Many here were diagnosed with interactive afflictions of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Affluenza, and Hoarding Syndrome.
Good advice.
My history is long and boring, but I am lucky enough that my profession and passion were so linked. On the way there were some great times, fabulous events, and a lot of lifelong friendships. Some time ago, I stopped worrying about the notches, seeking out legends, and just enjoying what I have. That hasn’t stopped me being a bit of a wine snob, and I have narrowed my drinking to wines I want to drink, wines I have to drink and wine I won’t drink.
So some advice. This is what I tell my clients who are not planning to invest in wine. Enjoy; wine and food are the greatest hobbies.
I was cleaning my desk out, which I do every twenty years or so, and I discovered some old invoices. Some were for me, some for clients. In 2002, I bought a case for one client of 1999 Rousseau Chambertin 1999 for $2800 and the Clos Saint Jacques $1400. The Roumier Bonnes Mares from assorted vintages was $125, but I was too late for the Musigny, and there was a note to that effect. He also had assorted cases of 1999 DRC for $3200. And just so that Bordeaux was included, there was some Latour 1982 for $285 a bottle.
On the same invoice were some wines which have not appreciated. Bouchard Chevalier 2002 $320 a bottle, Beaucastel 1998 $60 a bottle, Fonseca 1977 at $130 a bottle. My point is that occasionally you will strike it lucky and find deals, and sometimes you will make errors. So don’t worry about missing the deal, and what we old timers boast that we got our wines for. You are hopefully going to drink every bottle you buy.
I definitely got ahead of myself on this when I was added to some wine lists earlier than I’d expected to be. I haven’t figure out how may bottles of each producer I want to store from each vintage when building verticals. Some of this will of course be constrained by my allocations, but I’d like to plan it instead of buying what becomes available. Most of my purchases for cellaring so far have been made based upon recommendations here / professional reviews and trying to establish my position on mailing lists for the future. I rolled the dice with the assumption that they’ll be in line with the tasting notes I read, but I’ll try to snag a bottle from each online to try out and also maintain the three bottles each I have for the future. Assuming I really like them I’ll keep the allocations and continue building it out, if not I don’t mind hanging on to them and moving to the next producer.
The wines I know I’ll lay down and are available I’ll buy from an online retailer after I get mid-term storage installed (CVNE, Guigal, Vietti, etc.), but there’s something about having wines you can’t just go buy that really appeals to me when building out a collection (especially verticals). I figure it’ll be hit or miss until I find the 3-4 producers that I build out for deep verticals and fun along the way.
My wife is about halfway through law school so I did try to convince her that someday we may be in a position where we need to entertain clients of and/or partners in a firm and having a collection of wine on hand could prove to be really useful. She doesn’t mind that I spend money on the hobby overall, but when the allocations came in for Becklyn and Riverrain (after already buying the Lafite futures a little while back) she just laughed at me when I was justifying it for “practical reasons.”
Fun to read these stories.
I’ve been collecting wines for almost 20 years. I intentionally use the word “collect” as i have no shame in admitting that the hunt for bottles, the purchase, the entering into CT, and then simply knowing that the wine rests nearby, ready to be accessed at a moment’s notice, are all part of the fun. Lots more to say, but i’ll offer these two bits of learned advice.
- Don’t turn your nose up at any region, varietal, or producer. As a Europhile, i had no interest in collecting New World wines, including from the U.S. Aside from a lone bottle of 2003 Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet, i don’t have a single non-European wine in my collection. Well, i recently had a wine from a CA producer that i had never heard of–Kathryn Kennedy–easily one of the best wines that i’ve ever had. Can’t imagine what else i have been missing because of my unwillingness to explore new territories.
- Many of my most formative years as a collector were as a grad student, after which i began a career in education, so my discretionary income has been rather limited. Because of this, i now have a cellar full of singleton bottles, most of which i have never tried. For nearly twenty years i have held onto these singletons, gawking at them on cellar tracker or in the flesh, but have never actually pulled many of their corks. The lesson here is, if possible, to buy at least two bottles of each wine…one to try and one to hold.
Enjoy the ride.
