We often buy by the case, or at least 4-6, especially champagne, rose, favorite Rieslings and other food friendly whites and reds. For our very favorites, we buy multiple cases, as many as 10 if a good opportunity comes along on our chosen “house” champagnes. Only for very expensive bottles will I buy 1 or 2. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we know what we like now. I taste unknown wines when others bring them or occasionally in restaurants, but mostly all the great variety out there turns out to be bottles I don’t like as much as what I buy in quantity.
I don’t have proper storage, so I only buy by two’s and three’s of the same wine. I will buy a case here or there, but it’s always a mixed bag.
The miracle of well aged wine is possible only through purchasing a bottle that someone else has matured (I know the risks involved there).
I like to buy 4 to 6 bottles of a wine so I can see how it develops over time. If I get allocated less than 4 bottles of something I want, I’ll usually write a note wish-listing the desired wine, but tell them that if I can’t get 4, I don’t want any. Daily drinkers are multiple case purchases.
Too many wines I want to try to limit my (limited) money and storage capacity to fewer wines by buying large quantities. And many of the very best wines I’ve ever had were way too expensive to buy in quantity.
Only speaking for myself, I rarely buy more than 3 btls and have zero regrets. Its rare that I wished I had gone deeper than 3. Buying more than 3 btls would have meant a much much narrower cellar for me. I have right around 1000 btls. If I had bought 6 or 12 btls of most stuff I’d only have 5 or 6 red Burgundy producers in my cellar. If your cellar is 1500 btls or less, I think 3 is the perfect qty and it forces you not to waste btls by opening them too often. If you have a big cellar and big budget the world is your oyster. I don’t. I also have a pretty good ongoing wish list of stuff I want to try/own and buying six or more btls would make that impossible to realize with my budget and cellar space.
Nicely said in fewer words than I.
Real thoughtful comments from everyone here.
Plus one! Me too!
I always remember what a friend told me years ago when I was able to afford better wines and expanding my cellar. He had accumulated a lot of good wine, and many were in large quantities; He had accumulated so many wines in such large quantities that he couldn’t keep up; His advice was that there will always be another great wine you want and therefore try to buy at least 3 and at most 6 if you like it. Plus when your palate changes over the years you don’t have to worry about cases of s*&% you don’t want anymore
Rarely more than 1-4 bottles of anything.
I’ve bought full cases 4 times in my life (and regretted two of them). Limited storage, limited budget, limited lifespan to drink everything.
Pretty much this.
Limited storage/budget means that if I want to drink broadly, I can’t buy cases. I’m ok with that and generally try to purchase 3-4 bottles of a wine if I think/know I’m going to like it. There are rare exceptions to the rule, such as the Patty Green Berserkers Cuvee, which is cheap enough to take a flyer (though my experience with PG wines suggests the risk level is exceedingly low).
Again, well said. I would add … start with 1-3 if plentiful and then go back for more after trying one.
+1. If price is great, I will load up. Maybe I later share it with friends, but if 6 is good, 12 is better.
I buy mostly 3-6 bottles. If they’re older, more expensive, or wines I want to learn about I will buy 1 or 2. There are only a handful of wines over the years that I’ve bought full case of…or more. When more than 6 bottles it’s either a case of an amazing deal or wines I’ll never be able to get again if I wait.
Examples:
12x 2005 Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant
24+ x 1994 Chateau Musar (too low to type)
18x 1995 Chateau Musar ($38 - $75)
15x 2009 Bartlett Blueberry Winemaker’s Reserve (Winery - only 19 cases sold the rest is in the winery library)
Same here. Maybe it’s a difference of the UK vs US trade (we can buy direct from importers) but the UK trade is focused on case quantities, with some taking the view that if you can’t afford the case you can’t afford the wine (not saying I agree 100%).
For some reason i just feel so spread thin. But i have bought up to a case of one wine which backfired on me. Damm that caymus 2012. But like Jones family the sisters i bought 6 of the 2012 and Riverain i started with 3 but after halfway through the first one i jumped online and ordered six more, so 9. Turley, bedrock and carlisle i easily have case orders but not the same vineyard. With all my other wines in the ones, twos and threes it looks quite messy to me. Maybe i just like things more simplified and ordering from five producers each year makes more sense to me.
CT tells me I have on average around five bottles of each wine owned, but that is skewed by a reasonable number of German auction wines where buying multiple bottles isn’t really possible.
One of my favourite lines is “if the price is right, the quantity doesn’t matter.” Show me a good deal and I’ll buy plenty and share with friends at my cost, or scalp it a few years down the road.
Whenever I find a great bargain on a wine I find to be excellent, I will buy as many cases as I can. So 4, 5, even 6 cases is not unusual. And since the wines are for immediate consumption, storage is not a problem.
When I initially buy the wine, I do not go deep. But after a few small purchases, and consistent love for the wine, I will stack up.
Reading this thread, I’m like most here. Brodie once said to me ‘We’re collectors of bottles in 2s and 3s’ (albeit, he’s got thousands).
For me, there are several reasons for this. A prime one is availability. The sort of Burgundies, Piemontese etc we want are typically only offered in 2-3s. But anyway there’s so much interesting wine out there, I’d far rather have 4 interesting wines in a dozen than just the one, no matter how much I like it.
I have a reasonable number of solo, special bottles and I don’t mind that I might not drink it at the perfectly optimal time (or be able to follow it with another bottle). I more often regret where I’ve bought 6s of wines I feel ‘I’ve tried’ after 2-3 bottles than not being able to replicate a good bottle or 2.
I have a friend who (almost always) buys 3s and I think that is the optimal number for me. You can cover a corked bottle and probably have 2 for a special dinner, if you need them. You can open one early to try it etc. I try now to buy in 3s rather than 2s but rarely more than 4 at any level.