So for the neighborhood group I set up an evening at the new wine bar that just opened nearby. The wines are well-chosen and incredibly well priced, only about 1X to 1.5X retail. I popped in on Thursday to pre-order the wines and food, and thought I saw 2013 Opus One on the last page of the wine menu for $125. As I was leaving, menu closed, I decided to be an extravagant show-off and asked them to open one of those on my personal tab and decant it a few hours in advance. I thought it would be a kind of throwdown to the group, who were "encouraged and expected" to order their own wines once the pre-boughts got drained.
Oh, and though I felt fine at the time I placed that order, by the time I got home I realized I was running a fever. By last night I was honestly too sick to go but I was the ringleader; dead or not, I couldn't NOT be there.
Well, I don't know what in the heck I saw or thought I saw at $125, but you'd all be proud of me for not passing out in shock when I got my bill: $295. The shock was two-fold, such a large number followed by appalled embarrassment at myself for not questioning $125 for Opus One. Last time I tasted it at the winery about 20 years ago, it was $90 or $100. Three times that now? I should have expected it! Just checked K&L on line: about $325.
I guess my reputation as a high roller is pretty solid now. They even pulled out the $500 decanter that spirals upward like Chihuly glass. But the real shame?
I could barely taste it.