Started around 1991, and my first big purchase was 3 cases of Rayas '89. And learned a ton real quick, and was smart enough to turn down the $5 increase on the 1990, at $50/bottle. ![[head-bang.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/b1cd199e4b2b2988b5107c3c9598fd28dc92a776.gif "[head-bang.gif]"){kind=small}
![[oops.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1f129ddad071ffe5db6c99817c3cab666035a70a.gif "oops"){kind=small}
Have not been as smart ever since. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Steve,
So funny. So many wines I regret not buying cases of.
Yeah, and so many bald headed wine buddies I regret meeting, who insist that they have more hair than I do. 
2004 at the age of 21. The 04 W-S Westside Road Neighbors was what really got me into wine though. Not in any position to really collect wine at this point, but I have some (~30) bottles I won’t open for awhile.
I started to pay attention (think Wine 101) in the late ‘80’s, on my biz trips to California. If you ordered a glass of Chard, you were cool. I started reading WS and the WSJ for John and Dottie. I was 38. All the wine written about couldn’t be found in NY. Mad me crazy. Zachy’s would have 1 shelf of CA Zin for example, and the wine stores in CA would have a 4’ section with everything WS was writing about.
In 2003 I stumbled into another wine board. I was 50. That’s when the game was just getting started for me. I remember the first case I bought from Posner of a $25 Vigil Meritage. I thought I was a player. I spent $300! I purchased a few French 2005’s that were all the hype then.
Today I’m up to ~200 bottles. I’m Dan Hammer age 58.
Ah yes. 1997 Vigil Valiente. I remember it well. One of my first purchases from Dr. Posner.
Started in college. I caught the wine bug from my father who was collecting California Cabernet and Bordeaux at the time. Growing up, our summer vacations were road trips to Napa and Sonoma. When I turned 21, I bought my first full case of wine, the 1978 Leoville Barton. Less than $100 for the case. Still have a single bottle.
I can’t recall so much as tasting a glass of wine before my honeymoon in Italy (2005 - I was 29). The guidbook we had with us had a small section about Tuscan wines, and we sought them out because it seemed like the thing to do in Italy. We came home with a few bottles of brunello in our suitcase that we bought at a wine shop in Montalcino. When we got back we picked up a few bottles of wines we’d remembered from our trip (through Italian Wine Merchants, I think), and bought a 40-bottle wine fridge. That last purchase seemed a tad obsessive at the time. A 2006 trip to Napa sealed the deal.
in 1984 I went to dinner with a friend who collected wine; I was 28. He brought a bottle of wine w/him. I was terribly embarrassed, thinking that we would be thrown out of the restaurant. Little did I know about “bring your own bottle” or corkage or the fact that he was bringing a stellar wine. It was Beaulieu Georges de Latour PR 1975. Glorious bouquet and palate. Stunning wine to me. Heaven’s gates opened wide and I looked inside. He loaned me a basic book about wine by Alexis Bespaloff and I stayed up all night reading it. A couple days later, he took me to Trader Joe’s where I bought a mixed case of various bottles, setting me back by the then huge sum of $84. Twenty-seven years later . . .
alan
I started “grabbing a few cool bottles” when I was 40 (now 43). Several hundred later, I realize I am a minor enthusiast, but really enjoy the ever changing flavors and experiences on this ride. I started buying lots of Napa Cab and CdP, both of which I still love. My only change is that I don’t buy as many of one item as I once did. I want to experience as many different styles and wines as I can, so no more case buys of one wine (well, unless…)
I have also learned a ton from the group here and appreciate all of your input.
First got into wine with a boss that liked to entertain, name a city and he would tell you where to eat, that was in the early '90’s. At the time I was travelling for work so the thought of collecting was not on the top of the list. Really started in the late 90’s for me, with the '97’s (cali and italy), then the wine cabinet and 2000 bdx came around. Now rounding out to 46 am confortable with my 350 or so bottles, but then again I could easily jump this up by 150 if I tried.
I’m 54 and got hooked on wine while stationed in Franconia, Germany in the 70s at the age of 18. I have always had my foot in the water and worked as a bartender, sommelier and even the Beverage Director of a very serious joint in NOLA but never really started collecting till maybe 15 years ago, mostly Barolo, Champagne and Amarone.
