Old Wine

Twenty-five years after the Apollo 11 landing, we had a party. I found some bottles of a 1969 vintage Bordeaux in the local wine store, and thought it would be great as a centerpiece for the evening. They had regular 750 ml bottles, and larger magnums. Before I sprung the big bucks for a lot of decades-old wine, I thought I'd get a (750 ml) bottle to try. Frankly, it was disappointing - age did not sit lightly on it. Still, it was good enough, and the connection to the past was irresistible.

But the wine store was out of all the small bottles. Gritting my teeth, I parted with more dollars than I liked for a magnum. Only one, because while I wanted the wine, it simply was too old and poorly aged to get more.

At the party, as I opened the bottle, I told everyone that the wine was a little disappointing. As people took a sip, their expression turned to one of "what on earth are you talking about?"

It seems that the same wine ages differently in different sized bottles. Wine in large bottles tends to age more slowly than wine aged in small bottles. Instead of sadly past its peak, a shadow of memories of a greater self, this wine was at its peak. Glorious. Probably the best wine I've ever tasted.