Have a Wine Collection

“But in my failures as an adult, I have still managed to acquire one of those symbols of having enough: a wine collection. Though calling it a “collection” likely aggrandizes it; it’s more of a wine accumulation. My rickety wooden rack is not full of you-probably-haven’t-heard-of-it gems from Chile, or expensive stalwarts from California or Bordeaux. It’s simply around twenty bottles, each around twenty bucks, sitting in a basement atop the chipboard TV stand we bought when we first arrived in this country. Certainly, there are a couple of bottles dear to me—a Riesling bought on a wine tour with much-cherished friends; a bottle of Italian red given to me upon completing my PhD, to be opened when either the friend who gave it to me or I first publishes a book—but even they are not what connoisseurs would consider special, or even noteworthy. But then, I am not an oenophile. As much as I appreciate wine and like to drink it, I’m not building a monument to good taste—it's a library of possibility.”