Too much wine...

WINE TALK
21

I’ve been buying 2013 Barolos I might not live to drink.

Feel free to send some my way, I turn 35 in a month.

22

Not necessarily…

Whoa is me, as well - STOP BUYING!

[bye.gif]

23

Amass it; collect it; look at it; drink it.

I don’t understand these problems. Space? Get more space or don’t bring in any more. Drink it. Gift it. Share it.

What is the big deal.

My most admired person has more than 13,000 bottles and is way in to his senior years. Who cares? He likes to access his playground. He likes the choice. I am of a similar mind.

“Why Worry?” I think that is a line in an Everly Brothers song with Mark Knopfler.

In case no one noticed, I like to cross reference wine/music/sports/food.

24

I’m not quite in your position Todd but I am in the process of putting in a cool room at the house to store my wine, somewhat similar to the opportunity your casita affords you, at least in some aspects. My hope is that I’ll organise my wines in a drink now rack and a couple racks of “special occasion” aka don’t touch wines. Currently I find my main issue is that I’m operating 4 30ish bottle wine fridges at home that are a bit hard to dig through. I’ve got probably 120 bottles in a mate’s cellar across town that makes access somewhat problematic. Finally I just had 50 or so bottles shipped directly from Piemonte a couple weeks ago that I haven’t even checked as they’re still in box.

My hope is that once I have all of my wines in one place at the house it will allow me to make better decisions regarding what I should open and what I should leave on the rack. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I’ve also told my wife that if I fill the cool room with wine I won’t look for more storage but instead will auction items that no longer interest me. I don’t realistically see that happening but I’m trying to paint myself into a corner so I won’t end up with even more wine all over the place. Given the spacing of the cool room my expectation is that if I fill it I’ll have wine for decades given I’m not a daily drinker.

25

I was wondering who’s wine was spilling over into my locker…

26

Was it the Everly Brothers…or Alfred E. Neuman??

I know, I know, isn’t it crazy? That’s part of the principal focus of my thread - I have all this wine I’ve paid for, that I purchased to consume, yet it consumes ME to think about consuming IT!

27

There is no such thing as too much wine!
Time for a party.

28

Don’t tell him, but Todd also thinks the saying goes, “Dumb’s the word.”

:stuck_out_tongue:

29

Post of the year.

30

I’m such a silly girl that I can’t point you to it with a link, but there is a utube of Everlys with Knopfler. It will not disappoint.

Why would someone at your young age worry about too much wine? I just do not understand it.

31

CkFcQRiFL68

32

I graduated from a 400-bottle wine fridge to a 2000-bottle walk-in cellar over 25 years ago. When it hit about 2/3 full I realized we were never going to drink it all before it started going over the hill. So several hundred bottles went off to auction. Did I learn? Of course not. I have repeated the auction exercise two more times since then. Looks like the 3rd time’s the charm as I have finally curtailed my purchases.

33

Do you want to drink as well, or better, in your retirement than you do now? Do you plan on having as much disposable income in retirement to spend on wine?..probably not. How many bottles do you want to drink a year in retirement? How old will be be when you hope to retire…what do you think your life expectancy will be…then add some extra. Do the math and you’ll be way short. I turn 54 next week and have 5,400+ bottles. I consider myself in maintenance mode…though I did peak @ about 6k 7 years ago. Some people have boats and other spoils…I’ll drink well until I die…hopefully not too soon…

34

Todd –

Several thoughts:

  1. 400 bottles at what I infer is your age is not so bad. I was up to nearly 500 at 35, then I moved across the country and reduced it below 400. Twenty-plus years later, it’s more than double that – which is a bit too much but not utterly out of control.

  2. Take a sabbatical. Reduced income really changes the way you look at your inventory. It’s kind of like that point with exercise where you start burning fat. My inventory is down 5% in the last year – a good start.

  3. And, finally, I can’t help but think:

35

The head of the Wine Berserkers forum having a wine-existential crisis?!?

Would that mean you are going to shut down the page? :stuck_out_tongue:

36

One thing we should all admit to ourselves, and make some peace with, is that discovering and acquiring wines is a significant part of the hobby in its own right. It isn’t solely just to facilitate our enjoyment of drinking.

If I die tomorrow, are all the bottles I’ve lovingly collected a waste? I don’t think so.

Same for guys who collect watches, pens, and other things. The finding and acquiring is a big part of it. Maybe we don’t want to admit it, because it sounds stupid or wasteful, but it’s the reality.

37

To the earlier post, you have to do the wine calculus factoring in how much you’re consuming each year, and the typical age at which you like to drink your wines (tough, as this is highly variable).

So if you just drink one bottle per week and you like to age an average 7 years per bottle, you’re already at 350 bottles. Throw in holidays, entertaining, that mid-week bottle you enjoy, and you can easily double that amount or more.

At least that’s what I tell myself. [wink.gif]

38

One theme I started when I realized I probably had more wine then I could drink is only buy the best. Best meaning highly collectible wines. If I don’t end up drinking them I can sell them and not lose any money.

39

Come visit LAX. Let’s drink through your cellar, ship a case to me. We go big

40

Years ago I built a cellar, and at one point the ordered wines I received were piling up so I rented s bin in a local storage facility. Then it struck me…I spent this money on a 2400 bottle cellar and there is no way I was going to pay to keep wines offsite. I auctioned off some wine, and now everything fits and it is what I use to limit my inventory…if I can’t fit it in, I can’t buy it. My cellar is almost all Burgundy, and at 63 I am done buying new vintages that will take 15-20 years to come around…I already have plenty of those wines I am waiting on. I backfill older vintages if I find things at decent prices, mostly as a hobby since the search is the fun part. But I do find myself saving wines to drink "when they have reached their peak"and instead drink a lot of house wine during the week to keep my hands off the “good stuff”. I think it is time to stop doing that and start opening the good stuff more frequently, and not just when my wine buddies get together. Otherwise I will just be leaving it for my kids…not a bad thing, but not my first choice.