> OK, the most expensive was fun. How about the least expensive wine you've
> really enjoyed?

Two dollars, believe it or not. It was probably the best white wine
I've ever had. And I could not duplicate it.

Back when I was in college (oh, late 1970s) I went on a glee club tour
in Sonoma and Napa, and we stopped at a few wineries, one of which was
the Hop Kiln winery. They had a number of wines available for tasting,
one of which was their non-vintage white, "A thousand flowers". It was
sublime. Now, granted, my wine palate was not as developed as it is
now, but I thought it was marvelous, and I bought a bottle. I brought
it to New York and had it with my family, wondering if it would travel
well, and if it really was as good as I thought it was in the tasting
room. Well, it did and it was. Gotta get me more of that!

At the time, Hop Kiln only distributed in two stores, one in San
Francisco, and one in New York City. Neither was accessible to me, but
I had a friend who lived in the SF area and I pressed him to get me a
few more bottles. It was a year or two later, but he managed to get me
three; I think he went to the winery for them, but may have gone to
their one outlet. I don't remember. These were special wines - one I
gave to a restaurant as a thank you; I had arranged for newly married
friends to dine there at my expense, with a lot of secret-agent stuff
like a matching torn graham-cracker box top halves as ID. They hosted
the dinner, and then held onto the bill until I could manage to find my
way to the restaurant personally (a long time!) to actually pay it. I
told them this was the finest wine I had come across and I hoped that
they would enjoy it. The other bottle I gave to my mom, and I don't
remember the occasion of my opening the third bottle.

But it stank.

Ok, not "stank", but it was extremely disappointing. I can't even
imagine what the poor waiters thought when they opened my thank-you present!

So I asked my mom about her bottle - she said that it was nowhere near
as good as the first bottle, and yes, the first bottle was excellent.
So, at least I wasn't delusional when I originally tasted it. I guess
different years, different blends, who knows?

Around 1990 or so I started visiting California again, and the Hop Kiln
winery was certainly of interest. I have found that they can be uneven,
with a number of ok to good wines, nothing special, but an occasional
WOW! (which is often among their least expensive wines). So in 1997, I
had already bought my quota and we pass by the Hop Kiln.

WOW!

They had a crop of valdigue that they decided was so good they'd bottle
it alone. It was =sublime=. She Who Must Be Obeyed insisted that I'd
already bought too much wine, but I managed to get her to let me take
home a bottle.

I should have bought a case and had it shipped by limousine.

When I opened the bottle at home, I was equally floored. I would kill
for another, but alas, it was a very limited bottling, and I'm sure it's
all gone now.

So many wines, so little time!

Jose
--
Get high on gasoline: fly an airplane.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.