​How to impress a loved one who is celebrating a personal milestone of 40th in 2020?

The perfect gift for someone's 40th is the spectacularly brilliant and yet respectfully and unassumingly, carrying its charm and all that praise casually, Sassicaia 1980.

Sassicaia obviously is not new to the fame but back in 1980 it wasn't in every collector's wine cellar, where it should have been.

(If it was in yours, you are a star ⭐ 🍷🙏)

Although it had started gaining the just recognition a few years ago in 1978 when, as we mentioned in a prior post it triumphed over a field of "great clarets" of 33 wines from 11 countries to earn that international reputation.

So, by the time the 1980 came, Sassicaia was already well known to a great extent.
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We started first looking for 1980 bottles at the end of last year for a customer and chanced upon this one.
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What excited me most personally was how this bottle, which came from a seemingly ordinary vintage has developed and flourished over its long tenure.

Aside of the critical reviews from famous critics📝 (and even more important in some way), is how it has caught the attention of the wine lovers the world over. Some are those who were lucky to buy in the days when wine wasn't an investment but more a love affair. Others are those who were willing to dig deeper (in pockets 😃).

But the virtual world is awash with ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews and reviewers who can't seem to get enough of this wine.

A customer opened it recently to mark such a moment and another one is holding onto it for their special moment later this year.

Four more left each @ $650 for you to have a similar opportunity to make that great day even more memorable.

Sassicaia stories.📝

Everyone has probably heard of the legendary status of the 1985 Sassicaia?

The one that was first rated 100 points by Robert Parker. Why? Because it seems he mistook it for a 1986 Mouton-Rothschild. Thanks to that tasting, the wine now trades at a premium of about 5-6x of any other great vintage of Sassicaia. Damn you Robert Parker!

But did you know 🤔, before the legendary 1985 stole the show, it was actually the 1975s which enjoyed that same legendary status and were considered among the best ever?

It seems, in 1978 Decanter held a tasting called "Great Clarets" of the world's elite wines.

This consisted of 33 wines, including Bordeaux First Growths. It was here, that the 1975 Sassicaia vintage took the first place 🏆 among all these legends.

As Jancis Robinson, who joined the heir Niocolo Incisa for a tasting of back vintages a decade ago put it, "heady, quite amazing colour. And just lovely silky, racy complex palate with all the tannins melded. Lovely fresh stuff. So racy, Just perfect now! This has lasted magnificently - much better than most red bordeaux. 19/20 points."

So not only the people born in the year 75 are absolutely the most amazing 😜, even the wines 🍷🍷 from our birth year are equally awesome!

Have a lovely weekend all.​

How do you make history 📜 take note of you? Remember you like one of her own?

You rewrite it, ✍ beautifully ofcourse, and with deep passion and love 💕

Stanko Radikon was a revolutionary winemaker, and a pioneering figure for natural wine movement and now, stuff of legend.

Some whites referred to as orange wines (because of the color), are made without addition of any sulphur and with a long skin contact.

Sounds simple? Except sulphur is a critical stablising agent and when you take that out completely, you make that already very difficult winemaking process incredibly, incredibly hard.

Stanko turned to tradition of what his ancestors taught when he started to work on this small 12 hectare estate on the Slovenian border of Italy and over the 36 vintages he presided over, refined every aspect of it to the point of perfection.

My favorite of course is the work he did on unique bottling of 1L so his wines could age well (borrowing from how magnums are considered the best format for ageing).

It seems that project led him onto a journey where he had to convince glass makers to design the special bottle with special necks to allow the special corks to fit in perfectly.😅

That's like making an already tough job of severe selection and natural fermentation, minimal intervention without any latest technological help, ten times harder.

Thanks to Stanko, what he envisioned, is now for the 🌏 to taste, admire, love and collect.

The bottles have great ageing potential and are an absolute treat. In the glass, Ribolla Gialla made from Ribolla grapes is often described with citrus notes of lemon, lime and orange, very floral and deeply meditative.

Ribolla Gailla undergoes extended maceration in oak vats for 2 to 4 months before being left to age for 4 yrs in 35hl casks followed by 2 yrs of bottle ageing.

