In my early days of tasting wine I couldn't afford the really good stuff. So my wife and I recruited two other couples and formed a little hedonism club.
We held dinners. The host couple would do the entree and a side, and the other couples would make the appetizer, salad, dessert and such.
And we six shared the cost of a really good bottle of wine. True, each of us got only one glass of it that way, so we had to fill in with cheaper wines. But to us, that one glass was a thrill as well as a learning experience. I recommend it highly to young couples just getting into wine. Or couples with kids in college and a mortgage.
The dinners created great memories. Like the time I roasted a duck, which turned out so tough I couldn't cut it even with an electric carving knife. But the dinner was a success because we served it with a fabulous and pricey French Burgundy.
Or when we roasted a whole pig, and one of the wives taught us how to slice and eat its tongue. And with it, the unexpected pairing with a fabulous white gewurztraminer from France's Alsace region.
This idea worked in restaurants too, creating more memories. One time my best wine-drinking pal and I had lunch at a Playboy Club in Miami. And, in the midst of such sophistication, we split the cost of a half-bottle of a famous French Bordeaux.
The waitress, complete with bunny ears and cotton tail, brought the bottle to us already open _ apparently having been hired for qualities other than removing corks. This was a serious breach of wine etiquette, of course, leaving us to wonder if the cook was in the kitchen drinking our wine, having substituted something far cheaper in our bottle.
(I know, I know, it served us right for going to a Playboy Club. But it was back in the 1970s, and my pal and I have since evolved.)
Anyway, if you want to try this idea yourself, here are some nice wines to consider.
