A Report From Wine Explorer Diego Samper
Paris, France
Dear Matt,
My father is not a big wine drinker.
He collects jazz.
More than my mother would probably like.
His library is full of records, music books, medicine books, literature, and small objects that seem random until you understand the man who kept them.
As a kid, I thought collecting meant owning things.
I think he knew better.
You keep things because the difference is there.
The Same Song, A Different Night
A live recording is not the same as a studio recording. The song may have the same name, but the room has changed. The band has changed. The night has changed.
Think of Miles Davis playing “So What” in 1963.
By then, it was not the same “So What” from Kind of Blue. Herbie Hancock was on piano. Ron Carter was on bass. Tony Williams was a teenager behind the drums, pushing the whole thing forward with dangerous young energy.
The old song had teeth now.
Years later, I started hearing wine that way too.
The grape may be the song.
The producer decides what to do with it.
The vintage is the night.
That came back to me this week when one of our members, Tom, wrote about a dinner he hosted for his neighbors.
He made beef bourguignon.
Not a quick dinner. Not something tossed together in a pan while checking your phone. Beef slowly braised in wine, with pancetta, onions, and mushrooms. A dish that makes the house smell like someone has been paying attention all day.
There were six people at the table.
Tom opened a bottle of Tacana Reserva 2018. He opened it early and let it breathe.
His guests had not tasted a Malbec like that before. The food worked. The wine worked. People noticed.
Then Tom did something I think more people should do.
He went back to the wine fridge.
He found a bottle of Tacana Reserva 2021.
Instead of moving on to something completely different, he opened another vintage of the same wine.
Same producer. Same place. Different year.
Same Wine, Different Vintage
The two bottles knew each other, but they were not the same. The 2018 had more time behind it. The 2021 still had more of its first energy.
Tom told me the table split almost evenly.
Half liked one. Half liked the other.
Good.
That means the wine was alive in the room.
This is why we save bottles.
Not to build little museums in our closets.
Not to stare at labels like trophies.
We save bottles because one day there might be beef in the pot, neighbors at the table, and someone willing to say, “Should we open another?”
That is when wine stops being inventory.
It becomes part of the evening.
A wine fridge is not built in one day.
Neither is a library or a home.
You can buy all the furniture at once and still end up with a room that looks staged. Too clean. Too perfect. No memory in it yet.
A wine fridge works like that.
One bottle you almost opened but didn’t.
One bottle you bought because the story stayed with you.
Another vintage you kept without quite knowing why.
Give yourself the benefit of the bad memory.
Then the right night comes along.
Talk to winemakers about vintage and you hear how much a year can matter.
They remember the rain, the heat, the week they waited, and the week they wish they had waited longer.
A vineyard does not repeat itself exactly. The winemaker can guide the wine, but the season leaves fingerprints.
That is what Tom’s table was tasting.
Not better or worse.
Different.
And different is where the fun begins.
That is also the point of what we do at Bonner Private Wines.
Good wines, good food, and good company.
Not as a slogan.
As a table.
As a cork pulled at the right time.
As someone saying, “Wait, taste this one next to the other.”
So here is my Father’s Day suggestion.
Open something you have been saving.
Cook something that deserves it.
And if you have two vintages of the same wine, open both.
Don’t make it formal.
Don’t make it precious.
Just pour them with dinner and let people talk.
Maybe someone prefers the older bottle.
Maybe someone goes back to the younger one.
Maybe the food changes the answer.
That is the good part.
Maybe that is what my father was teaching me with all those records.
The version matters.
The same song is not the same song every night.
And the same wine, in a different year, can give you a completely different evening.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, and father figures at our tables.
And if your wine fridge feels a little too empty for nights like that, this is a good time to add a few bottles.
Something to open when dinner runs long.
Something to bring when someone else is cooking.
Something to keep for the night you do not see coming.
Bottle by bottle.
To your health,
Diego Samper
Bonner Private Wines
P.S. A corkage fee at a restaurant can be money well spent. It lets you bring the bottle you actually want to drink, especially if it is one you have been saving for the right meal. Just call ahead first.
P.P.S. While the 2018 Tacana Reserva is long gone, we’ve got 200 bottles of the 2021 Tacana Reserva available here. My guess is they won’t last long.
