I was a late-comer to wine. Only started collecting in 2005 at the advanced age of ....

[Kim Caldwell]

43.

Made me wonder about the other folks around here.

When did you start cellaring wine and how old were you?

Are you happy with your early buying decisions?

[Randy Bowman]

Got the bug in the late 70's with Silver Oak. Unfortunately I didn't venture far from Cali Cabs until we opened our store and were forced to try other wines.

[Todd F r e n c h]

I started roughly in 2005 as well...just in time to blow tons of money a year or two later on '05 Bordeaux

[Steve Brickley]

I am 55 and started at age 18 (i know). Had to stop at age 27 due to migraines. No wine age 27 to 55. Headaches lifted Jan 2010 and by July 2010 I had my first ever cellar completed - self constructed. It has been great getting back into wine and I appreciate all of you for and endless source of info and laughs.

[Randy Bowman]

Wow Steve, I'm sorry you had to miss so much for so long. But at least you saved a lot of money.

[Bud Carey]

Started seriously about 12 years ago at the ripe old age of 52.

[Monte Mast]

I started in 2007 after a one day trip to Napa. I was 43 at the time. My epiphany was in the spring of 2005, but the real purchasing began after the trip.

Monte

[scamhi]

I started being serious in 2004 at 49.

[Henry Kiichli]

I started in college, around age 24ish (52 now).

Best thing I ever did was buy about 2 - 3 dozen carefully (lack of $$) selected wines, and put them in a locked metal chest in a friend's root cellar when I left Montana. A few years later I moved outside the US, and the wines slept undisturbed. I was only able to get at them on visits, which were few and far between. Anyway, I have had almost everything by now - D'Yquem, GPL, Comtesse, 74 Monte Bello, etc. Had the 75 Mouton from that stash 2 yrs. ago. I think a 77 Biondi Santi Ris. is the last Mohican, now here with me.

p.s. the prices back then --

[Steve L Gellman]

I started in 96 at the age of 39. I'm into Ca. Cabs so it was perfect timing. I was able to get onto every list I wanted. Prices hadn't spiked yet on domestic wines, so I was able to buy great wines at good prices. Everything from Bryant, Colgin, Screagle, SQN etc. These are now the foundation of my cellar. Now I build around those and buy more QPR wines with some high end wines occasionally.

[Patrick Friel]

I started collecting in 2008 at 43. My palate shifted suddenly to old world which prompted the need to cellar. I'm very happy with my choices except the shift continued more gradually toward more Italian and Spanish leaving me a bit heavy on French. Good problem to have.

[Eric LeVine]

A gentle start in 1999 at age 29 moved towards real buying carnage starting in 2001. I created CT in 2003, as I had so much wine and felt my spreadsheet was too wimpy and imprecise.

[John S]

Started to nibble at collecting in 1991 when I was 27. I guess that's earlier than many and certainly helps for perspective and most importantly I primarily have wines with some age in the cellar. I recall tasting 1982 Bordeaux in about 1992/3 and thinking boy woulndn't it be great if/when I have a lot of wines that old. I've drastically reduced wine buying in the last few years.

[Steve Nordhoff]

A gentle start in 1999 at age 29 moved towards real buying carnage starting in 2001. I created CT in 2003, as I had so much wine and felt my spreadsheet was too wimpy and imprecise.

Whomever got you started gets a big from the CT community.

I was 26 when i was first poured good wine, a 92 Kistler Vine Hill and a 91 Beringer PR Cab. Damn, were they good.

[Paul Jaouen]

Seriously started in 1994 at age of 40 which is when I could start affording this hobby. I am very happy with my early buying decisions which was mostly bordeaux and rhones with a smattering of Cali cabs. I did buy a bunch of cases of Australians a few years later which I mostly sold off so no harm. My only regret is not buying burgundies earlier on.

[Eric LeVine]

A gentle start in 1999 at age 29 moved towards real buying carnage starting in 2001. I created CT in 2003, as I had so much wine and felt my spreadsheet was too wimpy and imprecise.

Whomever got you started gets a big from the CT community.

