The Auswine Forum

This may be a repeat thread but;

I was wondering what was the WINE OR WINE MOMENT that started it all?

For me it was a 1996 Wolf Blass Black Label. A House mate at the time had wine industry connections
and he'd often bring home half full bottles of vino from various events.
On one particular occasion he showed up with some various bottles from a Wolf Blass event and plonked them
on the kitchen bench. I remember hoping straight into the 96 and being really taken aback.
I'd had quite a bit of wine previous to this moment. The usual BBQ, social gathering quaffer wines,
but nothing like this. I really wasn't sure what I was drinking but I knew it was quality, something special.
I hunted it down in the following days at the local bottlo and I was shocked by the price $$$.

Needless to say the above experience set me on a course.
If it wasn't the 96 WB BL it probably would've been something else, but it's always interesting to think back
and remember those mini life changing experiences.

Scotty vino wrote:but it's always interesting to think back
and remember those mini life changing experiences.

A 1994 Petaluma Riesling was the first wine I ever tried, a colleague of my at the time convinced me that I would like wine - I still remember that moment today.

But what really grabbed me was a lunch I attended later that year (in a restaurant on the Corner of Nth Terrace and East Terrace in Adelaide - the name escapes me now) and had the following wines:

1982 Bollinger Rose
1992 Mitchelton Reserve Marsanne
1985 Wendouree Shiraz
Finished off with a 1979 Petaluma Coonawarra
The 1979 Petaluma Coonawarra really did it for me, but each wine simply blew me away.

Henschke Abbot's Prayer Cab Merlot 1990 - ordered at Maggie Beer's Pheasant Farm restaurant on one of my first real "dates" when I realised that ordering Coke just wasn't going to impress. Got bitten by the bug and the rest is history.

-- George Krashos

Wolf Blass Grey Label 1981, in about 2003

Elizabeth Semillon - believe it or not, a blend of the 1979 and 1984 vintages sold through Cellarmasters and drunk sometime around 1990

1986 Penfolds St Henri... sadly down to my last few bottles now. I remember finding out it cost $16 before I tasted it, and thinking 'who would pay that much for a bottle of wine?'. I soon worked out the answer was 'me'...

The first real (i.e. not the sugar sweetened Muller-Thurgau abominations that very occasionally graced our dinner table) was a 1976 dessert riesling (I'm guessing probably an Auslese), which was part of a hamper sent over to the family by an exchange student who had visited us.

In adulthood, I can't remember the specific wines, but a tasting run by Oddbins at work, with a wonderful chardonnay from Burgundy (probably a Macon), leading onto another tasting they ran with Grange, Bin 707 plus others in the Penfolds range. Also around the same time, a bottle or three of Cahors and the first experience with Chateau Musar.

2008 Dutschke Shiraz Oscar Semmler, tasted August 2011. A friend gifted me a bottle as a birthday present.

Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape. Quit my job of 10yrs, went out with some colleagues to a pricey restaurant and shouted everyone large...randomly picked the wine and was gobsmacked.

sjw_11 wrote:Wolf Blass Grey Label 1981, in about 2003

I should add, the other key factor- Melbourne Street's Saturday tastings...

2009 Picardy merlot cab franc. Just kept evolving in the glass and I thought 'this thing is alive!'

A case of Bests cleanskin pinot noir about 2001 vintage. Go figure.

1982 pichon de lande comtesse
$50
From a bargain bin in early 1990s
Blew my mind with perfume & length & complexity

'71 Redman Claret and Cabernet, first wines tasted at CD in Coonawarra

Honourable mention to '75 Southern Vales Coop Trophy Cabernet

michel wrote:1982 pichon de lande comtesse
$50
From a bargain bin in early 1990s
Blew my mind with perfume & length & complexity

Love that wine.....

Mine was a flash birthday lunch where I was in the middle of ordering a normal wine off the list when the urge overcame me to splurge, I changed my mind and ordered a Bin 707 1998. I was starting to do trips to Hunter Valley etc but had never had anything 'higher end'. The 1998 must have been very recently released at the time, and was no doubt an American vanilla coconut oakbomb, but it blew me away and it's all been an awesome adventure since then. I'll always have a soft spot for that wine, but I really dislike American oak now!

But it wasn't until 2009 when cuttlefish asked on this forum for interest in a 'north shore tasting group' and I then attended my first tasting/offline that the real wine passion took hold. So many great memories, great wines and most importantly great friends since then, cheers everyone.

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10448 and then the tasting.. http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10569 - That's a blast from the past, many of the posters in this thread are now good friends and regular drinking companions!

If only I had seen the future and had started stocking up on Burgundy then. Prices are getting crazy.

TiggerK wrote:Mine was a flash birthday lunch where I was in the middle of ordering a normal wine off the list when the urge overcame me to splurge, I changed my mind and ordered a Bin 707 1998. I was starting to do trips to Hunter Valley etc but had never had anything 'higher end'. The 1998 must have been very recently released at the time, and was no doubt an American vanilla coconut oakbomb, but it blew me away and it's all been an awesome adventure since then. I'll always have a soft spot for that wine, but I really dislike American oak now!

But it wasn't until 2009 when cuttlefish asked on this forum for interest in a 'north shore tasting group' and I then attended my first tasting/offline that the real wine passion took hold. So many great memories, great wines and most importantly great friends since then, cheers everyone.

