Hot vinegar

Epic fail today. I was reading about Rep. Paul Ryan, the leader of the medicare reform effort and the $350 bottle of Grand Echezeaux he was quaffing with the lobbyists last night. People were a little up in arms with the guy talking cut backs while he downs such great wine. By law he has to pay for any bottle over ten bucks so Congressman Ryan is probably pretty steamed after downing a couple bottles and the word getting out and all. A Rutgers professor named Feinberg blew the whistle on him.

The cru in question was Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru. Which leads me to my awful story and personal failure.

I was at a show a few years ago in Miami, the one right before my surgery where I drove back and forth from California. My buddy Nathan and I got a tip on an estate sale. It looked promising enough, silver Ferrari in the drive, but it was strictly drechlach.

I gave a glancing look at the wine rack as we were leaving the kitschy, colorful, modern paintings of parrots and polo. Whoa, what have we here?

A 1959 Chateau Margaux, one of the greatest vintages. A 1961 Romanee Conti. A '62 Grand Echezeaux. Twenty five bucks a piece. All hand selected by Alexis Lichine. About 6k in the vin du grape. Nathan and I split it.

I have thought about putting them in auction the last several years. Too expensive to drink. Never got around to it. I pulled them out of my cool center room where they had been laying on their sides in insulated shells this afternoon to take a picture for the blog. They are dead. At least two of them. The cork disintegrated on the Margaux. There was a moist ring around the top of the Echezaux. I am fucked. I killed them. Sorry, Nathan. Will have to drink the last one soon.