The Opportunity Cost of a Bad Bottle of Wine

  Len Evans.  Source of photo:  http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/heart-attack-kills-len-evans-king-of-australian-wine/2006/08/17/1155407960581.html

 

BACK in the early 1990’s Len Evans, the Australian wine man and legend in his own lifetime, gave me some advice.

”I’d say you’re about 60,” he said, ”and from the looks of you, you’ll be lucky to make 75.  You’ve got about 15 years ahead of you, and it’s time for you to learn my Theory of Capacity.

”You’ve got to make the most of the time you’ve got left, man.  You’ve got to calculate your future capacity.  A bottle of wine a day is 365 bottles a year.  Which means you’ve probably only got 5,000 bottles ahead of you.

”People who say you can’t drink good stuff all the time are fools.  You must drink good stuff all the time.  Every bottle of inferior wine you drink is like smashing a superior bottle against a wall:  the pleasure is lost forever.  You can’t get that bottle back.”

 

For the full story, see: 

FRANK J. PRIAL.  "A Wine Man Who Vowed to Drain the Cup."  The New York Times  (Weds., August 30, 2006):  D7. 

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