Opinion | Don’t save that special wine for ‘another time’ – you might not have the chance, so seize the day and pop that cork
- We are all mortal and should make the most of life, and that includes those special bottles of wine we’ve been saving
- When stocking your cellar, try something new – artisanal wines, great vintages. You only live once. And make sure you share a special wine with someone special
The average human lifespan is insultingly short. Assuming you live to be 80, you have just over 4,000 weeks. That means if you’re in your mid-30s, like me, you’ve got about 2,200 weeks left. That’s 2,200 Monday mornings, 2,200 Friday nights, and 2,200 bottles of wine, provided you drink a bottle a week.
If your heart just skipped a beat, you’re not alone. Time is difficult to visualise, and we all suffer from a peculiar kind of time blindness that prevents us from acknowledging our own mortality, often until it’s too late.
“My father just passed away, and I inherited his wine collection. Please help me make sense of it.” This kind of request comes up almost daily in online-based wine communities on Reddit and elsewhere. It’s a gentle reminder that “saving the best for last” can often fail us.
In other words, we’re all going to die, and most likely quite unexpectedly. So let’s live, love and drink like it.
If you’re lucky to have a private wine collection or a cellar, think about the wines that excite you the most. What are you saving them for? There’s no occasion more special than tonight’s dinner, even if it’s a takeaway after work.
In fact, wines are such powerful companions that opening a bottle you are curious about is a special occasion in itself.
