My Wine Story
My wine journey started in the mid/late 1990s; a friend would have BBQ dinners, and he would share his wine during the night, starting with white wine while cooking and moving into red wines through dinner. He always had a good story to go with the wine, whether it was his visit to that winery or his memory of the wine the time he had it prior. It got my attention and sparked an interest. One night he shared a Chateau d’Yquem with dessert, and I thought, “I can get used to this!” And so, I decided wine would become part of my life, and that’s how it all started.
2010 Silver Oak, AV
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One of my posts made it into Silver Oak’s calendar. It was in the 2017 calendar. I thought that was pretty cool! Silver Oak was the first winery I ever visited in Napa Valley, and will always have a place in my heart.
2012 Whitehall Lane Millennium
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A favorite from the early years was Whitehall Lane. Back in the day, I used to drink the ’97-’02 Reserve Cabernet. Pictured below was 100% Cabernet, Rutherford, Millennium MM Vineyard.
2004 Harlan Estate
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This was my first wine post back in Oct 2012. We were in Las Vegas and opened it with dinner that night. I was in the hotel room thinking of how I should take a photo of it when I saw my reflection in the bottle. Problem solved.
My Aha Moment
Some of my early favorites were Silver Oak, Jordan, Whitehall Lane, Flora Springs, & Hall. Though I never understood it when people would say, “I had ‘such and such’ wine, and that was my epiphany into wine.” And then it happened to me, on my second visit to Napa, we stopped in Robert Mondavi Winery for a tour and tasting and decided on the reserve tasting. We had the 1997 Mondavi To-Kalon, the inaugural release, and the flavors lingered until we arrived at the Culinary Institute of America for lunch a half hour later. I was hooked!
