On the rare occasions I’ve bought a case of wine I’ve enjoyed/am enjoying following it over the years.
On the many occasions I’ve bought 1-3 bottles of wine I’ve enjoyed drinking them when they were opened.
There are a lot of Burgundies I would never have had the chance to try if I didn’t buy a singleton.
I will admit that storing a single bottle of wine for 20 years only to have it be corked (I’m looking at you 1995 Mongeard Mugneret Richebourg) is more painful that if you had multiples.
On the other hand my large (for me) purchase of 2002 Huet which mostly turned into in investment in bad apple cider would have been less painful with fewer bottles.
Ouch. Yeah, it’s very sad when that happens. But I can recall only a very few number of times I’ve said “I wish I’d bought less of this wine.”
I’m aware my approach doesn’t make as much sense when you’re just starting out and learning. After a while, though, I’ve come to know what I like and I’m not so interested in exploration anymore. Mind you, there are a LOT of different things I like! I do taste new wines with some regularity at restaurants or bars and when traveling, but it’s rare that I find something I like enough to have it again. So mostly I choose to drink what I know I like rather than be serially disappointed.
As others have said, there are a number of factors. Storage space, cost and how far along one is in their wine journey are perhaps the biggest factors for me. For those who are starting out, it is probably better to go wide than to go deep. When I started out, I did not drink Italian wines, Spanish wines, and I thought Champagne was primarily for weddings and New Year’s Eve. Now all have become a larger part of our overall consumption and take up more storage space than I thought. I rarely buy 1 bottle to cellar and rarely buy a case to cellar, but there have been a few recent exceptions! Our sweet spot normally is 4-6 bottles.
I don’t care for the requirements to purchase a half case or full case of wine from wineries. I feel like I am being forced to purchase a specific quantity. I much rather prefer what Rivers Marie does with a minimum bottle purchase that is more reasonable.
Because I do like a wide variety of wine (style, winemaker, varietals, regions, etc), I do not want to bog down my cellar buying 6 or 12 of everything. This is not because I can’t afford to, this is because I want to be able to fill my cellar with many different wines to experience.
Price wise, there are some wines I know are great but do not wish to allocate my spend in one direction. Shafer is a great example. I love the wine but at $300 a bottle I am not going to buy 6 or 12 bottles.
There are some wines I will buy 6 of to trigger a discount or if the winery has special events for customers who buy 6 bottles or more. Spottswoode has a fantastic garden party if you buy 6 bottles of their estate cab.
I started with buying singles to explore different regions, producers, vintages, etc. and have reached the point where (red and white) burgundy is the apex so have now started buying 3-12 bottles at a time of producers I like in vintages I like so I can watch the wines develop. I still buy singles but am trying to do that less frequently. Think that is probably the right answer if you have the space/money to do it (and also don’t hate mature wine).
I will backfill singles and doubles of older wines where it’s hard to get multiples. I generally buy things in quantities of at least 3, for new releases, though. I think having nearly unlimited storage lets me do this more than many people, though.
On a more serious note, there are wines that I buy where I know I like them a lot, but I’m limited by a combination of time, space, allocation and money. I know I like Fourrier’s Clos St. Jacques, and in years when I think Fourrier does particularly well I’ll buy an extra couple of bottles. But I in no way feel like I have to buy a case (or even 4 bottles) of it to really appreciate it. It’s not a wine I’ll open every day, but I have definitely opened for fun or special occasions. Could I afford to buy 4 at a time every time, even at current release prices? I suppose I could, yes. But then I’d significantly narrow my wine purchasing, and I don’t want to do that.
I recently opened 4 bottles I had earmarked for my 40th birthday, of which I had only one. One was badly corked, the rest were spectacular. I am neither particularly annoyed at the corked bottle (it happens*) nor that I no longer have more of the single bottles that were great (that 89 Leflaive Batard…). I also had no compunction about pulling them for my birthday - there was no risk of them rotting in storage; wine is meant to be drunk. I’m just glad I had a great dinner with my friends and we drank some great wines.
*Aged Lignier Clos de la Roche continues to be my white whale. Numerous corked bottles. Have had a number of the 1er VV, which have all been great.
As I’m in my accumulation phase (which after my purchases this year better start slowing down due to space), and I’ve been having this struggle internally as well. By no means do I plan on purchasing 12 bottles of a single wine except as daily drinkers/cellar defenders. There are some producers and specific wines from those producers that I love and would buy deep to follow in their evolution over time (for me, 3 bottles in a good vintage, up to 6 bottles in a great vintage), especially if they are known to age and mature well.
My hope is to drink 1 bottle young, 1-2 bottles medium-term, and 1-3 bottles in maturity to really know the wine. However, I am starting to realize two things. First, there are few truly bad vintages these days, and though there is an allure to having a vertical and to buy a bottle “just to keep the vertical going” I can’t buy everything I like every year due to space. Second, even when many of these bottles are developing or starting to hit maturity, I’ll usually be drinking my reds alone (my wife only likes riesling).
This conflicts with my interest in exploring a little more even though I know what I like, since I don’t want to completely shut myself off from certain regions I really haven’t touched yet that may have good (or better) values than what I currently buy and provide not only diversity in the cellar, but also later drinking pleasure (Loire, Beaujolais for example). I like David’s approach of still getting a mixed case each year to keep trying something new.
