Name one wine....

[stevebody]

GP,

Two:

A 1997 La Carraia Fobbiano, drunk at least 15 degrees too cold, on a pitch-black beach in November in Long Beach, Washington, at 3:30 a.m., while watching the Perseid meteor shower with my now-fiancee. Had the rest at breakfast the next morning with Judye, without (literally) stars in my eyes and it was just as fabulous.

A gift bottle of Peter Lehmann 1995 Stonewell Shiraz, sent to me by the Lehmann management for selling over 1000 cases of their Barossa Cabernet which had just been gathering dust in their distributor's warehouse here in Seattle. Drank this with Judye, too...on a Tuesday, for no special reason. Nose of roses, lavender, honeysuckle, lanolin, and butterscotch. Apricots, roses, blackberry syrup, espresso, lead pencil, tar, limestone and glycerine on the palate. Complex as differential calculus and polished as a river rock. Freakin' astonishing flavors and aromas. Forever cured my habit of looking down my nose at Aussie Shiraz.

Yeah, the situation has something to do with it, GP. But the wine has to be fantastic, too. Great romance doesn't cure crap wine.