A few months back, I invited my Wine Consultants to ‘guest blog’ for me and recommended they blog about their first ‘WOW wine’, to share their experience tasting that certain bottle that made them realize wine was so much more than they thought, the bottle that introduced wine into their lifestyle rather than something to melt candles in.

Not sure if I can remember that exact wine, or even that far back, but I can remember filling a case every few weeks with every wine I could afford, mostly inexpensive, but none the same. Red and white, dry and sweet, trying everything out there, and every bottle was a new and enlightening experience. Back 30 plus years ago, Bordeaux was affordable and so was everything else, so having an open mind to flavors and styles opened a whole new world of taste. The retail shop I worked in had an amazing selection of everything, including older vintages and off the beaten path regions. It was a fun time to be a wine drinker!

A few years later, I went to work for a small, eclectic wine shop called ‘My Sediments Exactly’, which was a completely different, and eye opening experience. Bill & Judy, the owners, were as passionate about wine as anyone I had met to that point, and they loved to drink old, classic vintages of the world’s great wines, and they loved bring others into this world of theirs. I was very fortunate to taste many, many old vintages from Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux etc, etc…..some turn of the century (the one before last) and they allowed me to buy some of these wines for a song! I remember opening 1906 Ch. Margaux and 1914 (or 1916?) Ch. Pichon Lalande on my 26^th birthday! Those were the days, my friend!

Shayne Hebert, CF Wine Supervisor

on Twitter @abcwineshayne