You can blame a Butterfield & Robinson cycling trip to Tuscany and some anonymous wine merchant from Siena who poured a little tasting or 4 wines (Chianti, Chianti Classico Riserva, Vino Nobile, and Brunello) that forever piqued my curiosity with regard to wine. And you can also blame two senior Microsoft folks (one is now former), Andrew Kwatinetz and Steven Sinofsky, who were both deeply responsible for me taking the job that got my wheels turning with regard to databases and the web.

[Kim Caldwell]

Shame this thread was moved. Enjoying people's responses and don't see why this isn't Wine Talk.

Todd - Funny, I didn't by much of the 05 BDX vintage - I grabbed the 00 vintage - and then starting back-filling Barolos. Amazing how in just 6 short years many of the same wines (current releases) are now out of reach. I didn't think the good old days would be so recent. :(

Suzanne - Wow, I thought you were into this a whole lot longer. It was one of our early dinners at EMP - where you brought a Rostaing (I think it was a Rostaing) that kicked me into over-drive. All of the wines that night were eye-openers for me.

[Larry P]

I got into wine in the early '90s (I was in my early 20s) after having an epiphany moment with a CdP, and the market was awash with cheap Rhones from the outstanding '89 & '90 vintages. I was buying then, but with no space for storage, putting myself (and later my wife) through college, and several moves, my collection hovered around 30 bottles, growing to about 50 by the end of the decade.

Then, stable in my career and owning a house with a cool basement, I started buying more, although at about rate I was drinking, I was at probably 100 bottles when we decided to move West. We stopped buying wine to save money, and drank up any older bottles we didn't feel comfortable taking on a Summer drive across the country. By the time we moved in August 2004, we were down to a little more than a case.

It took a couple more years to get settled into a house and build a cellar, so collecting in earnest didn't really start for me until 2007 or so. I'm a little frustrated sometimes to have a young cellar, having been into wine for nearly 2 decades, and sometimes I wish I still had some of those old bottles, but that's life. Now at 43 my cellar is just north of 500 bottles and we're drinking mostly '06 and '07. That tells me, if I want wines with a little more average age, the cellar should continue to grow a bit before I try to stabilize my buying with my consumption rate again.

[bretrooks]

My interest was piqued in 2003 on a trip to Italy (age 26), and I started buying wine with an eye to aging it after starting a local tasting group a few years later...right around the time we could least afford it due to buying a place of our own and starting a family.

I'm 34 now, and my collection is certainly small by the standards of the WB crowd (generally between 80-100 bottles, none especially expensive), but it has a decent amount of diversity, and there are few purchases I'd make differently, given the chance.

[Chris Presutti]

It all started in 1966 when I was given my grandfather's home made wine to ease the pain of teething.
But I didn't start collecting seriously until 2003-2004 when I was 38. Mostly because I didn't have the resources to start a serious collection until about that time.

[Steve Manzi]

Started around 1991, and my first big purchase was 3 cases of Rayas '89. And learned a ton real quick, and was smart enough to turn down the $5 increase on the 1990, at $50/bottle.

Have not been as smart ever since.

[Paul Jaouen]

Steve,

So funny. So many wines I regret not buying cases of.

[Steve Manzi]

Steve,

So funny. So many wines I regret not buying cases of.

Yeah, and so many bald headed wine buddies I regret meeting, who insist that they have more hair than I do.

[Michael Kanbergs]

2004 at the age of 21. The 04 W-S Westside Road Neighbors was what really got me into wine though. Not in any position to really collect wine at this point, but I have some (~30) bottles I won't open for awhile.

[Dan Hammer]

I started to pay attention (think Wine 101) in the late '80's, on my biz trips to California. If you ordered a glass of Chard, you were cool. I started reading WS and the WSJ for John and Dottie. I was 38. All the wine written about couldn't be found in NY. Mad me crazy. Zachy's would have 1 shelf of CA Zin for example, and the wine stores in CA would have a 4' section with everything WS was writing about.

