Photography by: Dan Bayer & Jason Dewey

AMAZING GRAPES

Passions Revealed: Four Aspenites share their joy of collecting and offer a glimpse inside their rarely-seen home cellars.

"Collecting is a primal act,” says Jonathan Pullis, wine director at The Little Nell’s Montagna restaurant. With his experience pouring wine for many of the world’s most esteemed wine collectors, he should know. Collecting, whether the object of desire be comic books and bottle caps in childhood, or art and automobiles in adulthood, is an act that may begin as an urge, turn into a hobby, explode into a passion, and even become an obsession. 
Here in Aspen there is a cadre of wine lovers who are passionate about their juice. Some have lavish cellars with selections from around the world; they number their bottles into the thousands.  Others have a few cases tucked into a downstairs cellar. These collectors share not just a love of wine (many of us have that!) but also a commitment to safeguard their special bottles until that just-right moment when they pull the cork, decant the wine, and enjoy the very fruits of their patience.

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