What is My Favorite Wine?

This is a question I get frequently. People ask me what my favorite wine is. I don't know how to answer that. I don't even know how to answer which wine that I have had was my favorite or which one I thought was best.

It's so subjective. It's so mood-based. It's environment-based. It's food-based.

Let's dig in a bit. I've been fortunate to have some very good wines in my life, perhaps not many by the standards of people in the entertainment industry be it film, television, music, or sports, but pretty good by my standards. But, whatever has been the wine that I had that I reacted most favorably to at the moment might not be right at all tonight.

Here is an example. Out to dinner for a special occasion, I looked at the wine list and saw a 2003 Quilceda Creek (if it's unfamiliar to you, it's a high-end Washington state winery that has been summarily applauded by critics and 2003 was one of their best vintages ever). I glanced at the price, and understand that the restaurant had to have been holding on to this bottle for quite a while because it was roughly 2013 or 2014 by then, but that price was perhaps a 5% markup on the retail price for the then current vintage of Quilceda Creek. Ordering this wine, especially with red meat dishes seemed a no-brainer. And, it was. The wine was spectacular.

But, would it have been the best wine the other night. We had Georgia mountain trout. Now, it is possible that we would have loved the wine, but if we had, we never would have tasted the trout. Trout is a somewhat delicate fish. Pairing it with what I am sure by now is an earthy, yet powerful wine made primarily of Cabernet would be foolhardy. If we were going to pair it with trout, why bother with the food at all?

Let's switch to a different type condition. It's a warm Saturday afternoon in the middle of the Georgia summer. Well, maybe it's not warm; it's more likely flat out hot and humid. If I'm going to drink a wine at that point, I don't want something big and bold, I want something cool and refreshing. I want something that makes me think of the temperature cooling off just a bit and taking some of the humidity out of the air.

So, don't ask me my favorite wine. Set the conditions for me: food, atmosphere, conditions, mood, price. Now, I'll pick a wine or at least narrow it down.

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