In 2003 I stumbled into another wine board. I was 50. That's when the game was just getting started for me. I remember the first case I bought from Posner of a $25 Vigil Meritage. I thought I was a player. I spent $300! <Gasp> I purchased a few French 2005's that were all the hype then.

Today I'm up to ~200 bottles. I'm Dan Hammer age 58.

[Bud Carey]

Ah yes. 1997 Vigil Valiente. I remember it well. One of my first purchases from Dr. Posner.

[Eric Ifune]

Started in college. I caught the wine bug from my father who was collecting California Cabernet and Bordeaux at the time. Growing up, our summer vacations were road trips to Napa and Sonoma. When I turned 21, I bought my first full case of wine, the 1978 Leoville Barton. Less than $100 for the case. Still have a single bottle.

[Ryan Kilkenney]

I can't recall so much as tasting a glass of wine before my honeymoon in Italy (2005 - I was 29). The guidbook we had with us had a small section about Tuscan wines, and we sought them out because it seemed like the thing to do in Italy. We came home with a few bottles of brunello in our suitcase that we bought at a wine shop in Montalcino. When we got back we picked up a few bottles of wines we'd remembered from our trip (through Italian Wine Merchants, I think), and bought a 40-bottle wine fridge. That last purchase seemed a tad obsessive at the time. A 2006 trip to Napa sealed the deal.

[alan weinberg]

in 1984 I went to dinner with a friend who collected wine; I was 28. He brought a bottle of wine w/him. I was terribly embarrassed, thinking that we would be thrown out of the restaurant. Little did I know about "bring your own bottle" or corkage or the fact that he was bringing a stellar wine. It was Beaulieu Georges de Latour PR 1975. Glorious bouquet and palate. Stunning wine to me. Heaven's gates opened wide and I looked inside. He loaned me a basic book about wine by Alexis Bespaloff and I stayed up all night reading it. A couple days later, he took me to Trader Joe's where I bought a mixed case of various bottles, setting me back by the then huge sum of $84. Twenty-seven years later . . .

alan

[RDHudak]

I started "grabbing a few cool bottles" when I was 40 (now 43). Several hundred later, I realize I am a minor enthusiast, but really enjoy the ever changing flavors and experiences on this ride. I started buying lots of Napa Cab and CdP, both of which I still love. My only change is that I don't buy as many of one item as I once did. I want to experience as many different styles and wines as I can, so no more case buys of one wine (well, unless......)
I have also learned a ton from the group here and appreciate all of your input.

[cjsavino (Online)]

First got into wine with a boss that liked to entertain, name a city and he would tell you where to eat, that was in the early '90's. At the time I was travelling for work so the thought of collecting was not on the top of the list. Really started in the late 90's for me, with the '97's (cali and italy), then the wine cabinet and 2000 bdx came around. Now rounding out to 46 am confortable with my 350 or so bottles, but then again I could easily jump this up by 150 if I tried.

[Roberto Rogness]

I'm 54 and got hooked on wine while stationed in Franconia, Germany in the 70s at the age of 18. I have always had my foot in the water and worked as a bartender, sommelier and even the Beverage Director of a very serious joint in NOLA but never really started collecting till maybe 15 years ago, mostly Barolo, Champagne and Amarone.

[Truett W e l c h]

I remember buying Right Banks from 1966 and 1970 from the Macy's store in Concord, CA, circa 1977, so I was 25. Also bought a case of 1970 Figeac ($110/case wholesale) at that same age. I didn't hang on to them for more than a couple of years, though.

[Aaron N. Tubbs]

I'm new here, but this seems as good a place to join the fun as any. I drank single malts and cheap red wine through my college years and [indiscriminately] grabbed an occasional bottle of red wine for years thereafter. Drank a lot of Bogle, Rosemount, and Yellow Tail more out of rote than enjoyment. My a-ha moment was the 2003 Opus One in early 2010: wine was suddenly interesting. Started learning shortly thereafter (though "the more I learn, the less I know"), and started collecting proper in fall 2010 at the age of 29.

[Kim Caldwell]

Welcome, Aaron. :)