A question for our elder states(men/women)

WINE TALK
21

I’m 55 and adopting a similar strategy. I’m buying more wines for early to mid-term consumption, but then I haven’t liked much Bordeaux I’ve tried since 1996, so that’s never been a focus for me. I have no children (you’re welcome, world!), so things like 2016 Piedmont and recent Burg vintages will probably be some of my last, especially because I like these wines with age. I’ll continue to buy Loire, German, and Austrian whites, and Champagne for sure, as I find us drinking more white wines and the cellar has more reds that will need drinking over the next 10-15 years.

22

I stopped buying wines that take more than 10 years to age. My kids aren’t that much into wine so I won’t be leaving it to them. I’m down to about 900 bottles which may still outlast me.

23
24

This is my favorite answer. It seems like so much of wine is for future generations. It’s harder in the US, where we don’t have as much continuity of multi-generations living together, being less transient, and perhaps having a family cellar. I’m 38, and have already told my seven year old nephew to be prepared to inherit too much wine. My nephew also enjoyed touring and tasting wine at Felsina though. I often think about the time investment in top wine. It really takes generations to clear a vineyard, plant grapes, wait for the vines to get old enough to make good wine, then wait for that good wine to mature. I tried to plant some vines in Ohio–but without an electric fence, it’s futile with our deer population.

I say keep the cellar full and make sure your descendants know of a good auction house or buyer if they aren’t into wine. I don’t think wine is the best investment–but I don’t see it losing value and if you already have the infrastructure of a cellar, might as well keep it full.

25

53 and I stopped buying new vintages with 2016. Still backfill some wines that i know I like a lot, but think I am pretty set for the future unless my tastes change.

You can always sell a well stored cellar if it comes to that.

26

I will be turning 65 on Sunday and like many of the other alter cockers in this thread have cut way back on wine purchases that need long aging. I have bought no 2009, 2010, 2018 or 2019 Bordeaux and just a bit of 2014, 2015 and 2016 (and some of these in half bottles). I still buy some red Burgundies, including some Grand Crus, but I have about 1/3 per vintage as many from the vintages of of 2012-2107 as I do from 2010. A decent percentages of my purchases since after 2010 have either been continuing buying producers I have previously liked, buying wines when visiting producers in Burgundy (a good bit of overlap between the first and second categories) and buying my new love of red Chassagne Montrachet from Ramonet and Moreau.

I also am buying German wines on a more targeted basis, but still buying a good bit of them. This is because I have a lot of German wines. Similarly, I love white Burgundy but in this case I am afraid to keep them too long, bought a good number for me of 2014s and am trying to somewhat manage future purchases until I drink some up. In German wine and white Burgs, I am not really thinking about stopping purchases but more worried about inventory management.

The one category where I am buying more than ever is Champagne.

27

I’m now 64. I like wine old so I stopped buying red Burgs w the 05 vintage, at which time I was 49, though I was in my 50s when they were actually released. Figured I’d buy the occasional new release steal and also backfill. Sometimes I’ll buy recent release lesser appellations so my wife keeps away from the real expensive bottles that need more aging. Whites I continue to buy. But I’ve got more wine than I will ever be able to drink and that is the real issue, regardless of age. So far I’ve failed miserably on all accounts and continue to buy. I’ll be on my deathbed interrupting last rites to place one final internet order, I’m sure.

28

Not to get morbid, but people may be sleeping on the wine price impact of the baby boomers selling all their accumulated wine that they can’t drink…strikes me it may be considerable over the next 10-20 years.

29

In my early 40s and am currently buying a large quantity of ageable wines for the next 20-30 years and then I will dial back buying wines that need to be aged long term.

30

Imagine the look on the s/o’s face when they realize that you left them with a 10K charge card bill.
[cheers.gif]

31

Could be. OTH, could be one huge Irish wake!

32

Sure,
R U Blonde, under 30 & of the “gentler” sex ? [snort.gif] [wow.gif]

33

I didn’t buy wines for price appreciation. I bought it to drink and to collect (I don’t collect stamps, baseball cards, electric trains, Barbie dolls, etc., but there is an aspect to wine like that). In fact, to me, there even is this “collecting” aspect after I drink the bottles because I now have added this wine to my wine knowledge, experience, etc.

I don’t view my wine as an investment asset so the benefits to me of prices going way down (I could buy things I currently feel priced out of) are greater than the detriment.

34

66 here. Bought some ‘19 Bordeaux. Seems like a good buy. Screw it. But I don’t wait on Bordeaux to age to near death levels like some on this board, and, I focused on things like Branaire and others that I hope have earlier maturity, and a few 375’s.

35

So you are buying things that only need 15 to 20 years of aging? Nothing like switching to Northern Rhone, Roilette Cuvée Tardive, and Baudry for wines that don’t need aging [rofl.gif]

36

That’s not a bad idea Andrew- I have a full cellar now and I’m sure it will be full when I leave. My family isn’t into wine at the same level I am and will look to unload it for the cash. I’d rather it go to someone that will appreciate it instead of a reseller.

