Out of Touch
Perhaps I'm just jealous, but today's article in the NY Times seems to have been written for people with a whole lot more $$$$ than I'll ever see.
Big and Beautiful: Lafite for 12
By ERIC ASIMOV
TACOMA, Wash.
NOT just any bottle of wine can compel eight people to hop on planes and fly thousands of miles to drink it. But this was not just any bottle.
When my friend Jason's father died last summer, he left behind what seemed to be the predictable assortment of possessions: his Seattle apartment, a beat-up old car, books and papers. But Jason's father also kept wine in an air-conditioned closet in his un-air-conditioned home. When Jason, a wine lover himself, pored over the bottles, he found one huge surprise: an impériale of 1986 Château Lafite-Rothschild.
Really, you don't just find an impériale. It grips you the way the view of Mount Rainier strikes people here on a clear day.
An impériale is as big as it gets in Bordeaux, big enough to hold six liters of wine, the equivalent of eight ordinary bottles. And Lafite is no ordinary wine. It's one of the great wines of Bordeaux and of the world, and 1986 was an exceptional vintage. Stumbling over an impériale is a free trip to wine heaven, with a first-class upgrade. It just does not happen, except that it did.
Like taxes on a lottery prize, any treasure carries hardships. An impériale cannot be doled out a bit at a time, like eight bottles. To uncork an impériale is to open eight bottles at once. It requires appreciative mouths and plenty of planning. It also requires courage.
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