At what age do you stop buying Bordeaux?

WINE TALK
21

At what age do you stop buying Bordeaux?

Since I sometimes order from Premier Cru, probably about 2 1/2 years after my death. [highfive.gif]

22

Depends on more than age. Price/disposable income, drinking windows, amount of inventory in the cellar, and current/anticipated consumption rates all influence the buy/pass decision. I’m 57, bought '09s, passed on '10s, haven’t hung up the credit card for good.

23

The more appropriate question would be, “In what year did Bordeaux jump the shark?”
The value from there is looooooong gone, period. Sorry, Bordeaux, it’s not you, it’s me…we’ve grown apart…we need to see other people. Let’s just agree to be friends.

24

I can see that ending in a shit fight…perhaps I could provide you with a new delivery address. !! [snort.gif]

25

I find this one of the more disturbing aspects of wine acquisition / collecting. If it wasn’t for this hobby, I could gleefully ignore actuarial tables…“50 is the new 40” and so forth. But doing that analysis, with a recognition of what’s in my cellar, and that I’m drinking more now that I will be in my 60’s/70’s/80’s has lead me to conclude that I need to close the throttle a bit in terms of buying. What other hobby pushes you into that kind of “how long am I gonna be here” math?

26

The realities here are a little depressing. The lifespan of Bordeaux really seems designed for the wines to be passed down from generation to generation and not purchased, aged, and consumed by the same person. That is a luxury most of us don’t have, but it doesn’t change the fact that all of the Bordeaux that has really moved me has been about 50 years old or more, which means that it probably makes sense to retire from buying Bordeaux before one is even legally allowed to buy it.

27

I don’t prefer fully or even mostly tertiary wines, I’m shooting for consumption by age 15 for everything under $75 and 25 at most for everything above that.

28

That’s a big hill but a man gotta do what a mans gotta do. [wow.gif]

29

Best drinking Bordeaux is the one you inherit…

I stopped with 2009 vintage. Found that I was not drinking much and leaning towards Burgundy. I still like good bordeaux but I have enough.

30

I don’t plan to stop. A cellar is an inter-generational investment. My kids have good taste in wine (though one does prefer white Burgundy to red – quelle horreur!!) and I can think of few better things to leave to them than some great older wines that are ready to drink.

31

I’m 59, no kids to pass my cellar to. I stopped buying current release Bdx 15 years ago, but I won’t stop buying Bdx itself for a while, but I’m backfilling older vintages only.

32

Ah, I see the confusion is continues to be total and ineradicable on certain markets about the meaning of the word “Bordeaux”.
(sigh…).

The younguns who boycott the great growths (which they mistakently think are the be-all and end-all of Bordeaux) may change their minds as they get older… and more prosperous!

Best regards,
Alex R.

33

I’m 53.

Last year buying large amounts of current release Bdx (big boys as well as all the super seconds, etc.) was 2003. I bought small amounts (case or less - no first growth) of 06, 09, 10 just for laughs (and the hope that at least one of my adult children gets into wine). I did go long on 2005 Vielle Cure as a house/everyday wine at $20/$22 a bottle.

34

Good point Keith. I got into this hobby/pastime at an age when I should’ve stopped buying. The beauty of Bordeaux is there is plenty of aged specimens on the secondary market to purchase at what I consider to be affordable prices. Aged Burgundy, however, is not as available or affordable.

When I am in my 70’s, hopefully, the boatload of 2005’s I purchased will give me great joy.

35

Bought some '09’s for my sone (birth year)…

I like my Bordeaux with 40-50+ years of age on them, so i guess I’ll just have to live till I’m 90…

36

I’m 28 and have never bought on release. Don’t plan to either. I just buy what I want, when I want to drink it.

37

Priced tooooooooooooo [cheers.gif] high. When I am old enough to not worry about a jail term, I will plan a heist. Bordeaux 11!

38

you will be burned by bad provenance, high prices, and lack of availability of certain wines; avoiding those problems is why I always tried to buy on release.
alan

39

Last vintage I bought was '98 (a birth year for my youngest daughter) - haven’t purchased a bottle since. But I just turned 57, and this is an equally applicable question for many types of wines - the last vintage I really got serious about in Piemonte was 2001 (although I have bought certain wines in later vintages). I did buy a few 2006 Brunello, and I’m hoping to be able to check them out in my early 70’s. I’ve also bought Burgundy selectively in 2005 and subsequently, so we’ll see how that works out.

40

I’m 66 and buying Bordeaux to lay down for a decade or three (I don’t believe many wines improve over 30 years and consider it enough of a risk that I don’t buy anything to age longer).

A few other comments:

There was a post about taste buds going with age. AFAIK there is no evidence for this.
I used to buy 1st growths on a regular basis. Then I bought super 2nds, then better 3rds - 5ths. Now I mostly buy Crus Bourgeois and relatively minor Graves and St-Ems (including Pessac-Leognan and St-Em satellites). My income has gone up substantially over the years, but not as fast as the prices of top Bordeaux. Also, the minors have improved by orders of magnitude and many are ageworthy for 2 decades or more.
I still buy Palmer, but that’s Sally’s wine. I buy it carefully, obsessive about price and provenance.
Anybody who thinks Bordeaux is priced out of their reach, but spends significant money on other wines, either does not know the region or is a label snob. I have one word for you: Lanessan.

I understand that I will likely pass on (“die”) with a lot of Bordeaux in my cellar. This does not bother me. Both of my sons are teetotalers. Sally likes wine, but our remaining lifespans are probably similar. My wines will not be lost and wasted. They may be consumed by family and friends. Those that are not and that are worth consuming will be consumed by other people and my family will get money from them to spend on other things. I still have 1st growths in my basement, along with 2nds - 5ths. However most of what I own (increasingly so) are wines that will not garner a lot of money if they are sold. But they are mostly salable and will provide some spending money for my heirs and a great deal of pleasure for the purchasers.

Dan Kravitz