The first really great wine I ordered on my own – and enjoyed immensely – was a 1979 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon at the Pleasant Peasant Restaurant in Atlanta. It was my 21st birthday, and I fell in love with that wine.

Cabernet is a wine that helps you celebrate life. It can be everything great that a wine can be, particularly when the essentially flavors and aromas of the grape (blackberry, cassis, black currant, mint, eucalyptus, cedarwood, tobacco, leather and plum) are knitted together in one glorious glass. It’s like Christmas in your mouth; a bevy of wonderful surprises with a lengthy finish.