Wow. This thread has been really amazing. I have made a section in my spreadsheet for notes from everyone on here that I can look back on every so often to make sure I can at least attempt to avoid some pitfalls. I really enjoy these posts and hearing all of the different stories and journeys in wine. The one thing they all have in common is a love for our hobby (or business in some cases) and a fellowship of people. The main things I think I needed to hear most is to make sure I was patient, really explore a bunch of different areas, and to often remember that I am aging and my palate will age. I already heeded the wise words and bought a larger wine cooler than I thought I would need (I purchased the same one as you Eric J).
Another thing I have really taken from these stories and this forum is the respect and kindness everyone seems to have with each others stories and with wine in general. I think often times people think that wine lovers are “wine snobs”, but I have actually found that to be almost the opposite. Typically wine lovers, on here at least, tend to really advocate that there is great wine at every price and in every region. They also really really advocate to drink whatever you and your palate really enjoy.
I love to hear those stories about old recipes Mark G. It’s so cool to hear about the wine world before I got into wine. It was more of a wild west where personal communication and relationships had a lot more to do with it.
Victor I think you may be onto something 
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Dave- I have made a goal when the black cloud of Covid is gone to start trying to attend more events/tastings with other individuals to learn from personal experience and to learn from them.
Kevin- That is a great point. I have definitely adopted buying at least two bottles of each wine. I too bought many singletons to start.
Eric J- I am going to try that with my wife. She is a stay at home mom with the kids so I will have to say it’s good for “destressing” with the other moms
Thanks everyone for sharing. This is great stuff.
Another lesson I’ve learned - Drink that Wine! It’s fine to save a special bottle that you have earmarked for a kid’s wedding or for your 50th anniversary or for the year it turns 30 from the vintage, but you can’t save every great bottle for some unspecified future time. That’s another way to deny yourself pleasure now and then all of a sudden end up with a more wine approaching the end of its drinkable life (to your tastes) than you can drink before it’s too late. So part of my planning has not only been a buying plan, but also a drinking plan. Maybe during the accumulation phase my plan was to buy 10 cases a year of “cellar” wines and drink 4 cases per year. But I always treated the 4 cases to drink not only as a limit on what I was “allowed” to drink (in order to spur accumulation in the cellar) but as a mandate of what I needed to drink not only to keep the cellar in balance but to enjoy and to further my education and refinement of my cellar goals. Often that “forced” me to pick some of those bottles that I’d otherwise have saved for “someday later” to drink. And I’m glad it did. Someday is not guaranteed to anyone, and you only learn by drinking. So, yes, you can’t accumulate a cellar full of mature (and maturing) wines if you drink everything you buy within a year or two of buying it, but the point of all this is to open the bottles and enjoy them - so do it!
I grew up in a wine region, so wine has been in my life since a very young age. It also explains why I’m biased toward buying local. I drank what I bought until 10 years ago, when we moved to a house with a closet suitable as passive cellar. I have space for ~200 bottles and don’t intend to go much beyond that (although 2020 is a big challenge in that regard). I prefer quality over quantity.
Most of my new release purchases are direct from the winery, that connection is important to me. I love pickup and hate shipping (yes, I’m fortunate to have the proximity). I buy online/at the store for backfilling and bargains. The resulting regional balance is lopsided of course. I’m OK with that as long as I have balance in varietals and vintages, to ensure we always have the right pairing available. Travel purchases and road trips to wine regions help.
Unsurprisingly, most of our inventory is 15 years old or less. I was able to build a stash of older wines by buying library releases (watch out for retiring winemakers) and some auction purchases. Collecting is fun, but drinking at peak my goal.
I got my first wine fridge ten years ago and started off pretty slowly. Partly that was due to budget restrictions and partly as I wanted to explore the world of wine pretty widely to really learn and develop my palate. Pretty soon I realized that European wines are my thing and while at first I felt that Italian and Spanish reds were more approachable than the French I eventually got to a place where 70-80% of what I buy is French and I find it highly unlikely that that would change moving forward, at least any time soon. I buy a lot online but what I enjoy the most is traveling in Central Europe and raiding small private wine shops.
