Wine Regrets

if you could have a “do over” and take a vinous Mulligan, what would you do beside building the cellar twice as big?

For me, I would have bought a lot more “lesser” red Burgs in top vintages–AC and premier crus that would have allowed more quantity than the same dollars for grand crus.

That red Burgundy plays such a minor role in my enjoyment of wine.

Instead of 50% champagne, my cellar would be 100% champagne.

I would have filled a cellar full of Beaujolais and Jura reds. I really regret selling my 1996 Salon. I wish I had known about truchot a few years earlier.

I wish I had bought more Truchot.

I regret the lapse in my purchases of Northern Rhones between the late 1980s and mid-2000s, and I wish I had become interested in Barolo before 1996 and could have bought more pre-1990 wines.

Happily, I have very few regrets in what I did buy. I don’t really have anything I’d like to dump.

Well, aside from the obvious “wish I had seen the price escalation coming and bought more of the impossible to afford wines”, I actually wish I had done just the opposite of your regret - buy fewer lower end bottlings, and spend the same money (or more, see preface) on fewer higher end bottles. You can almost always find good, relatively affordable daily drinkers, but the real cherries are much harder to afford and acquire today.

I went to a tasting in the early 90s of the 1990 Bx. They were all stellar - each one better than the last. I bought a few, and still have Leo Bart and Troplong M. The prices were in the 30s D Marks.

I should have bought all the TM I could. Mostly for me, but the resale value went through the roof.

My biggest regret is not getting more interested in wine years ago. We get too soon old, and too late smart! (I know, what else is new)

Wise words that could be used in almost any discussion

Not drunk my Bordeaux and best Cal Cabs so young.
Bought some of the crazy priced wine, just to have them now (DRC, First growths, La-Las, Grange).
Kept track of who was at the many offlines I have been to not just what wines we drank.

Another vote for ‘should have bought more Truchot,’ plus ‘should have bought more Clos Roche Blanche.’

That mixed 1990 DRC case offered for $4500 keeps me awake at night.

I wish i had bought fifty cases of tge 2012 caymus at $60 per. Today they are on winebid at $100 and i have seen them go higher. Sell my fifty cases for tidy profit and buy some Realm.

Would have bought more wines (at lower prices) from out of state retailers and would have purchased more french wines. Also, would not have opened some of the California wines so early.

I’d like the dollars I spent on great deals for very good wine back to convert to very good deals for great wine. I have too many cases of very nice wine that, given excessive overall volume, I should have swapped for a few bottles of great wine.

Wish I would have bought more Cabs from '95 and '01, and less '97 and '99. Actually, no '99 and only select bottles of '97 and saved that money to put towards more '01.

Wish I had a way-back machine so I could buy select Burgundies from '83, '85, '90, and '93 before they went ballistic in price.

Wish I knew about Riesling a couple decades ago.

Got 6 bottles from Total Wine for $55 each before the craze started. I don’t even like it.

Not trying to tell people what they should say, but a thread like this would be a lot more interesting if it weren’t “I wish I had bought a lot of [great wine that’s super expensive now] back when it was cheap.” That seems to go without saying for everyone.

I personally find that I really like aged Riesling, and it doesn’t even have to be expensive or highly rated riesling. The wine character really emerges at 10-20 years old, even for just solid $20 type riesling, and it’s so much more interesting than the sweet green grapes flavor they all have when they’re young. But it’s hard to find aged ones at retail. I wish I had been setting aside a case a year from all but the lousy vintages, so I’d have nice aged riesling to pull from my cellar. I should start doing it now, really.

I drank far too many wines when they were too young, e.g., 1978 Burgs, and 1971 & 1975 German Rieslings.