I was a late-comer to wine. Only started collecting in 2005 at the advanced age of ....

Made me wonder about the other folks around here.

When did you start cellaring wine and how old were you?

Are you happy with your early buying decisions?

Got the bug in the late 70’s with Silver Oak. Unfortunately I didn’t venture far from Cali Cabs until we opened our store and were forced to try other wines. [cheers.gif]

I started roughly in 2005 as well…just in time to blow tons of money a year or two later on '05 Bordeaux

I am 55 and started at age 18 (i know). Had to stop at age 27 due to migraines. No wine age 27 to 55. Headaches lifted Jan 2010 and by July 2010 I had my first ever cellar completed - self constructed. It has been great getting back into wine and I appreciate all of you for and endless source of info and laughs. [cheers.gif]

Wow Steve, I’m sorry you had to miss so much for so long. But at least you saved a lot of money.

Started seriously about 12 years ago at the ripe old age of 52.

I started in 2007 after a one day trip to Napa. I was 43 at the time. My epiphany was in the spring of 2005, but the real purchasing began after the trip.

Monte

I started being serious in 2004 at 49.

I started in college, around age 24ish (52 now).

Best thing I ever did was buy about 2 - 3 dozen carefully (lack of $$) selected wines, and put them in a locked metal chest in a friend’s root cellar when I left Montana. A few years later I moved outside the US, and the wines slept undisturbed. I was only able to get at them on visits, which were few and far between. Anyway, I have had almost everything by now - D’Yquem, GPL, Comtesse, 74 Monte Bello, etc. Had the 75 Mouton from that stash 2 yrs. ago. I think a 77 Biondi Santi Ris. is the last Mohican, now here with me.

p.s. the prices back then – [wow.gif]

I started in 96 at the age of 39. I’m into Ca. Cabs so it was perfect timing. I was able to get onto every list I wanted. Prices hadn’t spiked yet on domestic wines, so I was able to buy great wines at good prices. Everything from Bryant, Colgin, Screagle, SQN etc. These are now the foundation of my cellar. Now I build around those and buy more QPR wines with some high end wines occasionally.

I started collecting in 2008 at 43. My palate shifted suddenly to old world which prompted the need to cellar. I’m very happy with my choices except the shift continued more gradually toward more Italian and Spanish leaving me a bit heavy on French. Good problem to have.

A gentle start in 1999 at age 29 moved towards real buying carnage starting in 2001. I created CT in 2003, as I had so much wine and felt my spreadsheet was too wimpy and imprecise.

Started to nibble at collecting in 1991 when I was 27. I guess that’s earlier than many and certainly helps for perspective and most importantly I primarily have wines with some age in the cellar. I recall tasting 1982 Bordeaux in about 1992/3 and thinking boy woulndn’t it be great if/when I have a lot of wines that old. I’ve drastically reduced wine buying in the last few years.

Whomever got you started gets a big [cheers.gif] from the CT community.

I was 26 when i was first poured good wine, a 92 Kistler Vine Hill and a 91 Beringer PR Cab. Damn, were they good.

Seriously started in 1994 at age of 40 which is when I could start affording this hobby. I am very happy with my early buying decisions which was mostly bordeaux and rhones with a smattering of Cali cabs. I did buy a bunch of cases of Australians a few years later which I mostly sold off so no harm. My only regret is not buying burgundies earlier on.

You can blame a Butterfield & Robinson cycling trip to Tuscany and some anonymous wine merchant from Siena who poured a little tasting or 4 wines (Chianti, Chianti Classico Riserva, Vino Nobile, and Brunello) that forever piqued my curiosity with regard to wine. And you can also blame two senior Microsoft folks (one is now former), Andrew Kwatinetz and Steven Sinofsky, who were both deeply responsible for me taking the job that got my wheels turning with regard to databases and the web.

Shame this thread was moved. Enjoying people’s responses and don’t see why this isn’t Wine Talk.

Todd - Funny, I didn’t by much of the 05 BDX vintage - I grabbed the 00 vintage - and then starting back-filling Barolos. Amazing how in just 6 short years many of the same wines (current releases) are now out of reach. I didn’t think the good old days would be so recent. :frowning:

Suzanne - Wow, I thought you were into this a whole lot longer. It was one of our early dinners at EMP - where you brought a Rostaing (I think it was a Rostaing) that kicked me into over-drive. All of the wines that night were eye-openers for me.

I got into wine in the early '90s (I was in my early 20s) after having an epiphany moment with a CdP, and the market was awash with cheap Rhones from the outstanding '89 & '90 vintages. I was buying then, but with no space for storage, putting myself (and later my wife) through college, and several moves, my collection hovered around 30 bottles, growing to about 50 by the end of the decade.

Then, stable in my career and owning a house with a cool basement, I started buying more, although at about rate I was drinking, I was at probably 100 bottles when we decided to move West. We stopped buying wine to save money, and drank up any older bottles we didn’t feel comfortable taking on a Summer drive across the country. By the time we moved in August 2004, we were down to a little more than a case.

It took a couple more years to get settled into a house and build a cellar, so collecting in earnest didn’t really start for me until 2007 or so. I’m a little frustrated sometimes to have a young cellar, having been into wine for nearly 2 decades, and sometimes I wish I still had some of those old bottles, but that’s life. Now at 43 my cellar is just north of 500 bottles and we’re drinking mostly '06 and '07. That tells me, if I want wines with a little more average age, the cellar should continue to grow a bit before I try to stabilize my buying with my consumption rate again.

My interest was piqued in 2003 on a trip to Italy (age 26), and I started buying wine with an eye to aging it after starting a local tasting group a few years later…right around the time we could least afford it due to buying a place of our own and starting a family.

I’m 34 now, and my collection is certainly small by the standards of the WB crowd (generally between 80-100 bottles, none especially expensive), but it has a decent amount of diversity, and there are few purchases I’d make differently, given the chance.

It all started in 1966 when I was given my grandfather’s home made wine to ease the pain of teething. [cheers.gif]
But I didn’t start collecting seriously until 2003-2004 when I was 38. Mostly because I didn’t have the resources to start a serious collection until about that time.