleasant meal?
Put that way, it probably won't surprise you that I prefer the latter, and my preferred group size for opening the best or most interesting bottles is probably 6 people, perhaps pushing it to 8, but no more, and of course preferably at a meal where the others bring similarly memorable bottles.
FWIW, I started thinking about this issue in connection with an event where the organiser seems to have a 'more is better' plan and keeps adding to the number of participants (and bottles). At a certain point, I realized that I had taken a certain number of my choices for wines off the mental table and restricted my choices to more modest wines to share with such a large crew. I even have one guy that comes to my lunches who calls me beforehand to ask how many people will be there so he can decide which tier of wine he wants to bring, and I completely sympathize with his feelings.
Also, FWIW, the other wines that will be tasted at the event aren't as big an incentive as you might think. I don't really care if I'd get to taste a whole whack of wonderful, rare, expensive, whatever wines, I still don't want to share one of my special ones with a large group. I didn't buy it 20 years ago to be able to drink an ounce of it a couple of decades later as part of a huge flight of other wines, I bought it to really enjoy with close friends.
So - the question. Do others have similar two tier views of the wines in their cellars, and if so, what is your ideal (and also maximum comfortable) group size for sharing these special bottles.