So usually this is how it goes:  It’s two or three days before -insert important family meal here- and I’m sent out to buy wine, which is one of my favorite things to do. Having been in the wine industry for almost ten years now, I still love walking up and down the rows of wine bottles, discovering new wines, and finding really good older vintages from really great wineries, priced to move.  I try to find something I don’t see everyday, something that is surprising. I think “Wow, they have this here!”.  Maybe I’ll ask the merchant, but mostly I just wander around until something strikes my fancy.  I usually end up with case or so of mostly $20-30 dollar wines but there are always two or three “expensive” bottles that go for $40-80 bottle. These are the ones I covet, the ones I hide from my family and friends and only with a wink and a nod, do I invite the select chosen to taste and “appreciate”.  Typical hiding places in the past have included the bathroom, the upstairs bedroom, the laundry room, or the back patio (which I’ve found approaches cellar temp during Thanksgiving but is too cold at Christmas).

I think that’s pretty typical of the wine lover to not let Great Aunt Pearlie fill her glass to the rim with a 2000 Chapoutier La Pavillion you dug up from the cellar and gulp it down in two takes. That the wine we’re really excited to try be savored, or at least contemplated more than alcohol spiked grape juice that gets you drunk faster than Bud Lite. But whatever. This year it’s different. After reading this post from Alder over at Vinography, I’ve revealing my secret wine stash and making sure everyone at the table gets the good stuff. There will be no hiding places, no winks or nods and we’ll have the Hermitage next to the quaffable red.  And of course, there will be a couple bottles of the VERGE Syrah to go around.  My question is - Can I still use the decanter?