Thanksgiving dinner, at some point between the first one and the one on deck.

I have a bottle of fancy wine, born the same year I was (long story), which I decide to share with the family.

My grandmother declines; she does not like red wine, so why would she like this red wine? Um, because it's a 1962 Chateau Margaux? No sale.

The rest of us drink the wine. It is...tasty. Not transcendent. Maybe past its peak. Maybe pearls before swine. Maybe never that great in the first place.

But I wonder, then and now, how much better one bottle of wine can be than another, once some threshold of quality has been reached, and how much more it is worth paying for some incremental excellence discernible only to palates much finer than my own. A chacun son gout, but good enough usually is good enough for me.

Still, I cracked open a decent Burgundy the other night to preview our Thanksgiving pour. I could get used to it.

Comments

[Ed Cone]

An emailer uses the phrase "diminishing returns" to describe his ventures into the pricier parts of the oenosphere.

[Ian McDowell]

You have to be careful with the wine, though, lest it lead to incidents like the involving a guy I know. True story. Grandmother had a new house and he didn't know his way around it and he'd gotten snockered downstairs after everyone else had gone to bed. He finally went up to what he thought was his guest room, couldn't find the light switch, took off his clothes in the dark, and sat on the bed, only to realize someone was in it and he was sitting on them. There was a scream, the light came on, and there he was, sitting naked on his grandmother. He immediately dove for his clothes and scrambled out of the room, but breakfast was a bit awkward the next morning.

[MojoNixon]

Some of us are more nuanced in our preferences:

[MojoNixon]

Link broke:

When Only the Best Will Do

[David Wharton]

Ed, your post reminded me of this. Also --Robert Parker is a genius at manipulating expectations, helping people enjoy wines in a way they could not without first reading his sumptuous descriptions.

[Ed Cone]

DW, we ran into a friend on what happened to be our anniversary many years ago, and later that day he (always one for the grand gesture) dropped off a bottle that had earned a 100 from Parker. I need more friends like that. Anyway, it was intimidating to drink. What if I didn't love it -- did that make me an inadequate taster of fine wine? How much time was I supposed to spend rating it myself, and by what measure should it exceed the pleasure quotient granted by, say, a mere 97? The big number took some of the fun out of the experience of actually drinking the wine. I've gotten more sanguine about things since then, and more able to just drink, baby.

[Bill Yaner]

A very consistent judge of wines, I've found, is one of the buyers for Total Wine named Alfio Morconi. The one on High Point Rd at least, and probably the livelier one up on Battleground, has a seperate section just for his pics. He's yet to steer me wrong, and he's not too snobby to go with some in the $10 range if they deserve it.

I saw him once in there and recognized him from his pictures, so I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan of his, whereupon he answered, "I'm a big fan of me too."

[Bill Yaner]

Make that Moriconi.

[Kim]

My favorite wine: http://www.mirassou.com/wines/california-pinot-noir.asp Less than $10.00/bottle. WooHoo.

[Ed Cone]

Found a nice 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape at Total Wine, it was popular at Thanksgiving so I went back and bought most of the remaining stock.

The Hospices pictured came from my cousin, who has been doing this for years, although he keeps saying he's going to quit because it's gotten to be so pricey and overstuffed. But he just emailed to say "2012 produced a very small crop, and a high-quality vintage," and that he had acquired some Volnay-Santenots 1er cru, Cuvée Jehan de Massol, so I'm getting a case, due to arrive at some point in 2014...