A Blast From the Past

When we relocated from CA to IN in 1990, we managed to get Purdue to pay relocation expenses for our wines, a great boondoggle if ever there was, which we had shipped by air freight for temperature control. Today I was cleaning out a desk in our home when I came across a small card file containing the index cards on which I'd catalogued our wines before the days of Cellartracker. What follows is a list of the wines we transported from CA to IN, many of which Dale and Bill might recall me posting about on alt.food.wine back in the day:

Bordeaux
1982 Ch. Gruaud Larose
1984 Ch. La Lagune
1983 Ch. Margaux
1982 Ch. Meyney
1985 Ch. Pichon Lalande
1983 Ch. Talbot
1985 Ch. du Tertre

Cabernet Sauuvignon
1979 Conn Creek
1979 Caymus Estate
1980 Caymus Estate
1981 Chateau Montelena
1984 Conn Creek Private Reserve
1985 Girard
1984 Gundlach-Bundschu Rhinefarm Vyd
1984 Kenwood Jack London
1982 Monterey Peninsula Doctor's Reserve
1985 Sequoia Grove
1984 Whitehall Lane
1985 Tinto Pesquera Ribeira del Duero

Chardonnay
1986 Concannon Selected Vineyards
1984 La Crema Reserve
1986 La Crema Reserve
1986 Simi
1985 Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch
1985 Vichon Napa

Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1985 Beaucastel
1985 Clos du Mont Olivet
1985 Bosquet des Papes
1985 Ch. Rayas

Northern Rhone
1985 Marcel Juge Cornas
1986 Noel Verset Cornas
1985 Guigal Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde

Merlot
1985 Chateau Chevre (??)
1985 Monterey Peninsula Doctor's Reserve

Pinot Noir
1986 Acacia St. Clair Vyd
1985 Caymus Special Selection
1985 Etude

Sauvignon Blanc
1987 Hogue Cellars
1986 Flora Springs Napa
1987 Morgan Alexander Valley

1983 Ch. de la Chartreuse Sauternes

Zinfandel
1985 Burgess
1980 Cakebread Napa
1980 Caymus Napa
1985 Clos du Val
1984 Kenwood
1983 Lytton Springs Private Reserve
1986 Rafanelli Dry Creek
1985 Ravenswood Sonoma
1980 Ridge Geyserville
1984 Ridge Geyserville
1986 Ridge Geyserville
1985 Ridge Howell Mtn
1986 Ridge Lytton Springs
1985 Ridge York Creek

It is interesting to see how our tastes have changed (no Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot from CA, little Cab or PN from CA) but also how they haven't (Cornas, Bordeaux, CNdP, Ridge Zins). The Bordeaux had traveled with us from NYC to CA to IN and the pre-'84 CA wines had traveled with me from CA to NYC to CA to IN. Remarkably, most of them survived their many travels intact, more or less Sadly, we drank many of the European wines too young due to lack of good cellaring conditions. That '86 Verset Cornas in particular I wish I could have hung onto longer: Lou Kessler brought a bottle of that wine to a get-together in Berkeley in '04 (at which Rahsaan and Steve E were present) which to this day remains the finest bottle of N Rhone Syrah I've ever tasted. When Verset was on, he was way on.

[David M. Bueker]

The wine collection was the primary reason we did not relocate to North Carolina for work. They wouldn't deal with it.

My wife now refers to it as "the anchor."

When was Verset off?
Fun read.

Was La Crema ever actually good? I feel like it's complete supermarket wine
at this point. But in that era I also had some supermarket chardonnay, too,
I'm not throwing shade. Amused to see Concannon, from my longtime residence
of Livermore, on there. They used to be more relevant than they are today.
Until pretty recently they were the oldest family-owned winery in
California, but sold out to a giant conglomorate.
I was just reminiscing the other day when I had a neck tag on a bottle of
Cornas.

[Jenise]

I was startled by the La Crema, too, Walt. And the Reserve no less! Like you, my tastes have become more sophisticated, but I don't ever recall thinking it was great stuff even prior to the Jackson Family buying it.