Thinking back, I've always enjoyed wine, but never thought too much about it. I can't lie, Yellow Tail was one of the first wines I happily purchased upon turning 21 and even though now my palate has become a bit more discriminating, I still say that YT is pretty darn drinkable, and YT was a fine introductory level wine to get my brain moving. To simply get me thinking about the very basics of wine. I have however had that ahhh haaa moment. That wine moment that I will never forget.
It was my Birthday and I was hanging out with one of my very best friends. His father happens to be a big wine importer, so needless to say there always is wonderful wines around his house. On this birthday my friend goes into the back of his basement and pulls out a bottle of wine and says "Happy Birthday". I say, "what is it?" , He replies, "my dad has a bunch of this stuff so go ahead, its uhhh Marcassin, Pinot Noir, 2005." I had no clue about the difference between a Pinot and a Cabernet let alone Yellow Tail from Marcassin! I however happily accepted the wine and brought it back up to college with me.
A note on Marcassin- Marcassin (french for 'young wild boar') is a VERY small winery – in fact it’s so small that the wines have actually been made at the Martinelli winery in Russian River Valley. Located on the Sonoma Coast, the Marcassin vineyard is planted to 50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and is about 10 acres in size. Fruit for the other vineyard designated wines is sourced from other neighboring vineyards. Marcassin will always be a small winery; John & Helen feel the perfect size is 100 barrels, enough for 2,500 cases.
Marcassin Pinot Noir 2005 sells for about $345 a bottle. This number may even be higher now because it is so unbelievably hard to get. I however drank this bottle one night in my dorm room with my roommate at the time out of Styrofoam cups. I remember tasting and thinking wow this is something special, this is very good. I remember vividly my roommate giving me his critique of the wine, " well... Its no Boonsfarm but I guess it will have to do." We finished that bottle off that night, and while I thought it was good, I didn't think to much about it. The empty bottle ended up under the couch in my Dorm room, where it would stay for about a year until....
My old roommate ended up leaving college and my best friend, who gave me that very wine ended up rooming with me in my dorm. On the day his parents helped him move in, his father found the empty bottle of marcassin under the couch. He said to me, "Kyle... This is a very good wine." Which I reply, " why yes it is." He then tells me that it is incredibly hard to find, That the odds of a college student like me getting his hands on it and even appreciating it was very low. He knew that this wine came from him. My friend and I were at a loss for words... My friends father however, was not. I now however can understand his anger.
A few years went by and the Marcassin story turned into a very funny tale that was told amongst those in the wine trade. About the kid who drank Marcassin out of a styrofoam cup. I had graduated college and was getting ready to start school at the Culinary Institute of America. My best friend who had given me the wine years back was having a cookout with his family and an Australian wine maker who had come to visit. That night my friends father opened a bottle of Marcassin, pours me a glass and says here, actually taste it. I tasted the wine and it was like magic in my mouth. It was like heaven had rushed over me. It was a hedonistic dream like I had never encountered and I absolutely loved it.
The wine was so complex, with a nose that gave off earth, tobacco, and leather, while still maintaining its fruit. And the taste justified the nose and wow all those flavors came through. It was magical. I can remember the taste of that wine to this day. It has always stayed with me.
That was my wine moment, while I had always loved food and wine, I knew from that point that I wanted to know more about wine, I wanted to taste wine often, and like an addict chasing a fix, I wanted to have that moment again, that moment that brings heaven to your palate, I wanted to find more wine that made me feel that way. All in all, I think it was a very good ahh haa wine moment...
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