I have a collector friend who is extremely generous with his fine wines. He loves nothing more than to share. I have another dear collector friend who hoards his wines and drinks most of them alone.
Observing these different characteristics in people fascinates me. Recently, I tasted some magnificent wines with "generous" collector friend and some other oenophiles. ("Greedy" friend wasn't there.)
Half way through the tasting, having learned that the day before was one of the guest's birthday, "generous" opened an epic wine from the guest's birth year. And when I say epic, I mean EPIC. There is perhaps nothing more profoundly beautiful in this world than a well-stored, perfectly decanted, properly served bottle of 1961 Chateau Lafite. It can sweep you off your feet. As we oh'd & ah'd over the wine and tried in our best winespeak to elaborate on its delicious complexities, I considered the spontaneous generosity of our host.

"Generous" was just so, er, generous to open that wine (among many others) for us. I was thinking this when I tuned into what everyone was saying about the wine. People were sharing stories about other tastings of the famed '61 Lafite. They were offering up insight about the vintage, specifics about Lafite at that time period. They were openly discussing the wine in the glass, comparing impressions and hypothesizing about its future. They were sharing their knowledge and sharing their thoughts. They were, we all were, being generous with our minds. It is this generosity of spirit that makes sharing wines with others so rewarding.
I realized at that time, that when it comes to wine, generosity reveals itself in many forms. From the person pulling the cork to the one sharing invaluable information, wine brings out generosity in us.
Even wines themselves can be generous.
As we savored the last of the Lafite, I thanked our host for his veritable generosity in opening it.
He looked at me and said, "Christie, I can't even come close to giving back what wine gives me."
So there you have it. My good friend "Greedy" is missing out. But there is hope. After all, generosity begets generosity.