Sensible collecting and drinking

AT dinner a few evenings ago I drank an inexpensive wine, one that retails at just above S$60. It was such a nice wine to drink, with good ripeness and density of fruit, well balanced and very fresh. You could not ask for more from a wine. It was the third wine of a well-known winery in Spain. (More about Spanish wines later.) I had not drunk it for some time since opening the first bottle of the batch that arrived two years ago, to see where the wine stood in the way of development.

That wine reminded me that many of us, (myself included), often overlook or even forget the second or third wines of famous wineries, as well as other inexpensive but good-value wines. Perhaps a very Asian trait?

All too often we tend to equate price with intrinsic worth, and status - not the wine's status but ours. When I started drinking wine and building up a collection, I received good advice: DO NOT ignore the second, or even the third wine from well-known or famous vignerons.…