Change in Wine

Remember Christmas 2019? It seems so long ago doesn’t it? A great many things have changed since.

At that time no one knew how much things would change by the end of that winter in March 2020.

Change is often subtle and sometimes goes undetected until you look back and start to connect some dots. Everyday, in everyone, there is change in some way or another. We are never the same from one day to the next.

Each new day and experience brings a change in us. We are different the next time we re-read a favourite book, listen to a piece of music or during this time of year, when we  re-watch our favourite holiday movie. The changes sometimes can be hard to detect, but make no mistake, they are there.

The same thing is true of wine. Wine in a bottle changes and evolves over time. The changes are virtually impossible to detect day-to-day, but with enough time, they are revealed and wine that started as one thing becomes something different.

Usually around this time of year people start asking me what wine they should drink over the holidays or bring to gatherings and I always suggest something that may not be available at the store. Or maybe not even in the county. I tell people to open that wine they have been keeping for a special occasion. Isn’t this time of year occasion enough?

What better way to mark this time of year than by tucking into something you’ve been holding onto for some occasion that may or may not arrive: being with friends and loved ones whom you might not have seen for a while and are just happy to be in their company, sharing something meaningful to you? Or maybe you want to enjoy that wine you’ve been holding on to quietly by the fire while reflecting on the special people who have changed you in ways that are only now starting to crystallize.

I am guilty of having wines in my cellar that I have been holding on to for some distant utopia. I’m sure there are many more in there that have soared past their drinking window. To the winemakers who made them, I am sorry to have let you down.

So when friends and family gather or stop in for an unexpected visit this year, I am going to make a point of opening something meaningful and telling them the story about the wine and why I am glad they have changed me.

Happy holidays.

I’d love to hear what you’re keeping in your cellar and what you plan to share as we round out 2023.