We have started a tradition of buying very big (3 liter) bottles of Joseph Phelps vines for each of our grandchildren. We buy it in the vintage of their birth year and the plan is to have a party to celebrate their 16thbirthday.
Actually, my buddy Tom Julian started the tradition. Our daughter Jennifer was born in California in 1984. Tom came out to visit and we went to the Napa valley as part of his visit. The Phelps vineyard has always been one of our favorites. It is in a little sub-valley in the Napa valley and it produces some excellent wines. Tom bought Jennifer a 3 liter bottle and we enjoyed it at a wonderful party in 2000.
Originally, we had planned on having it to celebrate her 18thbirthday, but we got a little nervous about how well the wine would age. We kept it in the basement of Tom’s old house in Rye NY on Onondaga street. His basement was the perfect place to store wine. Fortunately, the wine held up very well. When we first opened it we were nervous. Older wines will change color slightly. This wine had a reddish tint versus the deep purple of newer wines. The taste of the wine was good at the start and as the evening progressed, it got better and better. Funny how that works…
(Tom Julian, Jennifer, Paul and Susan Kenny getting ready to open a 16 year old bottle of Phelps Cabernet in 2000)
Right now I have 3 liter bottles of Joseph Phelps Cabernet marking the 2013 and 2014 vintages. These bottles mark the birth years of our grandson Max and granddaughter Emma. Recently we ordered futures for a bottle of the 2017 vintage to commemorate the birth year of our grandson Dylan. Next year I will order a bottle from the 2018 vintage for our grandson Declan. With another grandchild due in July of 2019, this tradition will lead to some fantastic wine and great excuses for a succession of parties.
The good news as that I have parlayed the collection of large bottles into an excuse to buy a wine cellar. In Memphis we don’t have the luxury of cellars. My wine cellar is actually a large refrigerator. How large? All I can say is that when the truck delivered it on a pallet, it was too large to fit in our garage. With the help of my son Brian we were able to wrestle it into the house and our collection of large bottles of Phelps wines is aging comfortably. The tradition was a great excuse to buy the wine cellar. Lord knows that my wife Susan wouldn’t have let me buy it otherwise.
Again, there is nothing like a good excuse!
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Note: The featured image pictures our then 3 year old granddaughter Emma with her 3 liter bottle of Phelps Cabernet