What are your top three wines?
I've heard this question before, and it's sort of like, what's the oldest bottle of wine in your cellar. What is the thing that moves you the most? And I'm going to kind of say these are sort of like the blue butterflies of life. They kind of land and you want to capture them, and if you capture them you want to put a pin in the wings and show it as this trophy. And there's nothing worse than probably having that trophy. The quest is more important. But in thinking of that, here I am on that island, and it's only myself and Buddha. What would I really want to have there and be taken to the next stage? There is no question that Pinot Noir is a great varietal that's sickly, that can be a genius, and in the right... whatever. It's probably, at this point in time, Mio Camuse or Henri Jai'e who told me the stories of him wanting to be a pilot. He was a simple man that really discovered that if you get the purity, that is magic. Then when I think about what I have had as far as Alsacean wines, which no one really kind of understands. These are sweet wines, and we don't eat desserts anymore, and we don't have time to have conversations and sip on things that just kind of take us into this other world. I think a late harvest Exceptionale from Alsace, like Hugale Exceptionale, is just divine, absolutely divine, because it takes you somewhere that only the gods would get jealous of. And then on a totally frivolous type of a thing, I love champagne, because champagne defies all laws, and I wish I could defy all of the laws. Gravity says things have to go down, and champagne proves things can go up forever. And if you could count the bubbles, that would be magical. But when they kind of rise up in your mouth, and it kind of feels like you've been running and running and running, and you have all of this foam that just explodes in the mouth, and it's just sort of like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. What is so wrong with champagne? Because every time you do that, the sound of cork is music better than any symphony. The occasion says, "You're special."