I think you if you have the resources and the cellar space it might be tempting to buy a lot of stuff by the case just for the sake of “building a cellar”. Maybe that can work for some but I see a huge risk there that you end up with a lot of wine you one day realize you do not want to drink*. I have also learned that it is wise to be vary of vintage hype - it is smart to avoid absolutely terrible vintages (pretty uncommon in many classic regions nowadays) but otherwise you are almost certainly better off buying good producers and vintages that fit you preferences instead of the wine critics’.
- not sure this applies to vintage Champagne though. Never heard anyone say they regret buying too much vintage Champagne from good producers.
I am 65 and came at wine somewhat differently from most of you. I started drinking excellent to great wines in the 1970s from my father, who owned a wine store. I started with German wines (many of which were vintage 1971) and classified Bordeaux and premier cru and grand cru Burgundy from the 1960s and early 1970s. So, I early on developed a taste for these wines and for wines with some age on them. I started drinking some California wines a bit later (in the late 1970s when I was in law school and first practicing law in the early 1980s). My first California wines (all from dad’s store) were BV Private Reserves and Inglenook casks and then others I had a bit later were things like Mondavi, Jordan, Chappellet, Sterling, Ridge, Phelps, etc.
I was of the generation that bought 1982 Bordeaux futures at ridiculously cheap prices. For a short time after they came in, I stored the wines at a friend’s cellar, but we bought a house at the end of 1984 and by spring 1985 my father (by then retired) had built me a passive wine cellar in the basement. A few years later I put a two-part cooling system into the cellar to keep the wines cooler, although the wines in my passive cellar never got above 70 even in the summer. When we bought a new house (our current house) at the end of 1997, I bought a prefabricated wine cellar with cooling units - these small units were never that well made and did not last that long) and had this for many years. Several years ago, I had outgrown this cellar and, since we decided to stay in our house in retirement, I had a bigger and prettier cellar built with a primary two-piece wine cooling system and a backup one piece cooling unit.
My thoughts on buying and aging wine:
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Buy quality. This does not mean buy expensive (read Alfert’s posts on buying Bordeaux for excellent lessons on buying quality Bordeaux at reasonable prices). But, your biggest mistakes will be buying ok wines.
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Buy wineries with a track record. Too many people buy wines from wineries that are brand new because they are big and rich and then are disappointed when the wines do not age well - at best they hold as if in suspended animation or at worst they all apart. You can tell these wines on Wine Searcher - the wines where the newest vintages are the most expensive and as you go back in time the prices go down. You really reduce this risk by buying wines with a history of aging well - in California, think of wineries like Ridge, Chateau Montelena, Mt. Eden, Stony Hill, etc., etc., rather that the latest and greatest where everyone is trying to get on their mailing lists.
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Buy sparingly until you see how the wine ages - or find a couple of mature bottles to try. Again, this is buying with a track record, but in this case based on your own palate. This will help you not get stuck with a bunch of wine that is falling apart. We all make mistakes buying wine, just don’t buy too much of the mistakes.
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Taste a lot and don’t just hold wines forever.
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Be prepared for your palate to change. I have loved red Burgundies more than anything else since the late 1970s, but over time I have developed loves for white Burgundy and Champagne, for example, that I did not have when I was younger.
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Diversify. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It is fine to buy lots of a wine when you plan to drink them all young. But, unless you have a lot of history with a winery, diversify. Also, diversify with respect to vintages. Lots of people love 2015 Bordeaux, for example, but there are a number of board members who prefer the more classic 2014s. Which will you like better? You will only know over time.
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Trust your palate rather than wine writers or people on this board. Certainly, I get ideas for wine from people on wine boards and from wine writers, but be careful to makes sure the people who you are listening have similar palates to you. There are a ton of people on this board where I would never follow their recommendations - does not mean they are wrong, but the wines they like are not the same ones as the wines I like. And, on the other hand, when you find producers whose wines you like, don’t worry about poorer scores. Early on (late 1980s and early 1990s) I fell in love with the wines of Jacky Truchot, a small Burgundy producer in Morey St. Denis. The wines did not get great reviews from the Wine Advocate. So, I was cautious, bought less at first, bought more as I tasted more and saw that I really did like the wines and I liked the way they aged. Now, the wines sell for a fortune.
