The Gift of Receiving.

From time to time you might receive a special bottle of wine as a gift. Wine can be special to people for a number of different reasons from vintages that celebrate your year of birth or anniversary, brands that have special significance, bottles that are iconic and symbolic in their own right. My wife and I have a few different bottles that we are keeping for special occasions, collected from various places for various purposes.


For our first anniversary, my wife gave me a gift that redefines the term 'special'.


I thought I would tell the story of our first anniversary over a few posts, mostly relating to the generosity of my wife. Those that know my wife will know that she loves surprising people. She puts a great deal of thought into the gifts she gives, and values the experience of giving gifts a great deal more than she does receiving them. For our first anniversary, she chose to use the setting of the vineyards to theme my present around wine.

On the morning of our anniversary, we drove to Peterson House for breakfast at Cuvee Restaurant. If you've never been, it is a must. The view over the vines at the small Champagne House creates a perfect, relaxed atmosphere, and the food is fantastic. During breakfast we exchanged our gifts. I won't embarrass myself by describing what I gave her, but suffice it to say that I was trumped. I was given a box, about the size of a shoebox. It was heavy, but almost impossible to tell what was inside. I had a small inkling that it was a bottle of wine, but I had no idea which bottle it would be. After I'd unwrapped the box, it took me a good few seconds to register what I was looking at. A bottle of 1986 Penfolds Grange Hermitage. 

You don't have to be even remotely interested in wine to have heard of Grange Hermitage in Australia. Grange is undisputedly Australia's most iconic, collectible and revered wine.


Once the initial shock had passed, I started to process the significance of the gift. It was 1986, the year we were both born. 1986, Langton's reliably informs us, is also one of the great vintages for Grange.


The burning question after receiving a bottle like this is of course, what do you do with it? What occasion will be special enough to drink it? Do you drink it at all? Do you store it at home? Do you send it to a professional storage cellar? How do you know when it will be ready to drink?


There are no definitive answers to any of the questions. The actions you take are directly related to the significance of the bottle. I saw an article on SMH today that said a great deal of the bottles of Grange purchased at auction will never be consumed. I tend to agree with Huon Hooke: you purchase wine to drink it!


So, my bottle of Grange is quietly sitting in a climate controlled commercial cellar in Canberra, just waiting for the occasion that will be sufficiently special. The list of potential occasions includes the birth of my first child, a landmark wedding anniversary, or a landmark birthday. I am apprehensive about ensuring the bottle makes it some way towards maturity, but also understand that wines and corks are variable.

It might be a prudent time to add that a number of wine merchants offer cellaring services, including in Canberra, Candamber Cellars. I have all of my cellaring wine with them in their climate controlled facility in Belconnen, and it is a great idea if you want to ensure your wines are stored correctly, and to prevent you from being tempted to dip in too early. 

Tomorrow I will post part two of my anniversary story in the Hunter Valley Vineyards.