Poll: At what age should your parents have given you birth wine?

At what age should your parents have given you birth wine?

  • 18-21 - right at legal drinking age
  • 22-23 - college undergrad
  • 24-26 - masters or post college
  • 26-30 - doctorate or starting out young adult
  • 31-35
  • 35-39
  • 40+ I’ll just let them know when I’m ready and I need the free storage anyways
  • They should have just consumed it all.
  • You call this a Poll? I don’t answer flawed Polls

0 voters

I’m always curious what actually happens to all the birth wine that gets bought for children. To me it must be a hard hobby to share with children due to the fact that you can’t really share in it until your adults. If you have a story to how the transfer actually went and was appreciated feel free to share as well. My parent were teetotalers so I was late to any knowledge of the wine world. That said I don’t think I would have appreciated it until somewhere past 30.

What’s still hanging around by the kid’s 21st birthday is sent to auction after finding out aged Bordeaux really doesn’t go too well with vegan meatloaf. [snort.gif]

[rofl.gif] the best laid plans…

My daughter was born in 2016 so I’ve been using it as an excuse to just hoard 2016 N. Rhone and Burgundy. Cause nothing a 21 year old girl wants more in life than mags of Dujac and 3Ls of PYCM. LOL LOL!!!

My daughter is also 2016. Have a mix of price points and mix of 750 and magnums, plus sauternes for a wedding toast wine. My thought is she can do with them what she wants to, and hopefully will be smart enough to drink the village stuff first and all of it with her parents. Plan to give it to her at 26, which I believe is age a person becomes (more) comfortable in their own skin.

My real plan is to buy my daughter some 2016 Cristal and Dom Perignon (from what I read it’s being bottled). She can then decide what to do with it when she comes of age. Probably appreciate those two more than Burgundy or Rhone.

Robert, I’m with you…I wouldn’t have appreciated it until I was 30. So I chose 30, but I think if I had a kid that was showing interest at 21, i’d Be tempted to give it to them 2-3 years into their wine journey…so I know they’re invested and that it’s serving the intended purpose.

Our oldest turns 21 this fall.

  1. The Friday after Thanksgiving is always a big party, and each year I pop open a dozen or so wines that are also 21. It has always gone over well with the newly minted 21 year olds and parents and GPs.

So, first use is a blow it up party.

  1. We will send him off with a mixed case of birthday vintage and some small verticals for him to share with his friends.

  2. After that, a steady trickle for the rest of my days, and a huge bolus if he ever starts to stock a cellar of his own.

My Daughter showed up with this last weekend. Seems the cardboard box is too much work for millennials to carry, so they discard it. She won’t be seeing any of her 1998 Right Bank Bordeaux for at least another decade.
Wine.JPG

My nephew was borne in 2016 and I have been gathering wines from that year with varying drinking windows to share with his parents at family event as he grows. My guess they will need a drink from time to time over the next twenty something years. [cheers.gif]

I did not grow up in a house where my parents consumed wine at all. My dad got into it later on in life and still enjoys it quite a bit - but at 92, can’t ‘taste’ it the way he used to.

I think this really comes down to establishing wine as part of the ‘culture’ of your household - if it is not, then the idea of gifting wines to kids who are not ‘taught’ the joy of sharing this beverage with others will somewhat be lost. But perhaps that’s just me . . .

Cheers.

Lol. We used to do that waaaay back in the day while playing frisbee golf, cheap box wine looks just like fruit juice. The bags were surprisingly durable so we would just throw them to each other.

Maybe more a Sconny thing than Millenial!

lots of nice bagged wine now. Stuff made for immediate consumption.

This resonates with me for sure. My stepson is 9, and he tastes every wine we drink with dinner when we have him with us - mostly just dips his fingers in and puts them in his mouth, but sometimes takes a sip - and we talk about if he likes it or not. We have quite a few 2009 wines for him stashed away, and hope that making wine a part of his everyday life at home, and something he can share with us, will help him grow to love it, too. We’ll certainly open some to drink with him at home before his 21st, if he shows interest. I hope that, as an added benefit, having it be something familiar and available to him in moderation will help avoid crazy teenage drinking behavior. That may be wishful thinking, of course. :slight_smile:

My parents had terrible taste in wine. Anything they would have bought would have been far, far over the hill before I reached drinking age. I voted, “should have consumed it all”.

Some of the best advice I ever received on this topic was from Brian Pattrick, who posts here from time to time.

Drink the birth year wines WITH your children, don’t just give it to them. I bought a bunch of 2000 & 2002 wines for the kids, assuming I would give them a cellar starter someday (1st home, wedding, 1st career job, etc), but I’m pretty sure the idea of pulling bottles for dinners with them throughout the rest of our days is more valuable to all of us. If there’s anything left when we either pass or move into the old age home, they get whatever’s left. Hopefully to enjoy with those they love.

It’s hard to play “slap the bag” when it’s still in the box.

House warming gift once they have their own place to store it.

I’ve often thought about doing that for my nieces as it seems like a great way to share and celebrate events with a special bottle. Maybe crack one open and then give them one to go to keep or drink as they please.

My parents only started collecting when I was in my late teens, and they were really more drinkers than collectors and only have a small collection now - so no birthyear wines for me. My wife is another story. Her father has always been an avid collector and bought many cases of 1990 classified growth Bordeaux. My wife is now 28 and has only shared 1 bottle of 1990 Lafite with him lol.