I remember buying Right Banks from 1966 and 1970 from the Macy’s store in Concord, CA, circa 1977, so I was 25. Also bought a case of 1970 Figeac ($110/case wholesale) at that same age. I didn’t hang on to them for more than a couple of years, though.
I’m new here, but this seems as good a place to join the fun as any. I drank single malts and cheap red wine through my college years and [indiscriminately] grabbed an occasional bottle of red wine for years thereafter. Drank a lot of Bogle, Rosemount, and Yellow Tail more out of rote than enjoyment. My a-ha moment was the 2003 Opus One in early 2010: wine was suddenly interesting. Started learning shortly thereafter (though “the more I learn, the less I know”), and started collecting proper in fall 2010 at the age of 29.
Welcome, Aaron. 
It was 1998 or 1999. I was 34 or 35 and a craft and micro brew beer guy. I HATED wine.
One of my neighbors became a buddy. He was hugely into wine. He and his wife organized a wine club where they would talk about a region and its wines and then everyone would taste 8-10 wines that Gunnar had selected. It was the hottest ticket in the neighborhood (so to speak).
My pal invited me several times and I repeatedly declined, stating my dislike of all non-beer related alcohol. (after all, I had tasted Mad Dog 20/20, Boones Farm, Blue Nun and Mouton Cadet as a kid/teenager). I remember telling Gunnar, " No, not my thing … Sipping wine and saying something like ‘Tastes like feet.’. He laughed and thought I was crazy (and stubborn).
Anyway, my ex finally insisted that we attend one of these events, if for no other reason that our neighbors were there and everyone wanted to be there. The first tasting I attended was a white Burgundy tasting. We learned about the Cote d’Or. I tasted and experienced the mineralogy and flavors of the various appellations and vineyards. I was HOOKED.
My pal was “amazed” at my supposed palate. I told him what I tasted and he claimed that I was dead one. I ended up ordering a case and a half of the wines from Nejaimes. The next tasting a month or so later was Gewurtztraminer. Again I was hooked. In fact, other than my buddy, I was the only one who liked what we tasted that evening. I bought a 6-pack of 1989 Marcel Deiss Berghaim Gewurtztraminer. It was all over then.
2000 Bordeaux futures soon followed …
Next thing I know, it’s 2011, I have done and quit the whole Cali mailing list thing, I have ventured throughout the European wine regions, experimented with Australia, etc and have 5,000+ bottles. I am now selling wines for the first time and refocusing my collection to my true loves of Burgundy (red and white), Barolo/Barbaresco, Bordeaux, Riesling, Brunello and Rioja.
What a long strange trip it has been.
Thank you Gunnar Christensen! (I think?!?)
I’m 51 and started collecting in 2009 after I shorted the market and made millions. OK, that shorting the market and making millions is totally false. I’ve got about 300 bottles now. Our “friend group” were wine drinkers and I loved drinking the stuff but had never bought any of it. I remember getting a phone call one day from some sales lady with a special french chinon that couldn’t be looked up on any wine web site. I bought a case and that was that. Now, aside from being wine drinkers, we’re foodies as well, rarely eating out because we can cook better things in our own homes. For the most part that is true. The wine has gotten better and better as well.
I’m 49 and started in 87. My first “wow” was 1985 Ridge Geyserville and shortly after I was hooked on Bordeaux by 1979 Gruaud Larose. I have focused mostly on Bordeaux, Alsace and Rhone as I used to watch my dad drink them, and also a few Sonoma wineries that we visited and liked. I steadily built up to about 1400 bottles by the late 90s but have moderated my purchases and I think it’s around 1200 now. Just recently I’ve been starting on Burgundy and building up a little collection.
Really two separate questions.
I’m 50, but was not a late-comer to wine: For my 19th birthday in 1980, my college roommates bought me a bottle of 1971 Lafite. The same year, I also had '67 Lafite at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant in North Adams, Massachusetts (no lie, Howard Johnson’s!). Neither are great vintages, but really not bad for a teenager!
That being said, I only started collecting in late 2006, when I was 45. Basically, I wasn’t able to afford it until then.
-Ben
Carollee and I started in 1961, when we began dating. Then it was mostly Burgundy, expanding to Rhône, Italian, and Spanish over the next few years. We didn’t start drinking California wines until the late 60s - early 70s. She didn’t date me until I turned 21 (She’s six years older than I am.). I’d been drinking wines since I was 17 or 18 (at college).