A couple of years helps

Most of the time, I have a bottle and like it, then I have another bottle a couple of years later of the same wine, same vintage, and it's pretty much the same stuff.

Tonight was a much happier experience.

I bought a couple of bottles of Leon Beyer 2000 gewurz, from Alsace, early in 2004, from Beltramo's in Menlo Park.

I opened the first bottle in July 2004 and wrote, "Nice Gewurz, pale color, mild nose, lemony, not too much spice. Good, not excellent."

It was lemon chicken, leftover spaghetti, carrot-and-rice casserole tonight, plus some garden-fresh tomatoes, the kind of supper that I don't expect to find anything remarkable from the wine.

I got an unexpected bonus from the bottle that I opened tonight. Vastly better than two years ago. Gold verging on brass, very light aroma, rich nutmeggy-spice flavor. Very very good. Lots of length, and lots of consistency from the beginning to the end of a mouthful.

Cost me $15.99 which I think of as pretty high for white wine, back in April 2004.

What a difference a day makes ...

I bought six bottles of the '98 Roche Merlot based on a barrel sample. (Actually, my ex was a little envigorated by some tasting we had done and she bought the Merlot despite our not really being friends of Merlot.) In any event, we opened one bottle a year for the next six years. The first five ranged from "Why the hell did we spend money on this?" to "Maybe we're getting a taste for Merlot," by the fifth. But that last bottle with the six year snooze behind the wet bar ... aaaahhhhh.

And I guess that's why wine's such a fun hobby.