Orin Swift's The Prisoner, 2007

This treasure of the Orin Swift cellars boasts the complexity of its Goya namesake:

50% Zinfandel
24% Cabernet Sauvignon
14% Syrah
9% Petite Sirah
2% Charbono
1% Grenache

'07's got a lively red velvet nose and is peppery on the throat. Fruit boasts a sharp, technicolor clarity compared to the '06 vintage, which is fuzzy in comparison.

My uncle, a California vino buff, loves this stuff and buys it by the crateful. I saw him over Christmas and he gave Benj and me a bottle of the '07 -- the last bottle from his very last crate. "It's hard times," he said. "We probably won't be buying more anytime soon."

We took it back to my parents', where we were staying for three weeks, and hid it in my luggage. Upon returning the next day from a day trip, my mother sidelined me at the door with a worried expression.

"I have to talk to you about something," she said slowly.

She didn't have to finish. I looked beyond her, into the brightly-lit dining area crowded with my dad's high school buddies, and saw the last drops of our Prisoner pouring -- luscious, rich, red! -- into someone else's glass.

I screamed. And then, realizing I may jeopardize the Prisoner experience for others, gracefully apologized and excused myself to my bedroom, where I buried my head in a pillow and threw a muffled teenage-girl fit.