37

Laugh all you want, but if you really think every wine of the type I reference needs 15-20 years to shine, you and I have dramatically different palates. Personally I prefer my Beaujolais, except for Roilette, baby fresh. Many Chinons show well within 5-10. Just had a 2010 Baudry Grezeaux that was totally in the zone. The base Baudry wines, like Les Granges, show quite well on release and are really nice daily drinkers. Raffault, sit on those! And many Rhône vintages, including 2014 and 2011, including some 12s, have shown really nicely since day one, acknowledging that I am sitting on the bigger vintages like 2013 and 2010 for 15+. The 2014 Juge is smokin right now. The 2011 Gonon has been great since release, just had one a couple months ago that was solid. So at least for my palate, your premise is quite wrong.

38

I will be 47 years old the day after tomorrow, and I have been thinking (and collecting) with my likely future need for wine in mind for a couple of years now.

For starters, when I got into wine in college I started working ITB which carried into what has been a very nice secondary profession in appraising/broker referral. And so, with that kind of access, and courtesy of many tasting groups both local and in NYC, I have at this point in my life tasted just about everything I have ever wanted to explore. I started drinking wine 26 years ago, and about 15 of those years were spent focusing on it with quite a degree of obsession. And so, for me, many of the magical discoveries are over- as is the impulse to do frequent trade tastings or large dinners where we go through 30+ epic wines in one evening.

Also, my father and grandfather both- at around age 70- out of choice chose to simplify their very exciting and complicated lives, and that included getting out of hobbies that require a lot of chasing, buying and collecting etc.- wine being a key example. They continued to lead interesting lives, but more cerebral ones if that makes sense. I rather like that approach and while I may not get rid of my wine cellar at 70 and just enjoy the occasional daily drinker, at this point I am not making significant purchases of bottles where I see their best days starting after I turn 70. If I change my mind later and can still afford it, I can always go to auction. That is a key point for all to consider I think. Unlike the last generations of wine drinkers, we now have a reliable and highly liquid secondary market in which a great portion of the best bottles are bought and carefully stored by investors who care about provenance. It has never been easier to buy good mature wine if you take some care in your sources, and I do not see that changing in the future.

Finally, I am now at a point in my life where I like to enjoy wine in very specific settings. When at home in Austin, if I open a first growth Bordeaux or great Burgundy- it will almost always be over lunch at Chez Nous. Second place would be at periodic tasting group dinners (in terms of frequency- not quality.) And then when I am in NYC, I always like to have one really good blowout dinner, a very serious tasting or two upstate with friends there, and a casual tasting or two back in the City with a mix of ITB and collector friends. In one average week in NYC, I will open more bottles from my cellar than I would in 3-4 months at home.

Outside of that, and certainly now with COVID ongoing, the only other time I might open a really great bottle is at home to see something young evolve over a day or two to keep my hand in knowing what is going on with wines in my cellar.

Thinking through all of these things resulted in my reducing of the cellar by about 50% over the past two years, and keeping new vintage acquisitions to a minimum. I bought 2018 Chateau Palmer only because it promises to be so singular a wine that I really want to see it evolve as long as I can. I bought some 2019 Bordeaux because the prices were great and early notes suggest they will have a lot of up front and mid-term appeal. Beyond that, I am not making substantial purchases of new vintages with the exception of Germany since the aging curves are a bit shorter- though I am agonizing over whether to go ahead and get some of the amazing 2019 Auslesen at auction this year since it was such a good vintage.

That said, I am still buying older vintages of certain things when I see a particular use for them. A recent favorite was a very fine looking 1928 Mouton-Rothschild. It just so happens that wine will be 100 years old when I turn 55 and officially become a senior citizen. Somehow I think the sting of that milestone will be lessened by having a 100 year old bottle on the table for dinner that night- and happily one of the two choices I know of (Latour being the other) that is most likely to still be alive and well.

39

I theoretically stopped buying new release Burgundy after the 2010 vintage (it was going to be 2008 but Maureen hit me with a stick to get me to buy some 2010s). I kept buying a few bottles of one favorite inexpensive (for Burgundy) producer for a while but even that stopped this year.

The last new release Bordeaux I bought was 2008 Magdelaine. So I guess that was around 10 years ago?

As I hit age 60 last week I am only buying wines that fall into one of the three following categories (an implied fourth being that I consider it affordable)

  1. I know exactly when I will drink it in the nearish future. This includes inexpensive wines for drinking by myself in these covideous times, rieslings that I can open when Arnold is over, or wines for specific wine dinners (not a factor at the moment).

  2. Wines that I’ve always wanted to try. This might be a producer I’m curious about or a vintage I’ve never had.

  3. Aged wines at retail or auction that I don’t have to wait on (or at least not for too many years). Trying to cut back on these especially now that I have far fewer opportunities to open them. It’s difficult but the inventory reduction thread helps a lot :slight_smile:.

40

That is a great point Tom. I imagine 20 years from now, there will be significantly more pristinely stored 2000 Bordeaux with impeccable provenance available on the secondary market than there are pristine 1982 Bordeaux available now…pick your region, and legendary classic / modern vintage of choice. Going back to my youthful pursuits, it’s similar to why there were so few mint Joe Namath “rookie” cards available when I was a kid, but my son can find hundreds of Gem Mint Peyton Manning RC’s with ease…When the manning RC was pulled, it immediately went into a plastic protector, while Broadway Joe typically found himself impaled upon bicycle spokes!

Happy (early) birthday!