A question for our elder states(men/women)

I’ll be celebrating an advanced milestone age this month, and it occurs to me that there’s a good possibility that I won’t be around to enjoy all of the ‘19 Bordeaux I’ve purchased. This got me to wondering how other people’s buying and/or consumption habits have changed as they’ve aged.

Do you keep buying, knowing that you won’t be around for a particular wine’s peak but trusting that your heirs will enjoy it after you’re gone? What if none of your heirs have the same appreciation you do?

Do you taper off your buying by maybe avoiding the tight tannic vintages and concentrating on the more accessible vintages?

Or have your consumption habits changed as you’ve aged and you’ve begun to drink wines much sooner in their lifespan than you would have when you were younger?

Inquiring minds…

I’ve all but stopped buying. Champagne (which we will never have enough of), aged wines, and half bottles as aged as I can buy them. I buy nothing that isn’t in one of those categories

I think beyond drinking your cellar you may seek to find wines of yesteryear that left an indelible impression and revisit. You cant know who comes after you may enjoy wine with the same gusto that you do. It would be a shame if your granddaughter or grandson utilized your cru wines for wine coolers.

Well, Jim… thanks for not referring to us as old folks. But “statesmen” may be a bit of a stretch.
I’m still continuing to buy, but at a rather reduced level. To me, the search for new wine experiences is important. But I don’t buy wines anymore with the intention of cellaring them. But I do buy wines that I know will need age just cause I want to try them, even if it is infanticide. There are thousands of TomHill sheep here on WB who blindly follow me and I need to provide them with my picks on what’s good!!
Tom

I have made a rather optimistic assessment of how long I want to be able to drink from my cellar. If I don’t end being able to drink for that long, my heirs will have something to drink or sell when I stop drinking.

But I’m not going to buy wines that I know I won’t open before that optimistic assessment comes along. As such, I’ve stopped buying vintage Port, for example, as I already have enough to open a couple of bottles every year from now until then. I’ve slowed my purchases in some other categories but not yet stopped entirely. But one after another, I will stop purchasing many of the most cellar-worthy categories at various points in the 2030s.

Turning 3/4 Century soon, still buying, but space is restricting me somewhat !
Loaded up on '16 Bordeauxs Futures in large formats (Children & Grand Children). neener

Ha! I originally had “more mature” but I figured that would be begging for jokes that would derail the conversation.

60?

I’m 54, so far I have resisted the urge to buy any 2019 or 2018 Bordeaux. I initially resisted the 2016s, but have since bought about 2 cases. The 2014 vintage - my kind of vintage, by the way - was my last big Bordeaux splurge. I’m still buying Rhones, Chinons, Beaujolais, but not wines that are best after 20+ years. I’m trying to focus my buying more on backfilling to fill in some holes. All in all, I am not spending less, just differently.

I am not buying for my 21-year old son, although he has become a champagne fan!

Ultimately I do not want to be hoarding wines to be consumed starting at Age 75, through in truth, I’d like to think that I will be very healthy and enjoying fine wine as much as I do now. My parents at 80 still drink wine every night, though I have noticed my father’s tastes changed to more full-flavored wines over the years.

I don’t but wine for laying down anymore. I’m not convinced I’ll go through what I have.

I do buy Champage, whites, roses and short aging reds along with a couple of fully aged reds, occasionally (but I’m finding fewer deals in that front)

Any of you adopting 30-somethings with wine habits?

58 here
I’m not buying any new vintages which need age.

Pretty much the same in our house as we approach 50 with a stocked cellar - champagne, every day whites/reds/roses, Riesling and the occasional back fill mostly because it’s fun to buy. We stopped Bordeaux and CA years ago. Stopped Barolo/Barbaresco with the 2013 vintage. Don’t drink Rhones much anyway - haven’t bought any for real since 2001 vintage. Stopped serious red burgundy around 2012, with a few 2014’s trickling in.

I’ve thought about this before and I don’t know at what age I would adjust buying due to concerns about the wine outliving me. I’m not there yet. But wine buying is changing in response to changing tastes and pricing which is largely having the same effect.

Not if you’re alive to be outraged.

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I’m 61. Don’t buy any current red Burgundy. Backfill when I can. Still but white Burgs but don’t plan on again beyond 5-7 years :cry:. Buy some domestic but dialing that back too. Still buy champagne, mostly vintage.

Not quite ‘elder statesman’ yet, but old enough to realize you can’t drink it in the grave. Wife wants to dispose of bottles now so not much ‘legacy’ to leave. And plan on losing much of your sense of taste and smell by the time you reach your 80’s and…what’s the point?

Hmm! Definitely the first time I have been called a statesman.

I like my wines older, so the likelihood of me being around when my 2019s are fully mature is zero. But I did buy in some quantity, on the basis having either a cellar my son could enjoy, or could sell. Making sure that provenance is great, having a variety of sized bottles makes sense both from an investment as well as a drinking point of view, and buying young will give him the widest timeline to sell should he want to.As the world gets crazier, having wine seems to be a decent hedge. And that he is showing serious interest, I am pretty sure that if he does decide part with them it will be to trade.

We don’t buy or cellar wine for consumption by us when they mature. We lost all of our collectibles in the 2014 earthquake. Being in the business we get opportunities to purchase mature wines. Sometimes we drink them, but most times we hold them in the cellar for local winemakers and a few customers who are collectors.

63 here. I generally just purchase whites, champagnes, and early maturing reds. But I fell off the wagon and bought Bordeaux futures, but most in 375. I’ll still drink them. I have no problem drinking something most would consider too young. I have plenty of older bottles to compare them against. It’s the experience. If I end up with a huge stash and can no longer drink, I can flip them or give to my nieces and nephews. Right now I’m tempted with the 2016 Shafer Hillside offer. Willpower.