By Nicholas Harary
Last weekend, I sold my 1970 Chevelle at Mecum’s Harrisburg auction.
Restoring her has been a labor of love over the last eight years. I enjoyed every minute of the restoration and she is just about perfect now but the itch for a new project demanded that we part ways. Driving that long boring stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the way to the auction gave me plenty of time to change my mind. After all, this was the car that I had wanted ever since I was 12.
I’ll never forget the day our next-door neighbor came rumbling down the street in his jet-black Chevelle, halting our stickball game in its tracks. Every kid stood watching, jaw on the ground. It was an awesome sight and an even more awesome noise – it literally rattled my teeth!
Despite these fond memories, I kept my resolve. Restoring these cars is more fun than looking at them in the garage.
The auction was a blast; it was so exciting to see the price go up and up. But, the moment the hammer fell, the 12-year-old inside of me almost lost his lunch. I guess this is the nature of selling collectibles – they’re meant to be bought and sold. I just get a bit too attached.
2010 Chateau Martinat: The hidden gem of Bordeaux
These days, Bordeaux is largely a collectible game. Driven by new markets all over the world, the price tag for Bordeaux’s best wines – and way too many of their good, average and bad ones – have soared into the stratosphere. Buyers almost never drink them anymore; they are bought and sold like any commodity.
I’ll stick to collecting cars. At least I get to scare a few kids with the roar of some old-school American muscle.
Château Martinat is one of those hidden gems of Bordeaux, flying under the radar of most importers and collectors. It’s a tiny estate by Bordeaux standards and for my taste, it’s better than many of those collectibles. This is structured, mineral Bordeaux, with just incredible red fruit and complexity. Delicious now, delicious in 10 years, this is the kind of wine that drove collectors to obsess about Bordeaux in the first place. But at $23, you won’t feel the guilt if you pull a couple of corks this weekend with a simple, grilled steak.
Go for it, it’s a great match.
The Wine: 2010 Chateau Martinat Bordeaux
Set on rolling hillsides along the right bank of the river Gironde, the old vines of the tiny Chateau Martinat are rooted in a mix of limestone and clay soils. It’s perfect terroir for producing world class Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec grapes. The 2010 is a classic, aromatically complex, redolent of mineral-laced cassis with just a touch of earth. The fruit on the palate is dark red and multilayered, with a silky finish, long and stony. It’s an incredible buy at $23. Wine that will be delicious at your table this year – and maybe better over the next 10 years.
Nicholas Harary is the owner/executive chef of Restaurant Nicholas, located in Red Bank. It is New Jersey’s highest-rated Zagat restaurant. Nicholas Wines is an online retail wine shop that commits to storing wine at 56 degrees and ships nationwide. Wines can be ordered by logging onto www.restaurantnicholas.com
