We love the idea of birth year wines.
We think it’s truly meaningful to open a great bottle of wine for your son or daughter’s 21st birthday — something that you have been waiting for years to do since his or her birth year. Opening the wines on wedding dinner or any other special event is just as wonderful too, so we were delighted to read a witty, interesting piece from Adler of Vinography recently.
And I’m saying this not just because this is one of my favorite wine blogs.
Adler not only tells us about his hopes and dreams for his daughter, (who, in his blog introduction sounds like a very promising wine enthusiast to us) but goes on to share his strategy for selecting birth year wines for his little girl and lists an impressive selection of wines. (Head on to his blog to see the complete list.)
Anyway, he shares:
“As you might expect, I have a fantasy of opening some great bottles to share with her when she officially turns 21. She will, of course, be drinking wine long before that in the security of our home and with our supervision. But my hope is that by the time she’s 21, she will not only be interested in drinking wine, but be able to tell the really good stuff from all the rest.”
We, too, hope that Adler’s little miss wine taster grows up with a love for, and excellent taste in wines.
Vineography fans share some valuable advice on getting birth year wines. Among our favorite comments include:
Buying wine you actually like – just in case your kid ends up not liking wines as much as you’d expect ;
Making sure you know the wines’ storage life – you wouldn’t want what happened to a father to happen to you – he stored a dozen bottles for 20 years, only to uncork it and drive guests away because of the rotten smell!;
A special birth-year wine should be the centerpiece of its own occasion, perhaps just before or after the milestone celebration, because fine wine may not receive the full attention, enjoyment, or respect that it deserves due to other distractions!
Great advice indeed. For anyone else who’s planning to buy birth year wines, we recommend Adler’s approach in his blog — set a budget, formulate a strategy and enjoy the process of wine collection. When that very special day comes, you know sharing that moment with your child is definitely worth the wait.
