Perhaps everyone was aware of this but me.
Alder wrote today about how to taste wines you can’t afford. 1964 Latour. 1967 Lafite Rothschild.
Go to a pre-auction tasting. For around $50 – $70, you can taste wines that most of us can only dream about. How wonderful to find out that a bordeaux really should taste like this, or that the cult cabernet is just another glass of cabernet, without anything special but a name. How wonderful to not pay hundreds, or thousands of dollars for these wines …
I’m positively in love with this idea. A quick google search let me know that the closest I’m going to get to a fine & rare wine auction with a tasting is by heading 5 hours north to Chicago. Now, Chicago is one of my favorite places in the world, and I don’t mind the drive. I’ve made a promise to myself that Kevin & I will get to two of these tastings this year. I’ll be watching the ERI site and the Sotheby’s site, as they both have wine speciality houses in Chicago. Looks like the next one in Chicago is April 1, which we can’t attend. But I suspect there will be more …
Thanks, Alder, for the great idea!
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Also check out Hart Davis Hart – they have auctions in Chicago as well. Also Kensington’s in Chicago hosted a few tastings, but those were in 2004 or so.
I made the same discovery you did about four years ago – I was googling ‘marcassin’ and came across an upcoming Edward Roberts International tasting where a 1995 Marcassin chardonnay was poured. That tasting was one of the best wine days of my life: tasting first growths for the first time; tasting a 1955 La Tour; watching two guys swirling, one says to the other “How is it?” and the other shrugs and says “It’s Haut-Brion”; tasting Kistler and Marcassin chards.
As you wrote, it’s an extrordinary opportunity to taste wines that are the benchmark of their varietal, and to discover your own personal preferences as well.
I’m out in northern California this week and going to the Edward Roberts tasting tomorrow morning…