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Keep trying new things, even if you make some mistakes, which is why you don’t buy too much of any wine at first. Experimenting is how I have found wines I like but don’t drink that often like Bandols from Chateau Pradeaux, Taurasi from Mastroberardino and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Pepe (well, I would find these wines from Pepe if I actually could find these wines from Pepe).
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Go slowly. There is always another vintage, always another wine. Don’t build a well diversified cellar. Build a cellar slowly over time of wines you love and have confidence in.
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Most importantly, don’t overthink this and have fun. It is only wine and should decrease your stress level, not increase it.
What an upbringing! And solid advice as always Howard.
Thank you. Do note that a decent amount of this falls in the category of learn from my mistakes.
You are still young. I had my current cellar built when I was older than you are now. No time like the present to build a cellar.
Cool to hear that, I do need to buckle down. I have stuff all over the dang place!
Haphazard and unfocused, starting probably 30 years ago. It was a funky little root cellar built on to the basement that had too much temp fluctuation…and it would sometimes partially flood so all of the wine racks were elevated. I knew almost nothing about age-worthy wines. The contents went through several transitions.
RT
We had it built about 5 years ago. At that time I was beginning to slow down at work. My wife and I made the decision to stay in our house in the burbs after retirement and not move into DC and live more of an urban life. We decided that we could get what we want in the city by driving downtown or taking a subway or an Uber. As part of this decision, we also joined a country club that is 5 minutes from our house and do a few other things to the house. This year, we are very glad we made this decision as it would do us very little good to be in the city and we really need the country club so we can get out of the house and play golf outside while social distancing.
I started to drink wine in the 1980s, I didn’t have much money, so most of my early purchases were cru bourgeois claret. Still back in the day I bought 1988 Léoville-Barton for £11 and some other similar purchases. I found Burgundy thin and acidic and avoided it for over a decade. Over time I found I had an almost pure Bordeaux collection and have spent much of the last decade buying more Rhône, Loire, Rioja etc than I consume in order to forcibly expand the variety of wine I drink. I am now finding I don’t actually like all those others as much as claret when aged. Never mind, it was interesting finding out. I am getting on much better with Burgundy though.
I started collecting in the late 80’s. I never really had much of a plan, I just bought what I wanted to try and later, what I liked. I read, e.g., WS and then TWA, ad read some more and started to identify what might be considered excellent to great wines from the various regions of the world, and I tried some and cellared some. The primary issues for me have always been provenence and cellar condition. I was in NJ and had a cool cellar…but dry in the winter. The cellar was initially just a small rack and a bunch of wood boxes…which was a pain in the neck if you wanted a bottle at the bottom of the stack. On the other hand, that is somewhat advantageous to cellaring for a time because it is such a pain in the next. Offsite helps on that also, but I always preferred having the stuff in my cellar and available. After a few years of this, I built a proper passive wine room and expanded my racking for the whole collection with room to spare. I moved…and built another passive wine cellar, also in NJ. Moved again into an old (circa 1870’s) house with a low ceiling and pipes and wires all over the place and could not reasonably build a cellar, so I reverted to some racks and a bunch of wood boxes…which being the pain in he neck that they are, facilitated keeping my hands off wines that needed cellar time. No I am in Florida and purchased and installed a conditioned wine room…but still have to decide on my back-up power options. I never really got into buying auction wines and older vintages, have always bought futures or on release. FWIW. Also, I try not to get too obsessive about the cellar conditions…I have found with experience that they do not have to be perfect.
I started in grad school. Had just gotten married and was cooking and making my (our) own meals for the first time. Started buying wine to go with the food. Took a wine class at the hotel school as a non-credit class and got exposed to lots of different wines.
Started with some sideways boxes in the basement. Couple wines that hooked me were 1986 Close Rene and early 90’s Caymus cabernet.
Moved to NYC area and started buying. Have built 4 wine cellars (in four different houses). Now up to more than I can count and busting at the seams.
My favorite wines are Bordeaux, but I do California cabs and a few pinots, Italy, Rhone and some others (recently some Spanish). Tried Burgundy (have a bunch of 97-2002)… still trying to figure out when the “drinking window” is.
My kids are now old enough to drink so getting them into it is fun and pulling older bottles for friends who are relatively new to wine (and drinking high octane fruit bombs) is also great.
Cheers
If this is an issue for you, you don’t like Burgundy.