- Bottoms Up (RSS)Wine trades – what’s fair?
By Jessica Yadegaran
Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 12:21 pm in Uncategorized.
When my sister and I were little, we traded stickers. I’d swap a grape scratch ‘n’ sniff for her puffy Peppermint Patty. Twenty years later, I’m trading wine. With stickers, it was easy to determine who was getting the bum deal. I’d scratch those stickers raw before I gave them to my sis. Is it as easy with wine?
That’s hard to say. Wine is so subjective. One person’s oaky Chardonnay is another’s opulent masterpiece. I have a Napa friend who, in a trade, would most likely pick the Stonehenge Cabernet Sauvignon she can count on for consistency rather than take a chance on a French Bordeaux – even if it was twice the price.
If you drank a bottle of your roommate’s wine by mistake and couldn’t locate a bottle to replace it, what would you do? Give her a bottle of the same varietal from your rack? Search for a bottling from the same vintage but different region or appellation? Use it as an opportunity to introduce her to your favorite little Alicante, a wine that has nothing to do with her bottle that you consumed?
What would you do in a game of wine trade?
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November 13th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Hmm put a Lisa Frank sticker on it and maybe all is good??? LOL great question, I am picky so that is hard but I do always love too try new wines and taste new things.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Being part of the wine industry, and having a roommate that also works inside the industry at a winery, this is easy. We;’re exposed to a lot of great wines and have the opportunity to try many new discoveries. But, one way to approach this is to pay attention the next time you go to a wine tasting bar with your roommate. If they really like the wine they ordered, then bingo…pick up that bottle of wine as a replacement!
November 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Cool. What’s an “even” trade that you guys did?
November 14th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
The key is to find a friend with similar tastes & different wine clubs – even my favs start to stack up when I’m in the wine club so it makes for a fun trade to share the wealth. Like a bottle of my rockin’ Alpha Omega Prop Red for a friends tasty Trefethen Cab. Yum!