How old were you when you started collecting wine?

I’m 27 years old and have a collection over 250 bottles. I have been wondering recently if I’m too far into wine for my age. I just want to get an idea of when other people started collecting wine. At what age did everyone start collecting wine?

I was about 27 when I started.

Got interested at 19 and began to buy a few bottles at a time. Got up to maybe 12-24 bottles, but college happened and I drank the collection in first year. lol.

I started when I was in 21. I don’t think you’re too far in, I’m under 30 and have around 550 bottles.

Interested ~ 24
Started cellaring just over a decade later

I started at 22, and as a result have a sizeable assortment of wines that are 20+ years of age which I bought on release.

It was either 23 or 24, I dont know for sure. What I do know is by the time I changed jobs at 27, I took a weeks worth of clothes and my wine collection with me in my car and let the movers move everything else.

Started collecting at 21. I was still in school then, and the buying didn’t get serious until I was 23, out of school and gainfully employed. I had a job transfer a couple of years later and moved about 40 cases.

I’d say your timing is about right. I got interested and bought my first bottle to ‘cellar’ at 21 (1999 Cinq Cepages), and probably had around as many bottles as you by 27.

But I bet it feels like you’re way too into wine for your age as I’d guess that all/most of your friends could care less about it (other than knowing if they like cabs or pinots when ordering whatever wine by the glass is being served at the bar during happy hour). At least that’s how it was for me…and still is to a certain degree (have some good wine-friends now…but all my friends I’ve known for a long time just aren’t into it)

20, twice to Napa at 21, to Oregon, Napa, Sonoma all before 25. Began “collecting” after law school, but had kids at same time. Been over a hundred fifty bottles once, but have been under 100 nonstop since. Am beginning to slowly build back up.

Unlike most of you, I started when I started growing and making Cabernet! Around age 50. Oh, I always liked wine, but did not move in any circles that really knew about or stored wine. Thanks to the blind purchase of my vineyard (wanted a house), and then meeting a wonderful wine “expert,” who would become my mentor, I went to the front of the class very quickly. 13,000 bottles to choose and learn from! My palate remains average in a group of wine geeks, but more astute than the average person. My nose is excellent, and even enhanced since a recent accident/concussion.

Short answer: 50.

I started collecting right after college. So, 22ish. By 27, I had 450 bottles. Then, I had three kids and now I have about 125 bottles.

The ebbs and flows of life, I suppose. I’ll have my wine budget back in about 20 years or so. :wink:

Became interested at 21. Didn’t really begin cellaring wine until I started in private practice at 24. I’ve accumulated slowly and steadily since. I’m now 33. Kids definitely do put pressure on the budget.

Had been interested since high school, thanks to the father of a friend of mine who was an oenophile and would drive my pal and me down to Plain Old Pearson’s in DC when he was in a buying mood, lecturing us about wine all the way. Sampled some fancy stuff (e.g., Chateau Lafite Rothschild, La Tache, Chateau d’Yquem) in college thanks to indulgent parents, a term in France, and prices that were vastly lower than they would be today. Started collecting at age 24, when I got my first job as a lawyer back in 1973.

I was in my 40’s when I migrated from Scotch to wine. It would have been a lot cheaper to stick with Scotch!

Drank it from my early 20s on. Became increasingly obsessed in my late 20s, started learning everything I could, attending every tasting I could get into and travelling to every region I could get to.

In my early 30s I bought a wine fridge and I guess that’s when I started collecting it. Then got into the business and ended up with more wine than I know what to do with. I’ve cut back a lot on tasting and no longer taste thousands of wines a year, but after 30 years still have so much to learn and feel like I’ve just begun to have some vague understanding of a few areas and wines.

I’m jealous of you youngsters. I didn’t start collecting seriously until 2001, when I was 54.

But you’re doing a great job of catching up! [drinkers.gif]

I still have a bottle I bought when I was 21 which was 21 years ago now but it was probably my late 20s that I started putting together a collection. The only thing that stopped me from starting earlier was lack of funds!

About 46.