My Article: The Last Bottle of the Night

How many of you have “last bottle” stories that you can remember?

I am only saying this after I admittedly received an email from Luca Sanjust of Petrolo in Tuscany and he thanked me for the “amazing bottle of 1997 Galatrona we drank on Tuesday.”

I had almost forgotten that I pulled that bottle of rare pure Merlot from my cellar and we drank it at 1 am after a major party at my house. I least I remember it was amazing — 99 points! How many times have we all done this? I get so generous with the cellar key late at night with friends and family. The problem is that we may not be in the best shape to be drinking prized bottles that late into the festivities.

Tuesday was a huge barbeque at my house with over 50 wine producers to gear up for this year’s Divino Tuscany – a four-day wine event I am doing in Florence with my agents, IMG Artists. I am very excited about it all. It’s been a dream of mine for years to do such an event. It seemed to me that Florence needs a great wine event much like Napa has the Napa Valley Wine Auction and Bordeaux has En Primeur week or VinExpo. Check out the program.

I had forgotten how much wine producers can drink. The evening wine consumption for about 50 people included 12 bottles of One Wine One World White, a Melchoir of 2004 Testamatta (18 liters), a Imperial of 2000 Fontodi Flaccianello (6 liters), and a double magnum of 2001 Altesino Brunello Montosoli (3 liters). (The Testamatta stole the show; it is such a beautiful pure Sangiovese with wonderful fruit and fresh acidity and tannins.)

Then there were various normal bottles…

Sometimes there just never seems to be a last bottle! Have a great weekend.