Stanko's work with oak in the winery is beyond exceptional 🏆🏅

Sasa, Stanko's son, who trained under him for years, and led the winery together with him took over the mantle after Stanko's untimely death in 2016. He is continuing the great tradition 💕

It's 2012 vintage now. Normally $130, CB special, $110.

We also have a few '07 😇

Looking for a monthly wine subscription plan? One that doesn't offer:

1. Free wine fridge (so you can use your own 🍷)
2. Free 🚠 travel (obviously not safe!)
3. Free food🍛🍜 (I mean sure food goes with wine but it's a wine subscription)

But offers:
1. Wines by wine lovers looking for loved wines
2. Wines by wine lovers looking for value for these loved wines
3. Wines delivered by wine lovers who love delivering these loved wines
4. Wine lovers saving your hard earned 🎖 for well, more wine 🥂🍾🍷

On the face of it, a monthly wine subscription plan isn't really for everyone.
Those who prefer to go deep prefer turning the wine list upside down a few times;
or those who are buying in truck loads, a wine subscription plan will barely make a dent into their buying, might seem unnecessary;
or those who buy occasionally, well, they can just pop into a wine store at the last minute and pick up what the store offers;
or those who know way too much for their own comfort; every wine deal offered is a cause for deep inspection and some retrospection.

And yet, these are precisely the reasons why a wine subscription plan is a great addition to your monthly wine buying.

When was the last time you got some wine that totally surprised and excited for the unknown, of wonder 🙃 what really is in there?

To discerning buyers, it's an automatic value buy, our wine subscription plans come with price guarantee;
for those, who are still finding their wine joy, a chance to try more than what a store's best offer is;
for those knowledgeable folks, well there's fun in letting go once a month, isn't it? Let's take the weight of expectations off your shoulders for a day?

From $100 'Monk's red-value date' that is beautiful and totally fuss free,
to $150 'Sparklers from Heaven' for the bubbly lovers,
to the exclusive one of a kind plans:
-$250 'Monk's red- true love' for those who study deep
-$500 'Monk's red-everyone's envy' that will transport you to heady realms of wine exclusivity.

We have the plans to chill, thrill, sit back, mesmerise and fall in love, all at the same time.

And you can buy a wine fridge (or two) with the saves 🎖🙃
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For details on how to go about it, click below:
Monthly Subscriptions

A friend in need is a friend indeed. And a real friend indeed is a friend in-deed, one who never ever, ever opens an aged Super Tuscan or a classified growth or a Grand Cru from the slopes ⛰of Côte de Nuits without you 🍷🍷
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But amid the lockdown, the most well intentioned of these true 'friends in-deed' are opening those famed bottles themselves, mind you, against their own will. Some are even regrettably posting on IG (@vinchel_b @barry21p) of how they would have loved to share the bottles which are being decanted for hrs 😂 but couldn't.

If you find yourself in need of wine company and are looking for an old trusted companion, then Secrets of the Sommeliers is a true friend indeed.

It won't just open up the bottles 🍾, it will open up the entire enigmatic 🌎 of wine, of Sommeliers, and tastings, and their mad work days and yearnings, of vineyards and stupendous skills of blind tasters to passionate and in some cases obstinate winemakers.

Rajat Parr Master Sommelier, the author and a towering wine figure and @therealjordanmackay take u on the wine journey by sharing their own, one so beautiful and inspiring that if you were sitting on the fence, you would fall headlong. If you were already into wine, then it will kindle the passion and patience to explore how deep that rabbit hole goes.

Over the years, I get regularly asked on what really inspired and started my own wine journey. And as I have reflected on this, two momentous occasions stand out. One our very first tasting of a Tignanello (mind you it was infanticide at how young it was but still delicious) and two our very first wine book, Secrets of the Sommeliers.

A lot of wine books are v informative but so massively dry, they will either kill that little flame 🔥 if you are a lover or make it so incredibly complicated, you would give up any attempt at learning.

Secrets of the Sommelier stands out because it gives just enough to excite curiousty that makes you want to go and explore more. You would also start to accept that like any area of expertise, Sommeliers, especially the coveted Master Sommelier holders are experts, with wine memories so entrenched and so deep, its like wine speaks to them directly.