6 bottles, 2800$ budget: what would you get? - The Athan Zafirov Wine Blog

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6 bottles, 2800$ budget: what would you get?

Good afternoon!

Some friends and I do biannual oenological gatherings, emptying a shared monthly money pool. I've been a wine professional, and as such have always been trusted with the choosing of said wines. I have prepared my list already for next such event, but figured it wouldn't hurt to see if anybody could surprise me with some suggestions, especially considering we live in Switzerland, and hence drink very little US wine, which seems to be talked about a lot in this sub.

I would love to hear your suggestions and would definitely be thankful if you would share them with me! Those events answer to only a few rules:

  • 6 bottles (6x75 cl or equivalent) are bought with the pool money;
  • in order, they need to be 1 not overly complex pre-dinner wine, 2 starter wines (usually complex white/Champagne), 2 complex and tannic reds and 1 sweet wine;
  • food/wine pairing is not to be taken into account, as I get to ask what my friends will cook depending on the chosen wine;
  • wine availability is not to be taken into account either: most of them are ordered from different trusted online shops anyway, which makes them expensive rather than rare per se;
  • there are absolutely no limit to the exoticism of the wines chosen here, on the contrary: we love trying legendary Bordeaux as well as brilliant insider wines, and are extremely broad-minded on the subject;
  • apart from the pre-lunch wine(s), which I usually provide free of charge from my own cellar anyway to start lightly (which means it'd be 5 bottles rather than 6, but anyhow), they need to be Grands Crus, broadly speaking. That is to say, the goal of these evenings is to get an opportunity to try otherwise unaffordable (Ausone, Mouton, Grange Bin...), potentially rare (Quintessence du Petit Manseng, Eszencia...) and critically acclaimed (Valdespino Toneles Moscatel Sherry, Barbeito 40 y/o,...) wines without having to worry about budget too much.

Regarding that last point, please note I'm not trying to sparkle a debate around the worth of said wines. We do drink hundreds of unique wines throughout each year, a huge majority of them very accessible. This just isn't one of the nights during which we do that, so I'm really looking for those "if I could drink anything, it would be this" ideas, which is what we're trying to emulate once or twice a year.

Thanks for reading, and have a good evening!





Athan Zafirov Wine

For 15 years, Athan Zafirov has traveled the vineyards around the world and worked with some of the greatest chefs including Francois Duc and Alan Brown.


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