The Shop Is Now Closed: Closing Off My Wine Collection

Berserkers,

I sit here typing away on the board while streaming Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix and sipping away on some white Vermouth, staring at the bottle of Quinta da Romaneira 2004 Vintage Port sitting on the table in front of me. This bottle is of a great significance. It is the very last bottle of wine I will be acquiring. I am now closing off my collection. The shop is now closed. No more acquiring, on to imbibing.

I have been planning on this for a few months now. In fact, I have actually been amping up my purchasing level far more than I usually do in the few months prior to this event with the express purpose of closing off several categories I’ve deemed important such as Riojas, Cali cabs, icewine, etc. for the express purpose of reaching the finite end. Hence the recent threads on Vermouth and mistelles which documented my rapid acquisition and review. I was documenting the final legs of my journey.

I began this hobby with 4 measly bottles of icewine thinking I would never have to acquire anything more than that. I ended up with 610 more bottles that I thought I would by the time it was over. It was great discovering so many different categories: Icewines. Sauternes. German Riesling. Fruit wine. Passitos. Alsace. Port. Fortified wines. Austrian TBAs. Tokaji. Cali reds. Loire Chenin. Champagne. Burgundy. Chateauneuf du Pape. Vin Doux Naturel. Riojas. Sherry. Vermouth. Mistelles. That’s pretty much the actual order of discovery.

I don’t think any of us drink our wine faster than we can acquire. Obviously, or else our collections wouldn’t get so large. So the solution is clear. I must take the next step and I don’t want the make the stereotypical decision of stopping because I’m older and into my 70’s to 90’s and looking at end of life. I think that’s a horrible motivator to end one’s collection, one bereft of purpose and joy. I didn’t want it be mine. And so here I am.

I feel strangely ambivalent now that I have reached my goal. Maybe because it’s really that only half of the journey is done. The next part is arguably even more arduous a task: consuming and imbibing my precious babies. You see, the reason I set my goal of closing things off is that I didn’t want to acquire an amount of wine I would never be able to get through in my lifetime. I don’t intend to leave anything to any heirs if I can help it but to share right now with my friends, family and fellow wine lovers who cross my path in life. I look forward to the second, ongoing and last step of this journey. Drink up.

Good luck with that. For me anyhow, buying wine is as much an addiction as drinking it.

Amen, brother.

Yeah, right. I haven’t laughed so hard since the thread about resembling the cover model of a Harlequin Novel!

I buy more than I consume by a long shot. I have been buying less over the last two years than I did the previous three years trying to cut back. I am still young though so I can not totally stop buying.

610 bottles is less than two year’s consumption.

Are you ill?

If so, we’re all sorry to hear that.

Hahahaha. You are delusional.

You’ll be back!

I think you have the wrong room, sir. Try the door downstairs and to the left.

610 bottles haha, Tran I have always admired your sense of humor. Mods please move this thread to tea totalers!

or, better yet, to teetotalers. Leave tea out of it.

I have over 700 and have been trying to get down to under 500 for years. Stasis is now more realistic. I only buy moderately priced wines, mostly what I like to drink, the exploration stage is over. Clearance sales are hard to pass on both for price and bottle age. The kids will appreciate the leftovers.

I was thinking something like that.

I just don’t understand? 610 bottles. You seemed to indicate the you’re far from 70? 610 bottles…I’m just confused

You would really like vintage Madeira.

I sense skepticism and have a few counter-thoughts.

Re: buying wine as an addiction. While there is certainly an addiction aspect brought on by the thrill of the acquisition, I assure everyone I’m quite over it. Part of the plan of setting a finite plan to the collection was in fact to avoid this turning from a joyful activity of the last 6.5 years into a full-blown spending addiction where I’m buying wine just for the sake of buying it.

Re: being delusional. Au contraire. If anything I think I’m being quite realistic. I consume a bottle a week unless it’s a get-together with friends. At the rate I’m going that means I can drink for 614 weeks straight which is another decade entirely at which point it would be time to start another collection should I be so inclined and have the financial wherewithal to do so.

Re: less than 2 years worth of wine. By my count, I have at least a decade’s. The only thing that could rush this is a Mike Grammer WineFest style extravaganza to depressurize my cellar but I have been talked out of doing this due to the fact that sweet wine is such a large component of the collection and a mostly sweet wine fest would actually be fairly unappetizing to get through from the feedback I’ve gotten to the idea.

So unless I get together with friends every other day and supply all the wine myself, it will be next to impossible to make a dent in this. I’m amazed some of you can drink a bottle of wine a day but I’d like to preserve my liver and kidneys with a more reasonable drinking habit.

You’re not alone in your thoughts, BTW. Fellow TWEC ™ member, friend and pro sommelier Heather MacDougall says I’m be a OIOO now. I asked her what that meant and she said it means one in, one out which is how wine collectors keep their collection steady. I understand where she’s coming from but I have absolutely no interest in doing so.

When my mind is made up to do something, I do it. Barring a sudden massive depressurization of my collection or the invention of a totally new wine I’ve never had before that I must add to the collection, there is no longer any point to more accumulation other than to literally spend money and take up space just for the sake of doing so. That’s just not within my character. I’ve loved putting everything it all together. I’m going to love depleting it even more.

I think its sad that the shop has closed. When starting a shop, it should be thought of as an ongoing concern.

everyone’s preferences change. You may find in a year you don’t want to drink 70% of what you have stored.

Approaching “open letter” territory

I guess I differ from many of you in that I never have actively collected. I don’t chase or wait on waiting lists, although I am on some mailing lists. I don’t seek auctions. I purchase wine I like to drink and I drink it. There is no calculating involved. Seems reasonable to me.