Do you have Dog Point? A spontaneous vertical tasting.

It was one of those weird small world coincidences that I love so much about this industry…  

I could tell that the two guys who walked into the store knew about wine. Although my attempts at striking up a conversation weren’t going so well, I knew that sooner or later they would stumble across something that would get the ball rolling.  It turned out to be the St. Clair “Vicar’s Choice” Pinot Noir from Marlborough, NZ which is made by my good friend Julie Ibbotson’s (now Grono)  parents.

 Turns out that initially reticent guy, David, had actually spent some time making wine at Nobilo in New Zealand!  

The name game started and it turns out that he knew quite a few people who were studying wine making at the University of Adelaide, while I was studying wine business.  David asked if I was familiar with Dog Point Vineyards, a Marlborough winery that he respected, but didn’t often see their wines in the U.S.  To continue with strange coincidence, I just happened to have a three year vertical (2002, 2003, 2004) of Dog Point Chardonnay tucked away in the fridge that I had been meaning to sample for the past month and just hadn’t gotten around to.  (Now I realize it was not laziness, it was just destined to wait for this unique opportunity.)