Over a festive barbecue the topic of discussion turned to memorable wines. Friends recalled stand-out life moments based on the memory of great wines, of execrable wines and of hangovers from hell. A little digging in my degraded archives dredged up the following classics.

I remember my first experience of Penfolds Grange Hermitage back in the early '70s. I'd never tasted the famous wine and so bought a bottle of the 1969 vintage for $AUD9.00, a fortune to me then. The Grange sat there in my tiny (11 bottles in 1973) cellar, saying "drink me." Temptation eventually prevailed and I opened it to share with a friend on a warm summer's evening sitting under a magnolia tree in the wild and uncut grass of a shared house in Ivanhoe.

The student house didn't run to crystal goblets or Riedel stemware, in fact we used recycled Vegemite jars. But the wine, even though from a lesser vintage and sipped from such humble glasses, tasted delicious. A freeloading mate dropped by and, unasked, helped himself to a jar. Unable to see the label in the dusk he said, "Shit! This is alright. We'd better buy a case on Monday."

Then there was dinner at Moustache, a long gone restaurant in the Camberwell area. I was treating a couple of Sydney friends and took along a very expensive, premier cru Bordeaux, the 1973 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. And for dessert a bottle of Brown Brothers 1970 Noble Riesling.

The Mouton Rothschild was horrible: lightweight, thin, tannic, austere, and acidic. The dessert riesling one of the best I've ever tasted. The Sydney couple still get misty-eyed when they reminisce about it.

At about the same time I lashed out on a bottle of Hungarian tokay - an unfortified sweet wine that traditional English wine writers tended to rave about. What a disappointment. The promised nectar of the gods it was not. Oxidised beyond belief it could have passed for a not very good Australian sweet sherry. When I complained to the wine merchant who sold it, he said, "But it's meant to taste like that."

My hangover from hell? I faintly recall the time I polished off a bottle of brandy to celebrate Icelandic Independence Day. But that's another story…

Tastings

Envy Chardonnay 2000

South Australia. Pale lemon. One of the new breed of glitzy wine packages aimed at, according to the PR blurb, 20-something females. And the packaging is an eye-catcher, a curvy bottle coated in metallic envy-green. The nose is fragrant and lemony, the palate not too dry with more of that likeable citric tang. Just the thing - well-chilled - for the beach or picnic lunch. Rating: . Cellar: to 2003. Price: about $AUD10. Web: www.wickedwines.com.au.