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10448 and then the tasting.. http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10569 - That's a blast from the past, many of the posters in this thread are now good friends and regular drinking companions!

If only I had seen the future and had started stocking up on Burgundy then. Prices are getting crazy.

oh oh oh
I so wish I had purchased more Leroy in the good old days

For us it was a 2008 Henschke Keyneton Euphonium that showed how a step up in price and label could / should mean a step up in quality. We weren't drinking much wine at the time so it encouraged us to drink and try more. We think the '08 is the best of the vintages since and maybe that's partly nostalgia, but we have five left for opening every three years until 2031 to see how / if it evolves over time.

I used only drink red wine but my old man shared a white puligny-montrachet with me in 1996, and I suddenly realised that I had been missing out on a whole lot of good juice.

Circa 1998-1999

1996 Tahbilk Shiraz on the Colonial Tram Car Restaurant.

It was my first time on the Iconic Melbourne eatery, and was the 'fanciest' restaurant I had ever been too. Back then, it was usually LaPorchetta or
the local Chinese or Indian restaurants.

Been in love with Tahbilk ever since and are my most stocked winery in the cellar.

2006 Langmeil Valley Floor Shiraz

At a Christmas party and the host was serving this. I enjoyed it so much at the time that he gifted me a bottle. I still have it... I should prob drink it soon...

Met a lot of genuinely nice folks from wine particularly the Syd crew... Haven't been to an offline for a year or so, so looking forward to seeing the group hopefully in the near future!

Great question!

Either the moment I was poured a 1999 LEAS cabernet sauvignon at an old boss' birthday party, or when I wandered into the wrong cabin on an international flight and emerged with a glass of Yabby Lake chardonnay.

At the time, I'd tasted nothing but wines in the ruck, and both these wines exploded my mind and suggested a wonderful knew way to spend many thousands of dollars I don't have!

Mine was a mid to late 90s Mt. Edelstone had at Gaucho('s?) in Adelaide. For whites it was a massive Kistler Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley had at a friend's apartment in Kyoto.

I wish I could remember my very first wine but it could have been a bottle of Lindemans Ben Ean Moselle in about 1970 when I was 17 years old.
We were Seniors at High School and a bunch of guys and girls would head off to the Coast and have a few drinks on the beach.
Once I started work and had an income the variety and quality improved very quickly. Other early favourites were:
Hardys Siegersdorf Riesling, Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Riesling, Hardys Nottage Hill Claret, McWilliams Mount Pleasant Philip Hermitage, and Seppelt Para Port.

For me, it would have to be a 1976 Stanton and Killeen Vintage port that was consumed in 1996. Not my first wine by a long shot, but nothing beat that for a long long time.

For me I guess it was a bit of a journey, when I was young I always got a sip/small glass of something like Sapphire Pearl or Krondorf Mosel or Rhine Riesling (I still remember those, so I guess they made an impact at the time)...

... come to the 1990 vintage, at the time hyped as the "vintage of the century" and the wine that stood out to me was the 1990 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon, all blackberries, blueberries, black olives and most of all, powdered chalk dust. Since then all of the 1990 wines have stood the test of time, so I consider that one a landmark...

... that said, to me there is no one moment, just moments. A Verve Clichot Champagne tasting going from bottom to top, not noticing a lot of difference going up, then going back down again and noticing every little bit to do with finesse...

... A Wendouree Shiraz Mataro vertical going from youngest to oldest, getting to the end thinking this is like Grand Cru Corton, and wishing I could do the whole thing damn again with my mind reset to expect something like from that area of Burgundy, light to (at most) medium-bodied, meaty and liquorice, forget the big Australian stereotype...

Like I said, for me there is no one wine, and no one moment, it is always a journey, as long as your mind is open to the challenge.

Rossco wrote:Circa 1998-1999

1996 Tahbilk Shiraz on the Colonial Tram Car Restaurant.

It was my first time on the Iconic Melbourne eatery, and was the 'fanciest' restaurant I had ever been too.

I was pleased to see it's still going, as a forumite in the UK was saying what a cool idea it was. Whilst the food was (IMO) good but not brilliant and the wines perfectly serviceable for an all inclusive price, the experience is a great one and I think if I even lived in Melbourne, then I'd be tempted to go again. I'd certainly recommend it and the price has kept a fair level (IIRC it was 75 AUD back in the mid-late 1990s, which at the prevailing exchange rate made it a little less than 30 GBP. In those years eating out in Australia made us feel like thieves

p.s. who knows, we might have been there on the same journey!

Two, which I cannot split
Being at Wynns cellar door the day the 82 JR was released and the 55 Michael that I drunk in 1984.
Cheers
Craig

1994 Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon purchased from auction got me into collecting my own stuff. 2005 PYCM Meursault Perrieres got me onto the White Burg trail. Nebbiolo was a longer and more slippery slope that came from visiting Italy - 2001 Moccagatta Bric Balin.

1954 Tulloch Private Dry Red - I would have been 15 given it was opened for Dad's 40th (okay more than 30 years ago). It was amazing complex.

For the cellaring addiction 1986 Wynns Cab Sav - last one drunk last year - looked great especially the mixed storage it had put up with