Twenty years in the cellar

[Florida Jim]

Times change . . .

When I first got seriously into wine collecting, it was all California wine. I was on every cult mailing list – all but one of them long since discarded. But my tastes changed over time and I have been exclusively French and Italian oriented for much of the last decade.

Now, I find that I am beginning to enjoy some of the west coast wines again; a few pinot noirs, a chardonnay or two, an older cabernet and a growing number of syrahs. I like to think that the ones I like have a certain “old world” feel to them, but maybe I’m just kidding myself.

Whatever the case, it has been an interesting cycle and one I find repeated by many of my wine friends. Good wine can be found in so many places.

I have also started to make wine; something I never thought I’d do and actually tried to avoid. But when I let go of the “next big thing” idea in purchasing, I got into learning more about the areas where wine is produced, certain varieties that I favored and the handful of producers I thought hit my sweet spot consistently. And then, of course, I wanted to know how they did that.

So making wine is not so much a commercial venture for me (although someday I’d like to do that, too) but more about the hands-on experience of trying to figure it out.

It has given me a great respect for farmers and chemists – two jobs that I am not very good at. And it has made wine all that much more fascinating.

I have given up on the idea of saving some bottles for special occasions. Now, the only thing that keeps me from opening whatever it is that I want is the fact that a particular bottle may not be ready to drink.

They’re all special occasions and they’re all good bottles.

I have come to admire the British tradition of passing down, through the generations, a well-stocked wine cellar. Such a sense of legacy and the opportunity for truly remarkable wines to age sufficiently so that they are enjoyed at their very best; it certainly has an appeal.

My daughter was not interested in wine – until recently. Now, she uses it much as people do their evening martini, a relaxing moment when the work day is over. It’s still not on her dinner table but perhaps she will come to that, much as she has come to enjoy a glass after work.

And so, I think I will start to segregate my cellar; those for drinking in my lifetime and those to pass along. Maybe it will never get to that but I like to think that the possibility exists and that she and I can establish our own wine tradition.

But one thing has remained constant; the best part of wine is the people you meet.

And so it goes . . .

Best, Jim