Eats+Drinks
Feelin’ a Bit Extra An extraordinary drink isn’t always about what’s in the glass.
S
everal years ago, I was privileged enough to serve a group of wine aficionados who collected rare and expensive bottles. Bottles I would never usually get the privilege to hold because they were way out of my price range. Nervous that I wasn’t familiar with the unique product, I scrambled to the internet and
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The Local
hand wrote detailed notes to ensure I learned everything possible. This dinner included a blind tasting with 12 wines followed by a wine-paired six-course meal; it was no small feat. The group, so impressed by my diligence and naïveté, offered to let me share along as they tasted. We drank everything exquisite, from French 1st growths
WI N TE R G AR DE N
dating through the past six decades to a 100 point Dominus Estate I never thought I would get my hands on. Professionally, it was the best day of my life. Most of the time, we equate rarity or exclusiveness to extraordinary. Is there a reason the wine is so rare and expensive? Absolutely. It’s the region’s top product, grown in the
best climate, produced by leading winemakers, and preserved in prime condition to be enjoyed 50 years after bottled. But… was it the wine itself, or the meaning behind the wine that made it so memorable? Here were these people, relatively unknown to me, inviting me into this once-ina-lifetime experience. For them, it was just a quarterly
