Shifting My Cellar

Took a look today at my Cellartracker metrics and I am nearing 1/3rd of my cellar as Champagne (currently just over 30%). I sold off all my Rhone and Burgundy last Fall, which helped create space (and cash flow [wink.gif] ), and while I am still buying still wine, mostly all CA now, I continue to pursue Champagne. It wasn’t long ago, maybe 4 years or so, that I had zero Champagne but I have really fallen for it and now it is in my glass as often as still wine. I don’t buy everything bubbly that is offered, and am more selective, but my focus stays squarely in the Extra Brut to no dosage style, as I personally don’t enjoy things that are perceived sweet. It’s not for everyone and I do take a fair amount of good-natured crap from some of my local Berserkers but I enjoy it.

The goal is 50%/50%, still versus bubbly and it will take another year to 18 months to get there but the goal is in sight.

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Sold off all your rhone and burg…that was bad enough
Then I read that it’s mostly to add California wine? :astonished: [wow.gif]

Blasphemy!!! [berserker.gif]

Say it isn’t so Frank!!

Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, Marc. I continue to buy still wine, but it is exclusively CA, mainly cool climate pinot and chard. The rest, well, is Champagne!

Sold all ur burg?! Did we miss the fire sale?! Dang it! :wink:

Frank, what is your general strategy on Champagne drinking windows? Are you buying stuff that you plan to age for years, or is it near-term consumption? I’ve bought some stuff from Envoyer (I blame you for it all :joy: ), but it never seems to last long enough in the cellar to get any age on it.

Mid-life crisis. [berserker.gif]

I did the same a few years ago but in the opposite direction. Now 90% of the cellar is French with a bit of Spain and California. Agree with you that Champagne is superb.

Sean, I don’t buy to age, I buy to drink. There are a # of good wines from the 08 vintage that I will age some more but I don’t worry about opening anything and wishing I would have let it age. Personally, I like fruit, acid, both when vivid and present.

The wine journey!

I understand this problem, Sean. I went crazy over Pinot a few years ago, loaded up, and now it just sits there. Champagne hardly lasts long enough to get a chill on it.

Then a question for you. If you’re mostly buying Champagne to drink in the next few years, why devote such a large part of your storage to it? You can still drink Champagne as often without having 300+ bottles of it in storage.

Plus, it’s easy to find Champagne from vintages 5-10+ years at retail already.

[I don’t mean that to criticize you or to tell you what to do, but I took your posting this to indicate you wanted to discuss ideas around it. Hopefully you receive my comments in that spirit.]

You can’t readily find the growers FM3 likes sitting on the shelves.

We all make bad choices in life, but some are worse than others. [head-bang.gif] [scratch.gif]

And I’ve some Champagne bought years ago that just sits there because I cannot think of a good opportunity to drink it!

Understood. I wasn’t suggesting he just pick up the night’s bottle from the store on the way home. But there is a lot of room between that and selling off and clearing several hundred spots in storage cabinets, particularly if he tends not to like Champagne as it ages longer.

You’re an odd duck Mr. Murray.

Counselor, it’s not any different than my CA selection in my cellar. It takes time to collect some various things from a producer and test different vintages, including side by side. You know that, as we do that when we drink together.

Several vintages of Vilmart, Marguet, Marie-Courtin, etc, who also make different plots/exposures, blends, etc. And I didn’t sell of a lot of wine, but what I did have was about 80 bottles of mixed Burg and N Rhone, which created the space and capital to play in the space I want to be in now.

And, J Web is right…some of these producers are not on shelves anywhere, which again is not that different than going into a store and finding Rhys Alpine or Matthiasson Refosco. It takes care and focus to find and acquire these, as much as it does for the Champagne I have been sourcing.

need some prevost in your life

Moussé! Leave my Prevost and Aurelien Lurquin alone!!!

Have plenty of Mousse, and some Prevost. [highfive.gif]