Do you calculate your end of life when thinking about what to buy?

[Jan_Janas]

If I knew my “end date” I might calculate accordingly. But, as it stands, this is unknown and I just assume it tends to infinity.

[A_Gillette]

I don’t think I would stop buying wine even if I thought I might die before I drink it. I get a lot of enjoyment out of learning about the vintage and trying and selecting wines for my cellar. That is part of the hobby and to me it is worth spending money on the enjoyment that I get from it.
A

[Victor_Hong]

I have already lived past my “Best If Used By:” date.

[Rudi_Finkler]

My gut instinct tells me that there is no reason for me to hoard post-2012 clarets. So be it!

[asnitow]

Rather than final expiration date, I think more about palate and perception time frame. Even if I am alive at 90 or 100, and medically fine to drink, will I be able to perceive and appreciate wine very well? Will I enjoy the same wines and their subtleties, or would brighter, bolder wines be better for me at that point? Will my lifestyle lend to frequent wine drinking, or will it be more the exception than the rule?

While I hope and expect to live a long time, im less sure that I should be buying for that same eventuality, vs for the time between now and age 75/80. So i will plan/buy with that earlier window in mind, knowing as I approach it I can always shift to different wines for moving forward beyond it if called for.

[GregT]

I don’t know. I hate to be morbid but a few days ago I was having some wine with a friend who’s much younger and I told him the wine would probably last for the rest of our lives. It was an LDH Gran Reserva.

Then I started thinking he was likely to outlast me by a few decades.

That made me depressed, so I opened another bottle.

I’ve always been a bit blasé about buying, figuring that if we have too much, we’ll get through it with friends, etc. But thinking about it logically, I don’t want to start thinking that I’ll never drink something I bought, but that’s more than likely the case. And Alan’s point above is spot on - what if I can’t taste the same things and I have all this wine? If I’m beyond tasting, I’m probably also beyond organizing and selling.

And BTW - did anyone notice how many Alans there are on this site? All worth reading as a general rule!

[Mel_Knox]

I am thinking of buying 2019 en primeur, so I look at the suggested drink date date for each wine. If it 's past 2030 I pass.

Andre Simon is my hero. Supposedly he drank his last mag of Latour the week before he died.

[Robert_Grenley]

At age 65 I continue to buy relatively earlier drinking domestic Pinot from a select few producers, and I have enough longer aging red Burgs in the cellar that are years away from reaching their peak, so I am done buying new vintages of Burgundy after 2015. I backfill favorite producers and vintages (if the prices are right) just for fun.

[lleichtman]

Given that there have been a few threads regarding when someone stops buying Bordeaux, Burgundy, young wines, any wines, I’m just wondering - for the people who decided that they’re not going to buy any more of something, did you figure your lifespan into it and what age are you giving yourself?

I have a friend who’s 85 and still going strong. Loves sherry and wine. One grandfather didn’t make it past 75, the other remarried at 82 and my uncle just passed at over 103. Then I have another friend with an immense wine collection who ended up with a prognosis that eliminates all alcohol from his diet.

I have no idea how to calculate it and don’t mind opening a wine on the young side anyway.

So if you’ve thought about it and made some decisions accordingly, what’s a good age to imagine you’re not going to want wine any more?

And I realize that some people may be going strong otherwise but for medical reasons need to give up wine. Do you figure you’ll not need any more wine at 75, 80, 95, or what?

I am 73 and think about this when buying. I already am pretty deep into the 80’s on lots of wine. I am as concerned about loss of taste and smell that come with age. I also have zero interest in leaving my wines to my kids as they aren’t wine people and wouldn’t care about am 89 Leoville Las Cases.

[GregT]

Maybe some of us should make a pact. I hope you don’t ever lose your senses of taste and smell, but if you do, I can certainly ensure that your wines will be enjoyed!

[David_Bu3ker]

My dad is in his late 70s, with questionable health, and is still buying. I am 53, just got past a cancer diagnosis, and still buy like a drunken sailor.

So the answer is heck no. The executors of my estate can figure out what to do with all the wine.

[David_Glasser]

I’ve often mentioned that actuarial realities preclude me from buying young red Burgs, though my passion and inquisitiveness occasionally overrule my judgment. It’s a hobby and often logic and sensibilities go out the window when looking at something I have never tasted, is at a remarkable price, or that I badly want. As I’ve said before, I’ll probably interrupt last rites* to complete one more internet futures order.

*kidding, not Catholic

This here.

I think about my age and the likely drinking windows, and it has an influence. But nothing so precise as a calculation, and passion often trumps logic.

[Robert.A.Jr]

I’ve often mentioned that actuarial realities preclude me from buying young red Burgs, though my passion and inquisitiveness occasionally overrule my judgment. It’s a hobby and often logic and sensibilities go out the window when looking at something I have never tasted, is at a remarkable price, or that I badly want. As I’ve said before, I’ll probably interrupt last rites* to complete one more internet futures order.

