Humans, especially guys it seems, love to make bets. We bet five bucks on the outcome of a ball game. We enter pools at the office on who will correctly pick the most wins in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament each March.

Recalling a story of mine got me to thinking–what other “wine bets” have gone on out there?

Here’s my story: Way back in high school I had two very close friends. To protect their identities a bit, we’ll call them Brian P. and Jenny K. We all hung around together and at one point in our senior year we talked about people getting married and so on. The topic came up about which of the three of us would be the “first to go.” All of us said it would be one of the other two. My logic was pretty solid, I felt. I knew I was going on to college, and after that I wanted to go on to law school. I wouldn’t think of getting married until I was done with all of that. My friends thought I’d go much more quickly.

So, we made a bet. At the time of the last person’s wedding, the other two would buy the winner a case of Champagne. Now, here we were in high school. We didn’t know Champagne from Chinola, but we knew it would be a significant debt to have to pay.

Well, that was 1984. Fast forward to 2000 and my wedding date with Catherine. Since the time of our original wager, both Jenny and Brian had gotten married. And divorced. And remarried. I was taking the plunge for the first time. In that time, I became a wine geek-in-training. I knew my friends didn’t have unlimited funds (but nor were they hurting), so I thought I’d give them a break.

Rather than a case of Champagne, which could easily have run upwards of $400 at the time, I agreed I’d consider the bet paid if they each purchased a bottle of Opus One for us as wedding presents. At $125/bottle, I thought it was a fair price and wouldn’t hurt their wallets quite so hard.

That’s how I ended up with two bottles of Opus One 1995 in my cellar. We opened one up on our fifth anniversary, and it was splendid. I can’t wait to open the other one on our tenth anniversary.

Anyone else have stories like this to tell? Perhaps this has given you some ideas for a wager between great friends.