Why Am I Buying Wine?

[A_G_Aguirre]

I think we’re all buying wines because we are holed up with an iPad in our face and we want some comfort and gratification. I noticed auctions were soft early in the shelter in place, but then it went bonkers. People paying stupid money, so I bailed for now.
As far as drinking, what better time to open special wines?
And plus I ain’t drinking as though nothing has happened…
I’m drinking (more!) precisely because of what’s been happening!!

We all tend not to be honest enough with ourselves that discovering wines, acquiring them, shopping for deals, and owning them, is a big part of the wine hobby.

We want to believe, or at least say, that we solely do it in order to have the wines to drink, but that clearly is not the case. If I found out that I have one day left to live, would all the wine I had bought but hadn’t yet drunk be some huge mistake? Of course not. It’s been a great experience.

This is something I’m coming to terms with. That the hunt is at least as pleasurable as the payoff. Well said.

More broadly, I’m still early in my wine life. Still buying a fair bit with an eye on 5-10 years from now.

[markjchambers]

I agree. Discovering and collecting wine can be almost as gratifying as drinking wine. I told myself that I would do a hard stop. I had reason to slow down before this all happened, but I have already slipped. Aubert offers more chards, Bedrocks offers library releases and many, many others are opening their cellars. Lots of one-off opportunities.
And I think about all of the money that I’m not spending on travel.

[Joshua_Kates]

Even the most optimistic analysis of post-virus life is bleak, and the pessimistic ones do not imagine any ‘post-virus’ time at all. The great restaurants can not recreate themselves in their former style, dinner parties of 12 people may be impossible for a long time if ever. It is starting to dawn on me that I have no idea how I will ever be able to enjoy the contents of my collection. Any thoughts about what keeps people’s spirits up that they keep buying and writing here as if nothing had changed?

Hi David,

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you, so I doubt either of us was going to be able to enjoy the entire contents of our collection in any case. Though previous to COVID I’d been trying to slow the buying down, and still am, I have to admit that I’ve been buying more, for the same reason I think others have mentioned. I almost always buy wines I haven’t previously owned, at least not that vintage or bottling (if not producer or site) and everyone seems accompanied by an excitement directed toward the future, some kind of promise of as yet unexperienced pleasure, which in itself is somehow gratifying (at least to me)–more so, of course, when fulfilled rather than disappointed when drunk.

You sound down, so why not uncork a nice bottle or buy a special new one–this, too, will pass. And all of us here able to even pay attention to stuff like this in times like these I think should remember how incredibly lucky we are.