Expectations Great and Small

Lessons for wine from encounters with the breathtaking and the unfortunate

The degree to which our emotional life is governed by our expectations can’t be underestimated. When someone tells me they “have no expectations” or that they are “going into this with no expectations” I can’t understand how they do that mental sleight of hand.

I find I rarely have great expectations for anything. And when I do, I’m almost always disappointed. In my wine life, this rule has applied. On a number of occasions, I’ll open a bottle or be served a glass of something that, by all accounts, should be magnificent. Sometimes my expectations have been met. Oftentimes they are not met. Very rarely are they exceeded.

I do have very fond memories of having great expectations for a 40-year-old bottle of Chateau d’Yquem and having those expectations far, far exceeded. To this day, I can call up in my memory the taste and aroma of that wine. This exceeding of my expectations has happened with wines so few times I can count them on one hand.

I thought about that wine yesterday as I was driving away from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. My boy and I are in the midst of a road trip and we arrived at the Grand Canyon around 11:00 am. We walked the south rim together, staring out at that monumental expanse.

I had great expectations for the experience of being at the Grand Canyon. I’d been there only once before when I was 10, around my son’s age. I was there with my mother, father, and sister. We four also were on a Southwest road trip. I have the memory of being shocked and of wanting to be as deep in the canyon as possible.