Mr. Bacchanalian

Have you ever heard the expression, “Champaign tastes on a beer budget?”  Well let’s just say that we have considered ourselves “Chateau Haut Brion tastes on a Two-Buck -Chuck budget.”  Not that we have ever tasted a wine from the renowned Chateau Haut Brion and not that we have ever drank Two-Buck-Chuck, but you get the idea. 

I liken it to the scene in the Matrix movie where Morpheus offers Neo the choice between a blue pill or a red pill.  Take the blue pill and keep yourself in a state of blissful ignorance; take the red pill and all is revealed and there is no going back.  Well…that is where Mrs. Bacchanalian and I find ourselves now.  To much exposure to good wine = no going back!

My own wine journey began way back in 1983.  I was about 16, living in Texas, and a buddy introduced me to Strawberry Hill and Country Quencher.  For someone who considers himself to have refined wine tastes, this was not the most auspicious of beginnings.  Flash forward to 1991, I am in my early twenties, living in California and a good friend and I head up to Napa Valley.  This was my first deep foray into the world of quality wines.  I had drunk some decent wines up to this point, but with no education regarding wine. Over the course of 3-4 days we visited approximately 30 wineries.  Now you have to remember, this was the early 90’s and before the big shift regarding California wines fully took place.  During this time in Napa there were no lines, there were no tasting fees and the person pouring your taste was most likely the wine maker as well as your server.  I say there were no fees, however we did pay for some tastings($1 or 2) at Mondavi of their 1985 wines.  Which, we were told, was one of the best years for wine in Napa’s history.  This wine trip was a whirlwind of education.  We tasted wines from Napa, Sonoma, Calistoga, and even down to Carneros.  All the time being educated, often one-on-one, by wine makers or the winery owners themselves.

Fast forward several years, I have a friend who (at this point) is married to a woman from a wine making family in Glen Ellen (next to Sonoma Valley).  Through her connections, we are able to go wine tasting at some prestigious wineries in the Sonoma and Napa area.  We get to meet the wine makers and are given tastes of some pretty dusty old bottles from behind the counters.  These were amazing experiences and rare opportunities that I was privileged to have.  They were incredibly influential to my wine experience.  To say that I took the “red pill” would be an understatement.  After experiences like these there truly was no going back. 

Wine experts will talk about epiphany wine experiences as ones where a particular bottle makes a huge impact on your wine tastes and or your wine opinions.  I have had many that I would put into this category.  There were dozens of them during my first trip to Napa in 1991.  I remember sitting at the wine tasting bar at Silverado Winery with the winemaker Jack Stuart.  It was just me, my friend and the winemaker.  He poured tastes and the three of us discussed the wines, grape growing and more for about 30-45 minutes.  All by ourselves!  Good luck ever having that experience in Napa in this day and age.  Right place, right time. 

Flash forward once again, now it is 2020 and I am older, married with kids, a mortgage, a business to run and other responsibilities.  Things are different now.  Money is tighter and wines are more expensive.  Not a good combination.  I can recall being able to consistently get good to great wine finds for less than 15 dollars.  Now it gets harder and harder to find the same quality under 20.  We originally started this blog with the intention of keeping all the wines under $15.99.  Very quickly we discovered how hard it was getting to find wines we really enjoyed under that price point.  Now we are challenged to keep our price point below $25.00.  But that is what we need to do for our own budget and that is what our challenge is to be able to inform others in similar boats where they can find good deals for their wine budgets also.  So, there it is.  Years of developing a refined wine palate and not enough moo-la to appreciate that palate.  We certainly hope we can help you find some wine treasures in your price point without wasting a lot of hard earned cash.