There are only so many bottles I can drink and regions I can acquaint myself. I neglect certain areas to focus on that I know and love. I still dabble in other regions, but my main experience and hence wine collection is somewhat geographically limited.
I’m sure I’m missing some great vinous experiences from:
South and Central America (or anything from the Southern Hemisphere). I have maybe one bottle of Tannat from Uruguay. I’ve had some beautiful Zorzal Eggo wines from Argentina, but they haven’t become a significant part of my cellar, nor led me to buying any significant quantities of Malbec or any wines from South America.
Australia/New Zealand. I was stung by early 2000’s flabby fruit/alcohol bombs and haven’t gone back. This despite some fine wines now coming from there. There’s not enough time in my life or room in my cellar to explore the region’s wines.
And now, the true, embarrassing confession: I know little about and purchase and drink very few German, Austrian (and Alsatian) wines, including Riesling. I know, I know, Alfert, Bueker, Atick, Golodetz, Coley, and dozens of others will now block me and never read another of my posts. While I love the crystalline minerality and acidity, my S.O. doesn’t like any hint of petrol, or sweetness in wine. I can’t blame her though. By the time I got interested in Riesling, I was deep into too many other regions.
The list of wines regions I regularly buy and drink and understand is broad. I still feel a twinge of regret about what I might be missing, and an embarrassment about some major regions where I’m inexperienced, inexpert or unknowledgeable.
Same here. Sampled one or two McLaren Vale cabs from AU and some inexpensive Pinot Noir from NZ. There just wasn’t enough appeal to wines from these countries to pull any money away from European and American wineries.
Bordeaux, I never drink the stuff. The PLCB doesn’t have much to offer. Maybe others can point the way. I also don’t drink port or anything south of the equator.
Yes, embarrassing to post on these things, but:
Australia
New Zealand
Germany
Austria
Italy south of Piedmont (gasp!)
CA Pinot Noir south of the Santa Cruz Mountains
CA Chardonnay ditto
In the past I would have included Washington and maybe Oregon, but I have been working on that.
It’s hard to explore new regions when you are basically the only wine drinker in the house and have very few wine drinking friends living nearby. Whine, whine, whine.
With narrow exceptions—Ridge, Kutch, Sandlands, and 70s/80s Cali Cab—I neglect all New World wine regions. Not because I don’t enjoy Napa/Oregon/etc, but there is only so much money and space.
You live in a remote, wine-producing country - guess what’s on the shelves?
Oh, and a high-wine-taxing, remote, wine-producing country at that.
So anything from further away than New Zealand is just absurdly priced.
Cheap foreigners are competitive enough: Dr L, Guigal CdR.
But decent Bdx, Burgundy? No chance.
So I neglect too much. But only for economic reasons, not interest ones
Graeme
Champagne (due mostly to price)
Napa cab (price, stylistic preference)
Alsace (availability)
Non-chablis Burgundy (price)
CA pinot, chard, zin (price, stylistic preference)
Most of the southern hemisphere (lack of bandwidth)
Sherry (all of the above except price)
Bordeaux-even though I enjoy some of the smaller wines.
CdP-can’t anymore
Napa-same
Rioja-Piedmont pricing went up and something had to give
Sancerre-Sancerre pricing went up and something had to give…
Toscana-only so much cellar space and brainspace
Like most of us, I neglect most wine regions. I just don’t have the ability to learn the wines from more than a few wine regions. Even with respect to the wine regions I think I know something about, I am constantly learning how much I don’t know - sometimes I think the definition of a true wine expert as being one who is finally getting a grasp on how much there is about wine that they do not know.
The biggest portions of my wine cellar are Burgundy (red and white) and German wines. Then, I have some Bordeaux (I feel less and less confident of my knowledge of Bordeaux with each passing year), California (mostly Ridge, Chateau Montelena and Stony Hill), Champagne, the Loire and Piedmont. Then, a smathering of wines from Alsace, Campania, Bandol and Israel.
This means I have no wines (or only a couple of bottles) from regions or countries like Southern California, Oregon, Washington, Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, the Rhone, Portugal (other than Port), Tuscany and regions of Italy other than Piedmont and Campagnia, etc.
USA - Exactly 3 bottles from both California & Washington in my cellar.
Bordeaux - Last bought some '05’s, none since. I only like most of them old & decrepit, apart from some right bank wines which are far too much $$ for how much I like them. Open 1 bottle per year other than some tasting events.
South America - Not sure any part of the continent is really considered “great” for me even if Chile & Argentina make a tonne. Have a few old bottles of Don Melchor I bought 15+ years ago, but nothing else.
Australia - Never bought too much, but stopped completely with the '01 or '02 vintage and sold everything I had.
I’d be fine limiting my cellar to 4, maybe 5 countries the rest of my life, France, Germany, Austria, Italy & Spain.
I do buy some local wines as well, but not with regularity and often more so on a whim if we’re visiting a winery or I happen to know someone.
It’s funny to see a thread like this where France is subdivided into small segments, e.d. Macconais, and places like Spain, or Australia are referred to as single “regions” notwithstanding the fact that there are many subdivisions within both.
Anyway, in my case, it’s most of the regions in northern France as well as Alsace. I don’t “ignore” them as I’ll drink what’s offered, but I don’t spend a lot of time buying or seeking out those wines.
Haven’t purchased much from Barossa Valley, but there are other parts of Australia that are increasingly interesting.
And the past few years I’ve purchased nothing at all from any region of Bordeaux. Not intentionally neglecting anything there, it’s just that attention was directed elsewhere.
A lot comes down to what you define as “great” regions though.
Australia
New Zealand
Portugal
South Africa
Croatia…but I am going to remedy that, I see it as an up and comer.
All American points east of California/Oregon/Washington…all the parts of the country that are not included in Ecotopia.
