I think it comes down to opportunity cost of the experience. The price of the bottle vs. alternative uses of that capital: travel, dining, clothing, donating to charity, home improvements, savings, etc.
I like this answer best.
You’re sort of answering your own question here. You place an economic premium on the anticipated novel experiences with some or all of these wines, and their provenance.
You can look around at the secondary market, factoring risk into the price (which should vary by source). If you can see you could buy 3 mature wines you’d like to try, plus some cash to spare, for every one of these wines you’d think about selling, you might have some easy choices. If the effort, risk, attractiveness of the alternatives, premiums, shipping, taxes, etc. close the margins, it could also be an easy decision.
I went through this last year and put a few cases up for sale on CC of wines where I wasn’t particularly excited about drinking them in comparison with what I would do with the money (redo my bathroom). It ended up being more complicated than I had anticipated and I only sold a little over a case and then the quarantine hit before I could hand off a bunch more to someone who had been going to visit NYC. Maybe I’ll start over when everything settles down. Or maybe not.
But as David says - if I’d regret drinking the wine then it’s time to sell.
As long as I didn’t need the money, I’d rather have the wine.
This. I am constantly churning my cellar (partly to make room for new purchases, which I largely finance through selling). There are a number of wines I hope I will never decide to sell, but some of them are also very hard to think about opening as well. Everyone has their own bar set at which they are comfortable buying a wine, even if only rarely. I have mine (which fluctuates, but is probably in the $200-300 range). Above that, for me, the dollar value factors into the “enjoyment coefficient” enough that it becomes more difficult to think about drinking, so I tend to sell things that appreciate above that level. Though there are exceptions.
I also agree with Buek’s answer - when the pleasure (or other utility, like paying rent if - just hypothetically - you suddenly lost your income) of selling it would be more than the pleasure of drinking it.
This may “never” happen, and thus the answer would be “never” - if you either have so much money that the marginal pleasure of more money is low relative the pleasure of drinking the wine, or you have sufficiently trained your mind not to think about the fact that you could make an entire mortgage payment or take an extra vacation or buy 3 cases of some other wine by selling that one bottle.
But if you’d not enjoy the bottle because even while drinking it you’d be bothered by the alternative uses for its value, and/or because you’d thereafter be tormented by the decision to drink it rather than sell it, you should sell it. If you’d be tormented thereafter by that decision, you should not.
If you’d be tormented either way, ask your Wine Therapist.
The house analogy doesn’t work for me. You don’t burn the house down in a moment of enjoyment versus choosing to sell it to move to the next house.
At this particular time, the trip to Italy seems like such a fantasy, but it will probably be possible in your and Carolyn’s lifetimes. I remember the one magnum madness we got to attend at your place and the great stuff that Roy and others brought. Those experiences bias me toward opening the special bottles in the presence of those that will appreciate the shared experience. It’s a difficult thing to economically value, but it has such tremendous life value.
If money is ever a concern, look at the reality of having lots of other stuff that will provide as much pleasure opportunity as the unicorns and do what benefits you. Consider it a dividend for having passion for the hobby.
Great thread and hope you are well.
Cheers from Durham,
fred
Never too much when paired with fish tacos or good friends. I gave the La Tache away to FMIII and Nordhoff which we all drank together with Seiber.
If you drink it and it’s corked how disappointed will you be? If the answer is disturbed in the least because you could have sold it for $x then you should sell. If would you say “no big deal“ let’s crack another then you don’t need that money.
You got in early and made The multiples work for you. What are the chances that wine is going to go up 1000% from here. I’d think not very, therefore you can probably buy the wine back at minimal premium from here if you ever really wanted to. My guess is that if your even asking this question one would never do that.
I doubt very seriously that I ever sell anything I have, unless as David notes, I no longer enjoy drinking them. My premium wines that have gone up crazy in price - Juge being just one example - are so squarely in my wheelhouse that they will never be sold unless my palate fundamentally changes. And I never want to get to the point that they are “worth too much to pop” when I want one. I recently popped both a Rougeard and a Juge recently, totally on a whim, and both have been two of my most memorable wines all year. I don’t want economics to change that.
I look at it like this:
Will the money I receive be worth my time and hassle of selling it? Also factored into that equation is the value I lose in not being able to enjoy the wine. I strongly dislike the hassle of selling, which is why I have only done it a couple of times.
That said, I do seem to have a perpetual list of wines in my head that I’d like to sell because they’re now worth more than I’d be willing to pay for them and they’re not squarely in my wheelhouse. I’m on about Year 5, or so, of annually telling myself I’m going to gather them together and send them to auction, but that damn Time and Hassle thing …
If the wine doesn’t deliver, it’s not worth it. You can spend $300 on Allemand Reynard and absolutely love it, but you can also spend $300 on Dom and find it to be somewhat unremarkable. I’d have a running calculator in the back of my head while drinking the Dom, but be fully enamored and taking in the moment with the Reynard.
Depends.
Look, a few thousand dollars in profit is not likely to change your lifestyle. Unless you are desperate for some extra cash, drink 'em and enjoy 'em.
Thanks for that. Really appreciate this comment. It’s a great reminder of the real value in life. And it’s true for me, when I have good friends over who truly enjoy wine I get excited to pop open the best wine in my cellar, sit there and enjoy the company and completely appreciate that bottle and never look back. I think that’s unfortunately something that doesn’t present itself often for me (maybe why I’m here and glad to have found the community). Even my wife has turned down glasses of Romanée-Conti and DRC Montrachet on several occasions to keep her diet, so that tells you her limited interest, lol.
But one of my fondest wine memories is sharing a bottle of 2012 RC a few years ago right after release (I know, infanticide) with a good wine friend and both of us sublimely enjoying the moment and still talking about it to this day. I wouldn’t trade the memories of that experience for even the obscene amount of money that bottle could fetch now or in the future.
Unless I missed it, I haven’t seen this comment yet. It’s highly unusual that I ever check what a wine that I own is worth. It doesn’t factor into the equation really at all. I generally remember what I paid for it. If I didn’t think it might be worth it, I likely wouldn’t have bought it. Yes, sometimes I do hesitate to open more exalted wines, but it’s more an issue of trying to find the perfect occasion rather than anything to do with how much it is currently worth. Do you take an artwork off your wall and sell it because it has appreciated 5-10 times in value since you bought it, even though you still like it? (I suppose it might be different if you really needed the money for another important purpose, but thankfully I have not been in this situation).
A dollar is a dollar. It doesn’t matter what price you paid for it. Will you spend the market value $ to buy a bottle and drink it for the experience?
+1. It seems rational not to drink anything one wouldn’t buy at the same price one could sell it for minus the costs of selling.
A few thousand dollars wouldn’t change my life either but that doesn’t mean I’d overpay for something by a few thousand if I had the choice.
Money is just money. If wine was simply a rational exercise it wouldn’t be any fun at all.
$500 and it’s for sale.