TN's when buying new wines is no longer exciting because you're old....

…so it’s time to take inventory, enjoy the wines you have, each one you drink leaves a hole that will not be filled with some new release, and you’re basically watching yourself die…

Just received my Rhys futures I paid for in 2003. With interest think I funded the Corralitos vineyard. And I’m OK with that because I’m bad at math! Those 500 ml’s are adorable and if you open one you can say “I’m not an alcoholic.” You’re wrong, but you can say it. Rhys Horseshoe Vineyard Syrah 2014: Umm, no. Other than the lack of garrigue at this point, it has every hallmark, fruit and structure, of a great wine, especially in the vast ocean of mildly interesting black fruited California syrah this really stands out as one of the best ever. But upon the first sip, instantly recognizable as, put the cork back in, let it sit on the counter a week or so, and let the remaining bottles sit at least five years, guaranteed 93 points in my mind, for my palate more likely 95. Eee ventually. No not stemmy or bretty or reduced-y. Just great and young-y.

2002 Brogan Summa Vineyard Pinot
One bottle: tired, nice try, you’re not your dad but nice try.
Second bottle…whoa…ridiculous bargain, great pinot. a little more structure than your dad’s style but with plenty of richness, the terroir shows through, open and rich but coastal not Russian River. Best Pinot buy I’ve had in a long time and there’s nothing in Burgundy this good at this price (shut up about your Volnay Passetousgrains Gevrey Village Cru Bleaumejolie, you’re wrong).

Clos Saron 1995 Riesling (meaning probably Renaissance not Saron) out of magnum:
I think it started with J. Thomas Dundee pinot. The idea of, this is local, this is small, this might be weird, vintage variation, bacterial spoilage might kill you, but doesn’t all of that become intriguing and addictive?
At this stage of life this is my favorite winery. Super Bowl I brought a mag of 2005 Cuvee Mysterieuse and I want the leftovers back, definitely a big structured complex great red, judged in the style of huge Napa cabernets I’d give it a 97 especially given the lack of cloying oak. Anyway the Riesling: gentle chalkiness but good fruit weight, with lobster and the trimmings it was perfect. I mean perfect.

2005 Chandon de Brialles Pergawhamma Virginless whatever this is WHITE WINE
Gentle and quiet white wine at first, it totally changed into a gentle and quiet white wine, absolutely flawless with a weight to it that gently sat on the tongue, one of the most beautiful unassuming perfect sort-of-rich dry white wines I’ve had.

Big dinner lotsa wines
2001 Chave St. Joseph was really beautiful. I’m not a garrigue fan but the garrigue here was like Thai food for white people, gentle, but I don’t ever want more of it than this, just wow in every aspect, beautiful wine.

1989 Huet “99 Points”:
I’ve opened two of my three bottles this year and both times I’m trying to figure out how to experience the tweener sugar level. Yeah yeah it’s great yeah yeah look how Rothko put the red ABOVE the blue this time yeah yeah

Raen, Occidental and Fort Ross, both 2014
Wanted to love this, having met some Mondavi family members, loving the fact that this Mondavi is just trying to make the best wine he can, from exciting cool climate coastal sources…Not for me. Yummy but not quite delicious, user friendly, some structure, full, flawless, but not much upside. Two different cuvees, two different structural profiles, same impression. Might it dramatically improve with aging? Maybe. But I’d much prefer being sneered at and told to eff off by the 2014 Rhys Horseshoe syrah than be welcomed by these.

This is really good writing. Nice job.

Stoopid question, but which Huet? There are about a dozen or so bottles it could be.

The passage of time and the change that accompanies it is a big part of what makes involvement with wine worthwhile.

In my cellar I have taped an index card over each label and written on it the average score of the wine and the bottles are stored accordingly. I can tell instantly whether the wine is white or red and what its score is. I find other details superfluous. But I just now peeked under the index card of my remaining bottle and it’s 1989 Le Mont Moelleux Premiere Trie. Huet names its wines according to directions on how to find each vineyard. This means, “To Reach the Mountain Take a Left at the First Tree.” I don’t really need to know that unless I go visit, so the new label I put on the bottle just says 99 Points.

I hope I never get as old as you, I love buying new wines. It’s a sickness that only death or poverty will cure.

I am trying not to prove this true, but I am failing.

In my cellar I have taped an index card over each label and written on it the average score of the wine and the bottles are stored accordingly. I can tell instantly whether the wine is white or red and what its score is.

This.

This is very important. I always do the same thing. Otherwise I won’t know if I’m supposed to like a wine or not. Sometimes I buy wine and I don’t know the score. It’s stupid I know, but occasionally I can find a good score and then my spirits soar for days. Other times, when I can’t find a good score for the card, I get depressed.

When I cannot find a score for a wine I put Suckling 95 and I know the chances are good I am right. If the wine looks heat damaged I put the same thing but just leave out the “L.”

I’m almost 57 and hesitated buying 2015 Bordeaux futures realizing I’ll be around 75 before they’ll be ready to drink and now I have to buy the 2016 Ridge Montebello futures that I won’t get until 2019 and will probably take at least as long to mature. So far none of my adult kids have shown any interest in carrying on the cellar. Ugghhh, I think it’s time to just haunt the auction and other secondary markets and say so long to the futures programs.

It’s folly to think one must drink through their cellar before leaving. Acquisitions are like pieces of a puzzle. Whether or not the puzzle is ever completed is not important. In fact, completion (at least in one’s mind) would be anticlimactic.

I and many of my friends decided a few years ago that we cellared too much Clos de Bourg and too little Le Mont. Brad disagrees but, well, you know.