Hidden Treasures...

As I was fantasizing recently about being a British lord at the end of the 19th century and in the process of adding to my collection of rare wines, I came across one of these rare wines and I was stunned first by the price--$5,895.00 for a 750 ml bottle--and then felt the entire thesaurus of my wine adjectives had gone hiding--I believe permanently--in absolute shame.
I had just read the evaluation of a wine by Robert Parker. It went like this...

"In the two dozen tastings where I have had the 1961 La Chapelle, I rated it 100 points twenty times...As the wine sits in the glass, notions of pepper, new saddle leather, grilled meat, and awesome levels of blackberry, plum, and black currant liqueur-like notes emerge. Extremely unctuous, with compelling concentration and purity, this full-bodied, seamless, mouthfilling 1961 is truly immortal. It still possesses a freshness and vigor that defy its nearly forty years of age. it should continue to drink well for two decades. Prodigious stuff!"

My inadequacy didn't end, of course, with the brilliant description of this wine. I never even imagined that one could taste all these complex and numerous flavors in a wine! But in the midst of all this amazement and thoughts of immortality, it came to me. This is exactly the magic of wine--its hidden treasures. Most people will not even hear about them. And the vast majority of those fortunate ones to become aware of these hidden gems, will never even get close enough to find them. But I will retire this evening knowing that the existance of these treasures down in the dark and cool corners of wine cellars is indeed a very happy thought, and the treasure hunt always an irresistible attraction...