On our 10th anniversary, my wife and I went to Napa Valley, where we tasted, sampled, and bought several bottles of excellent wine.
We drank most of them in the first year or so after that trip, but saved a couple for “special” occasions.
Fast forward seven years — and those premium bottles were still untouched.
We’d already learned the hard way that a few lesser bottles we’d saved had spoiled. So we said, the hell with it — it was time to open the good stuff.
At over $100 a bottle, our 2014 J Davies Cabernet Sauvignon was the most we’d ever spent on wine. Honestly, I don’t think anything else even comes close.
Despite our past bad luck, I figured this one had a better shot. AI told me that a properly stored Cabernet Sauvignon can last for decades.
So we figured, what the hell — let’s do it.
We opened it, let it breathe, and poured — finally ready to taste what seven years of patience had earned us.
The Lesson Beyond the Wine
And it wasn’t good!
It wasn’t terrible, but it fell incredibly short of the smoothness and wonderful taste it had when we first sampled it.
In the end, we decided it was undrinkable and poured it out.
Hundreds of dollars JUST gone.
Because we waited too long….
We clearly aren’t wine experts, and in retrospect, we store our wine in our pantry, which isn’t a good idea.
Wine should be stored in a cool, dark place, ideally between 50-60 degrees.
Our wine was stored in a dark place that can hit peaks of 80 to 85 degrees during the summer.
We blew it!
Storage issues aside, the bigger thing we blew was waiting for that “special” occasion to come.
It never does!
And I think so many things can go the way of this….
People save up their whole life to retire in their late 60s and 70s, only to not have the energy or health to do what they want to do.
Or you may have had a dream “bucket list” trip that you want to go on, but there was never a good time, and ultimately, time does pass you by.
The book Die With Zero by Bill Perkins really homes in on this concept. …There are times for each experience in life, and there are times when you just won’t have it anymore.
That goes for wine.
That goes for humans.
Why You Can’t Wait for the Perfect Time
This entire experience just reminded me that life is fleeting.
That perfect wine that you are saving may not actually be “perfect” when you go to drink it.
That perfect trip you are waiting to take at the “perfect time” doesn’t exist.
That doesn’t mean you should drop everything now, quit your job, and sail away – but it should be a reminder that if there is something you’ve been wanting to do, or have been procrastinating on, there is no perfect time!
You must act.
Plan that perfect trip.
Buy that new house.
There is never a “right” time to do anything.
Because, before you know it, your life will pass you by. That wine will go bad. And it will all be for nothing.
But not all is lost. My wife and I happen to be going on another trip to a wine region this fall.
And I know that whatever wines we get, we’ll make sure to drink them at the proper time.
Because waiting for that special occasion clearly didn’t work.
It is clear to me now that in life, you have to create your own special occasions.
In this ONE life you have, you have to make imperfect plans, and you have to drink wine at imperfect times.
This is life.
Whether it is taking a trip that you’ve been dreaming of, quitting your job to pursue a new career, or simply drinking a $100 bottle of wine before it spoils, there really is no better time than NOW.
Humans are weird. It is so easy just to sit back and let life pass you by without realizing it is slowly running out. Organizing, doing , enjoying, all take proactive thoughts which just at times goes against human nature.
We all need to focus on living in the moment instead of living for tomorrow. Take that trip, drink that wine, enjoy
Storage is important. Invest in a small wine refrigerator, and you’ll get to see what properly aged wine is all about.
Yeah. That is clearly a big lesson here too!
This is a really great analogy. We had a similar thing happen to some wine I brought back from a work trip in Chile that we waited too long for the right special occasion – ours def went bad! The older I get the more I agree it’s better to do the special things now vs wait for the ‘optimal’ time!
🎯🎯🎯