Of Magnums & Milestones

The advent of our younger daughter's 21st birthday last week found me sorting through our chaotic, wholly uncatalogued collection of mature and semi-mature wines in search of the bottles from the 1988 vintage that Kristin and I squirreled away some years ago. Birth year wines, of course, to share with our now mature offspring. Apart from the fact that each time one of our perfect progeny reaches one of these milestones on life's road (the elder will be 28 this year; just glimpsing the billboard of 30 looming ahead) it makes it just a tad more difficult to pass ourselves off as 40-somethings, these touchstones on the timeline make great excuses to open up a few special bottles.

For the younger parents out there it can be helpful to bear in mind that there is a pretty large window of opportunity to make selections for commemorating that (seemingly) distant age of your child’s majority. If you have a child's birth year of 2005, for example, most of the age worthy wines of that vintage didn't begin to reach the market until 2008 (some a tad earlier; some not yet released...); plenty of time to research your selections!
From our first child's birth in 1981 (I know: not great vintages-what were we thinking?) and mindful of our limited budget, we selected a few California Cabernet Sauvignons (unfortunately Charles Creek did not yet exist then) as well as a particularly notable magnum of Château Léoville-Las Cases, a Cabernet-centric selection from the Bordeaux commune of Saint-Julien. These bottles were shared on and around Lydia's 21st birthday, giving her (and us) a taste of the subtleties and elegance of a mature wine as well as a little taste of history!
Future Anniversaries are also a perfect opportunity to tuck aside special wines from the year of marriage (or graduation, or...). Tied the knot in 2002? That magnum of CCV Cabernet Sauvignon "La Sonrisa Del Tecolote" 2002 would be a stunner on the all-important 10th anniversary (and you only have three more years to go!) The 1.5 liter (magnum) bottles do tend to age and evolve a tad more gracefully than the standard 750 ml format.
If you had a child (or two) in 2004 or 2005 (you chose far better vintages for your commemorative birth years than some of us did) you might tuck aside a magnum of Charles Creek "La Vista (Stagecoach Vineyard) Cabernet for that 21 year haul. The 2004 was selected as one of the top 100 wines in the Wine Enthusiast magazine (the two vintages garnered 95 and 94 point ratings, respectively); either would be a truly memorable marker for the occasion.
So which 1988 wine was selected to commemorate Sofie's 21st? Well, none yet. Her first legal drink was a beer.....

Check out the Limited Release Magnum selection in the online store! Why put it off?