Savoring Moments: A Personal Journey Through My Favorite Wine Memory

What’s a wine memory?

It’s an incredible experience that involves a remarkable wine.

And this recollection is one wine lovers are eager to share — they love revisiting that place in time and they want to take you with them.

Wine memories take us to all corners of the world and hearing these stories invites us to learn about extraordinary, as well as unusual, wines.

Here are a few colorful wine memories from Sonoma County wine aficionados.

“Kristine Anderson, please report to the office.”

When Anderson, a seventh grader in 1968, was summoned to the principal’s office during a school assembly, many of her schoolmates in the small town of Gwinn, Michigan, thought she was in trouble.

As she reached the office, the secretary said, “Your father is on the phone.”

Thankfully, there was no bad news from home. Instead, her father asked if she wanted to accompany him to Washington, D.C., that afternoon. He needed to pick up eight to 10 cases of 1963 Château Margaux from a distributor.

The world-renowned Château Margaux wine estate is located in the appellation of the same name in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France. It has been making full-bodied Bordeaux red blends for centuries, with notes of leather, smoke and earth.

At 12 years old, Anderson knew very little about wine and hadn’t heard of the legendary Château Margaux. But she was up for a trip to D.C., replied “sure” to her father on the phone and then rode her bike home.

Once her mother had packed a small suitcase for her, Anderson and her father drove to Marquette, Michigan, where he kept a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche airplane.

After an eight-hour flight, they landed in D.C. in the late afternoon, checked into the Shoreham Hotel, where they had dinner while Peggy Lee performed that night.

The next morning, before they went to pick up the French wine, they went on a whirlwind tour of the capital — they drove past all of the monuments, visited the National Air and Space Museum and Arlington Cemetery, and saw George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon.

The father and daughter arrived at the wine distributor around 3 p.m., loaded up the wine and flew home. By the time they arrived back in Michigan, they had only been gone for 30 hours.

Fifteen years later, Anderson’s parents bought 40 acres of land in Napa Valley where they founded Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards. And, sometime in the 1990s, Kristine Anderson got to finish off the last bottle of the 1963 Château Margaux together with her parents.

By that time, the wine had become much softer but it had held up well and was a pleasure to drink, Anderson said. The Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Cabernet that they were drinking alongside the Château Margaux tasted very fine, too, she added.

When Fred Levin of Santa Rosa visited Hungary with his family several years ago, a server suggested a somewhat unusually named wine to pair with their meal. It was a bottle of Egri Bikavér, also known as Bulls Blood (“bika” means bull, and “vér” means blood in Hungarian).

Egri Bikavér is a red blend that is made in Szekszárd, in the south of Hungary, as well as in Eger, in the northeast part of the country.

The town of Eger was the site of a 16th century battle between the Hungarians and the Ottomans — or “the siege of Eger.” Despite being vastly outnumbered by the Ottoman forces, the Hungarians defeated the attackers, forcing them to retreat from the Castle of Eger. The Hungarians’ unexpected victory, according to the Ottomans (and legend), was due to their habit of drinking bulls blood.

Whether the legend is true or not, Levin enjoyed the Egri Bikavér, its aroma, rich full body and pleasing aftertaste. In fact, he liked it so much, he ordered another bottle. But no battles were fought at the end of the meal.

In 2006, when Susan and Dean Nowacki of Santa Rosa were traveling to China for the first time, they had been advised to stick to beer because Chinese wine, according to friends who had visited previously, tasted terrible.

The Nowackis heeded the advice. But, halfway through the trip, just as they had arrived in Xi’an to see the famous army of terra-cotta warriors, Susan had an unexpected wine moment.

While waiting for their luggage to arrive at the hotel, the couple joined a group of other travelers at the bar. Curious, Susan picked up the wine list and — to her amazement — it featured a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. She had two glasses.

Maybe it was the Kendall-Jackson magic, maybe it was the excitement of traveling and exploring new and historic places, but, to this day, Susan Nowacki considers those glasses of Chardonnay sipped some 6,000 miles from home the best she ever tasted.

The next time you uncork a bottle with friends, ask them about their favorite wine memory. Then sit back and expect to be entertained. You’ll find the stories compelling and, best of all, you’ll walk away with a curious palate.

You can reach wine writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @pegmelnik.

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About the Author: Chris Lehoux

Meet Chris Lehoux, an experienced wine connoisseur and dedicated blogger with a deep passion for all things wine-related. With years of expertise in the industry, Chris shares insightful wine reviews, valuable wine tasting tips, expert pairing advice, and captivating tales of vineyard visits. Join Chris on a journey through the world of wine, where every sip is an adventure waiting to be savored!