*kidding, not Catholic

This here.

I think about my age and the likely drinking windows, and it has an influence. But nothing so precise as a calculation, and passion often trumps logic.

Yup.

Really well said, Alan.

While some rough actuarial thinking goes into my restraint on buying Bordeaux futures, I seem to have little restraint when encountered with those daily emails with cool hooks, like the 120-year old Cot VV that I bought yesterday, for no other reason than I have not tried Cot before and the write-up sounded fun.

I cannot recall a week where I did not buy something.

[Howard_Cooper]

I’ve often mentioned that actuarial realities preclude me from buying young red Burgs, though my passion and inquisitiveness occasionally overrule my judgment. It’s a hobby and often logic and sensibilities go out the window when looking at something I have never tasted, is at a remarkable price, or that I badly want. As I’ve said before, I’ll probably interrupt last rites* to complete one more internet futures order.

*kidding, not Catholic

This here.

I think about my age and the likely drinking windows, and it has an influence. But nothing so precise as a calculation, and passion often trumps logic.

I think it is sometimes easier to just say what the hell and buy something at our age than it did when I was 50. When I was 50, I had a mortgage to pay, children in college and need to save for retirement. By 65, all that is done. While I have cut back on wine purchases because I have too much wine, every once in a while I buy some wine simply because I want to do so. It doesn’t impact my lifestyle otherwise and if I were to die before drinking it, well, it probably would have appreciated in value anyway and my heirs can sell it together with the rest of the wine I did not drink.

And, for me frankly, it isn’t the 1st growths and DRCs, etc., that are hardest to resist. They are priced so extravagantly these days that they are easy to resist. It is yet another vintage from a winery I have long loved, from a winery that I have visited and had wonderful visits at (and want to visit again), etc., etc., etc. It really is the ones where there is some kind of personal connection that I want to keep buying long past any rational point.

[Dav3_Dyr0ff]

Thankfully, the idea of stopping my buying in certain categories is not the same as stopping my buying altogether. We have wine every night, usually half the bottle on opening and the other half the next night, and it’s not in our budget to open (what we consider to be) an expensive bottle every night, nor do we have the storage capacity to age enough of those bottles to maturity to drink them every night. We tend to open 2 “daily drinkers” priced at $15 or so for every bottle of “the good stuff” we open. We open our daily drinkers anywhere from a month to 5-10 years after purchase, so I certainly won’t have to contemplate stopping my buying altogether for several decades (hopefully, at least), as the daily drinker supply will need to be continually replenished pretty much until we stop drinking.

But for the more expensive categories where I’ve invested the time and money to build up an inventory where, for example, I like to open them (on average) at 25 years old and I have a 25 year supply spread over 20-30 vintages, I’m happy to contemplate the day when I stop buying (say, at age 75). At that point, even without college tuition to pay, I suspect that we will have plenty of other things to spend our money on and of course our income will be limited to our retirement investments and (depending on the political winds) social security, so it will be good to stop buying stuff I’ll likely never open.

But I acknowledge that the pull is strong - it’s easier to say “I will stop buying X” than it is to actually stop, especially when you love X. I just have to think, though, and as I said upthread, that in my 75th June it won’t be that hard to ignore the en primeur campaign and limit my buying to daily drinkers and other categories where even at that age I have a decent shot of living long enough to eventually drink what I’m buying. And sitting on a 25 year supply of good Bordeaux spread over 25 or so vintages should help in that regard.

And if somehow I find myself at age 80 with significantly more income than expenses, I can always start buying mature, even if expensive, wines at auction and drinking those relatively soon after acquisition, and buying fewer “daily drinkers” as a result.

So I’ll still be buying as I hit 70, 75, 80, etc., I just won’t be buying new releases of wines I like to age for decades.

[Markus_S]

… I have not tried Cot before and the write-up sounded fun.

Seriously? A man of your pedigree has never had a malbec before? I find that hard to believe.

[Robert_Dentice]

I just don’t think of it this way. If I had to describe why I enjoy wine it would be 1/4 researching / discovering / buying, 1/4 sharing with others particularly newbies or people who simply can’t afford certain wines, 1/4 supporting many winemaker friends and 1/4 drinking. So I keep buying because I enjoy so many aspects of wine that don’t necessarily depend on consumption.

[MitchTallan]

Did Victor put you up to this thread?
I am going to assume yes despite any denial that you might make.

[Warren_Taranow]

Turning 60 in October changed what I drink more than what I purchase. I’ll open a “special occasion” bottle more than once a week. COVID accelerated that trend. I hope to be drinking well for 30-40 years, but want to experience all I can at the moment.

Cheers,
Warren

[Robert.A.Jr]

… I have not tried Cot before and the write-up sounded fun.

Seriously? A man of your pedigree has never had a malbec before? I find that hard to believe.

Sorry, should be more clear. I’ve never had a Malbec from Loire. I have had lots of it from all over.

Is Cot just a different name for Malbec, or like Serine and Syrah, an actual difference?