Another point I’d add is that while I don’t always buy a half or full case of wine, I do buy many of the same wines each vintage. For example, Ridge Monte Bello. I’m typically in each year for 2 or 4 bottles, but I’ve never considered a full case as I’d much rather have the variety of different vintages.
I think you hit on a couple of things that others have mentioned, but I specifically highlighted this one because it makes being able to afford multiples of a wine make more sense for your house. As a comparison, you’re on track to drink almost 10x as much wine at your house as mine. Don’t get my wrong- that sounds pretty great to me. But it’s just such a different situation that it makes sense it would lead to different buying strategies. If I had to try to supply 10x more wine for drinking to my house, I don’t think I’d even have time to research to do that in 1-2 bottle ranges! Haha
I have nothing to add to this conversation that hasn’t been said before. There are lots of approaches that I assume are working well for the various folks employing those approaches.
My only question, for the OP and others, is why does my approach impact you in the least? Are you hoping to have someone convince you that your (ostensibly well thought out) approach is wrong? Or convince me that mine is wrong?
Oh, of course - consumption certainly impacts buying habits and cellaring strategy. Good point for sure.
In the interest of full disclosure, we haven’t actually consumed 293 just the two of us, though our consumption is definitely up in 2020 - that’s just the easy number from CT. We’ve given away multiple cases since lockdown began, plus sold a few cases, and have now had a few distanced gatherings on our deck. But we do usually consume 400 or so bottles a year, including tons of entertaining, which is probably more than a lot of people.
I wasn’t saying not to swing for the fences. I prefer to also buy one or two “special” bottles with most orders.
I was trying to articulate, obviously not well, that I can see the argument for buying 6+ bottles of each wine if you want to see how it ages, have semi-unlimited funds, and have others to help you drink them. I can also see the benefits to buying a diverse collection of wines such as getting to try lots of different things and “saving” money. It really depends on your goal with the wines you buy. There are definite downsides to having only 1-2 bottles of a certain wine. You could have a bad bottle, you have to be very patient if you want to age it, and you don’t get to enjoy it again if you love it. I would definitely purchase 2-3 of each wine if I could, but it would likely be wasteful in the end and I can’t afford that right now. So 1-2 of each it is for now.
It looks like we are coming to a general consensus that 3-6 bottles of wines that you want to age or follow is something that most people on here are interested in or would like if it’s financially feasible. However, because there are so many good wines these days and money is not infinite for most of us, that most people prefer to have more variety rather than quantity of a single producer/vintage. This makes a lot of sense for today’s wine world. That’s just what I have taken from reading responses so far. I could be totally off base. In the end I suspect it has a ton to do with where you are in your wine journey. If you have a full cellar of stuff you like and aged stuff, it is likely much easier to purchase 3-6 bottles of new vintages than if you are in the backfilling/cellar filling stage. It’s a super interesting topic to talk about.
This will be a very unpopular opinion here, but some rich folks love to rub in that they are rich and therefore superior to anyone who isn’t. Folks that can’t afford to drop $1,200 for a case of wine don’t deserve to try a $100 dollar bottle, and need to stick to $12 dollar wines. In the mind of many, people should never “splurge” on a wine. It’s a damaging opinion that gives wine the “snobby” reputation that it has among many folks.
Everyone has a different preference for wide versus deep in their collection. I’m more the former, but I get why others are the latter.
I’m a guy who would much rather eat 30 different lunches in a month than my favorite two lunches 15 times each. I get why someone (e.g. my wife) would view it the other way.
One thing I do agree with in the OP’s post – once you get down to a single bottle of something you’re excited about, it does get harder to convince yourself to open it. If you have several of that same bottle, it’s easier to open one. I think he describes the psychology of that pretty accurately, at least to my personal experience.
Here is the only sensible and logic-based approach to buying wine, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.
Ready?
Buy whatever the fuck you want and can afford, whenever you want to buy it, in whatever quantity makes you happy. Make your own decisions and keep your nose out of mine.
I think that’s pretty clear but PM me if you have questions.
I think buying 6-12 bottles of wine you love to age for decades is a great idea. But it requires:
temperature controlled storage space for 1000 bottles plus
sufficient funds to support this habit
sufficient experience to feel comfortable predicting you’ll like the wine in 10-30 years.
When I started collecting, I met none of these criteria, and I bought in smaller quantities. Funnily, I enjoyed collecting anyway, and managed to learn loads. Today, I buy a few wines in quantities of 6-12 (good-value red burgs), buy 1-2 of many (SVD zins and a bunch of variety), and 24 of daily drinkers I know we’ll love (Bedrock Lulu and cheaper Drouhin white burgs).
It’s not just different strokes for different folks, some of us are happily inconsistent in our purchasing habits. I don’t think the OP was particularly damning, but I do agree with those who say “live and let live.”
Definitely agree that this is a thing, but I try to minimize/disregard it. Will I be regretful when I open my singleton of '86 Mouton or '99 Verset or whatever, observe that they are the dog’s bollocks (Or not! Maybe they’re corked!), and realize that I’ve got no more? Yes, but that also adds to the romance of it. Ultimately the gladness of having had that exceptional experience, never to be repeated, will far outweigh the sadness of not having another bottle. And then there will be the excitement of discovery and anticipation around finding the next one. I believe I’ll go the rest of my life always seeking out that next unique experience, and that is the reason why I max out at 3 bottles of a single vintage/producer/cuvee