Life is short. Drink better.
Why I’m writing this blog
I began this site after my four-year-old son asked me when I was going to die.
Not a question I was expecting as we drove to his Saturday morning swimming lesson.
“Not for a long time, I hope,” was my immediate response.
I was keen to take this opportunity to teach him about the preciousness of life: how moments need to be savoured, not wasted on trivial quibbles or superfluous fluff. So, I continued.
“No one knows when they’ll die. It could be this afternoon. It could be tomorrow morning. It could be next week. Accidents happen. People get ill. That’s why we need to make the most of each day.”
Through the rear-view mirror, I surveyed him looking thoughtfully out of the car window.
Maybe he actually gets it, I mused. Good parenting. Pat on the back.
Then he chimed back in:
“Will you die before Mummy?”
He wasn’t getting it.
But there was something I hadn’t quite got until that moment: if I did die sometime in the near future — not even the near future, but any time in the next 14 years — I’d never get to share my passion for wine with him or his younger sister.
I’d never get to show either of them some of those truly distinctive wines that are out there amongst the banal oceans of supermarket, cookie-cutter wines. Dare I say it: McWines.
I often encourage friends and family to try certain wines.
“What! You’ve never tried Assyrtiko? You have to try Assyrtiko from Santorini.”
“Look! That pub’s serving Picpoul de Pinet. Let’s go in and drink a bottle.”
“Hey, they’ve got a Chianti on the list. We’d better get it.”
“Shall we get the Fino sherry or the Sercial Maderia? I know, we'll get both!”
But I’d never compiled a proper list of must-try wines. The wines with meaning. The wines with history. The wines that make you sit up a little straighter and remember that wine can be more than just something wet in a glass.
They were all in my head. But I needed to get them out of my head an into something my kids could read should I not be around to give them the proper instruction.
The thought of never being able to educate my kids about the wonderful world of wine frightened me into action.
So, this blog is my attempt to do just that: to create a personal, useful, slightly opinionated list of the wines worth trying before you die.
It has also been handy for when people inevitably ask me, “What’s your favourite wine?”
Because the honest answer is: it depends.
It depends on the food, the company, the weather, the mood, the budget, the occasion, and whether someone else is paying.
But a better answer, to paraphrase the late, great, Len Evans AO OBE, is this: don’t waste your precious, limited time drinking the plain old ordinary stuff. Drink something good. Drink something with meaning. Drink something that adds a little more texture, colour, and joy to life.
That’s what Bucket List Wine is about.
Remember ... life is short, drink better.