Liquid Love Letter: Extra Special Bottles

Yes, they’re a splurge. And the price tag probably keeps you from opening them often. But those special (special) bottles of wine?

They are worth it. Every time.

That sounds like a big and fairly unrealistic promise. But hear me out.

Special, pricier-than-normal bottles are worth it because of the reaction you are likely to receive when someone realizes that your splurge is for THEM.

This happened for me recently when I brought the 2022 Expedition Cabernet Sauvignon by Seven Apart, in Napa, on a weekend visit to friends in the mountains. Our friends are exceptional and generous hosts, and a particularly special bottle of wine “fit” their table beautifully. More importantly, it “fit” the atmosphere that these friends create: thoughtful and uncommon, yet still very comfortable.

Seven Apart’s Expedition is those things too. Uncommon, in that only 30 barrels were produced. Thoughtful, in that consumers are advised to decant for one hour (and, if you’re cellaring it, another hour for every 10 years of age). And very comfortable, in that it’s familiar enough (primarily Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa) yet still specially harvested from the specific Base Camp Vineyard on the renown Atlas Peak.

Did it deliver? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Certainly, both in terms of the wine itself and the layer it added to a splurge-worthy friendship.

You know the bottle.

You can vision exactly where its being stored in your wine fridge.

Whether it was one you tasted on a wine trip, given as a gift, or collected from an auction website and you were lucky to submit the winning bid...odds are you've been holding onto that special bottle, waiting for the perfect occasion to open it.

OPENING THE BOTTLE IS THE OCCASION.

We are here to make memories.

Let's make memories we want to re-live.

Those memories are best made with the ones we hold dearest.

There will always be another revelatory bottle of wine. Magical winery visits will continue throughout your life. Cherish the memories, but open the bottles. Share the secrets, make new memories with those closest to you. Drink the juice, savor the flavor, and normalize opening the special bottle on any day that ends in "Y".

As we draw Liquid Love Letter to a close, Cathy and I both have been reflecting on an incredible year of bringing you our thoughts weekly on fun topics throughout the wine world...

My most precious bit I can offer as unsolicited advice...

DRINK THE BOTTLE.

You will not regret it.

There is plenty more wine where that came from.

See you next week for our last installment of Liquid Love Letter.