Vintage 1968 - It Was a Very Good Year

I was born the day after Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed; vintage 1968 was ripe with assassinations—starting first with Martin Luther King, Jr. The Civil Rights Act was passed, the country was at war with Vietnam and peace demonstrations and reports of the dead led the news. However painful a time, the turmoil and unrest around the world birthed some amazing music; the Beatles released the White Album, Simon and Garfunkel were on the rise and Louis Armstrong was singing about the wonderful world.

Put the political mayhem aside and remember the year also marked the premiere of the futuristic movie 2001 A Space Odyssey, the opening of the arresting Broadway musical Hair, Yale College finally unchained the locks on its Old Boy’s doors and admitted women to study the same programs as men, and to every little boy’s delight, Mattel introduced Hot Wheels cars.

Speaking of cars, talk about an epic vintage: ’68 Corvettes, Mustangs, Cameros, Shelbys… muscle cars the world will never know again. And aside from myself, movie stars like Daniel Craig, Will Smith, Gary Coleman (RIP), Molly Ringwald and my least favorite, Rachel Ray (though if she's wearing that, who cares what she's serving up) also hail from the 1968 vintage, and while I hear it wasn’t the best year for wine, at the very least, it sure delivered some interesting people.

Sadly, a rainy summer made for a poor harvest in France and Italy, but Spain and Portugal are rumored to have a few decent (though obscenely expensive) wines from that era, as is California. So, being that I was born in California, circa 1968, one may conclude that makes me a decent vintage too, no? Let’s all drink to that and until we sip again…

Cheers!