Does the market value of a wine u own stop you from drinking it?

At what point does the market value of a wine u own stop you from drinking it?

  • 1. when its worth more $50
  • 2. When its worth more $100
  • 3. When its worth more than $200
  • 4. When its worth more than $300
  • 5. When its worth more than $500
  • 6. When its worth more than $1000
  • 7. When its worth more than $2000
  • 8. When its worth more than $5000
  • 9. When its worth more than $10000
  • 10. When its worth more than $20000
  • 11. When its worth more than $50000
  • 12. There is no ceiling to what I can afford to drink if I love the wine
  • 13. I have no idea what my wine is worth and don’t care
  • 14. I wish I knew what my wine is worth
  • 15. I’m never drinking them. I’m just fondly looking them now and again
  • 16. Dam, I hope none of my high market value wines I plan to drink, turn up flawed!!!

0 voters

I’m facing a happy quandary again. Over 1/2 of my cellar is Burgundy with a decent amount from producers like; Rousseau & Mugnier acquired a decade ago very reasonably on release. I sold off some DRC 10yrs and sort of regret it. I can rationalize selling those because the 3 or 4 btls I sold were acquired under less than ideal storage circumstance locally. My Rousseau, Mugnier, Roumier and a few others were sourced locally with ideal storage just after release. So, now I have btls I paid $160 for worth $4500. Burgundy is my favorite region by a good distance so I’ve always thought I’d say “the hell with it, I’m drinking them” but I’m starting to few guilty as my solid net worth doesn’t justify drinking like multi multi millionaire. Right now I’m still leaning towards drinking them but I am feeling a bit conflicted :slight_smile:. We own our house and are on sound financial footing but I’m not independently wealthy. Just luckier than many people.

BTW, I’d sell anything of value in heart beat if its not in my wheelhouse as long as its worth bothering to sell. For me that would be most modern CDPs. Thanks to CT for capturing the data, I think:).

I see what you are saying. I am currently purchasing wine only with the intent to drink at some point. But if I were hurting financially in 20 years and I could sell off my wine then of course I would. But unless I was in some serious financial trouble I would be drinking it.
I don’t think you should feel conflicted. Life is so short and is worth every drop of good wine [cheers.gif]

Sell some, take a trip with family and drink some on trip :slight_smile:

I am trying to share some of my older bottles with my kids so we experience together - limited interest so far from them…

If you don’t need the money, I’d rather have the wine. You’ll never have them again.

Nope
I bought them to drink.

Hard to drink magnums of 90, 99, and 05 La Tâche when they are worth over $10,000 each and I paid little. I can’t do it. Yes, I bought it to drink, but can’t now pull trigger. And I won’t sell my house for what I paid for it, either.

let me ask you if you have any $10,000 bottles and, if not, how would you feel about opening those?

You may adopt me if you’d like

That is a dilemma, but I try to look at my cost versus current value. While a bottle might have appreciated significantly over the years, my “actual cost” is what I paid, not what someone else is willing to pay. Additionally, today’s value can evaporate quickly, so I try not to get caught up in auction values. I appreciate that DRC, Roumier, Lafita, Latour, etc. tend to hold their value better than many others, but I think the experience and friendship are worth so much more than a cash value. I don’t sell wine, so I guess I can be philosophical about it.

Cheers,
Scott

I think that I’m a little more circumspect in terms of the occasions when I open more expensive bottles, but I don’t really have a problem openings anything at the right time; I opened a 90 RC with a wine loving relative a couple years ago after their wife died. I probably wouldn’t pop it on a Tuesday night, though. That said, I’d probably open 99.99% of stuff I have in the cellar just bc I felt like it. I don’t have a deep a cellar of older drc, Rousseau, etc as some that have been collecting longer but I’ve accumulated a few nice wines.

As is the case with many things, I have not been particularly smart with my wine collecting. I must say I envy (just a little) those who buy, sell X%, and drink for free. To me, that is entirely guilt-free consumption and icing on the cake beyond that. This is a different question given huge appreciation of certain bottles. I would gladly trade a bottle for cruise with my wife or a vacation with the family. Sell all? Perhaps not. But my luxury hobbies include travel (I love me some frequent flyer miles!) so if I can trade wine-related pleasures for other equally important pleasures, then I would certainly consider doing so.

For me, no, but I don’t have any bottles that have appreciated more than a few $hundred. Partially luck and partially I only started collecting in earnest 6 or so years ago. I guess the question I’d be asking myself is - by selling super valuable bottle X will I be able to use that money for something I can’t otherwise afford? If the answer is no then I doubt I’d sell the wine.

The circumstance in which the hugely appreciated bottle is something that I no longer enjoy drinking is quite different. Then, yes, I’d sell it. In fact I’ve done a bit of this with some overly eager early acquisitions. But this was much more about freeing up cellar space for things I didn’t think I’d ever drink then needing the cash.

I’d sell and never look back.

No

Those are my special occasion wines. I opened a couple of 3-5k wines for my 50th. Totally worth it.

For me it is the San Sebastián dilemma. I have written about it before but it is a good mantra.

Which would I prefer a bottle of wine, or a week in San Sebastián with she who must be obeyed, including air fares, hotel, dinner at Arzak and Rekondo, and a lot of Tapas.

There are a couple of bottles that I would want to keep, but 95% of the wines where the pricing has gone nuts, are completely expendable.

I think this much more a question for Burgundy nuts, who face this dilemma more frequently than us Bordeaux nuts.

I have sold one wine in my entire life, and generally intend to drink everything I own. I have some wines that have gone from 50 to 500, one that is around 5000, and I intend to drink them as well. For me these wines, and my reluctance to pop them as readily as I used to, is more about current availability more than price. I have lost my allocations to some wines like Rougeard, and Juge is now gone. Now if we start talking $10k, I’m not quite so cavalier. Depending on how many I had, I’d likely trim some of my stock. I agree with Alan here.

Back to the one wine I did sell, I had several of the 100-point cult Mayas when they first came out. I paid $50 then, and sold a few years later for about $500. Back then - that was 1998 or so, $500 probably was around $5000 to me now. Was an easy decision then. I was poor. New baby. New House. Wife no longer working. Capital contribution to become equity partner. I was darn poor! Daddy needed the green, not the red.

Same issue. I’m a value guy, I live a value life, I think about trade offs in every facet of life.

Here’s a fun couple of questions for those who say they only look at acquisition cost and don’t worry about market value.

  1. You bought a 1999 DRC La Tache for $300. You can now easily (I’ll do it for you!) sell it for $5,000. Do you sell or do you keep?

  2. I’m a generous guy. I’m going to give you a present. And you can choose. Either $5,000 or a bottle of 1999 DRC La Tache. Which do you want?

if a wine I have is worth five times what I paid for it, I will drink it. If it is more than that then it is going to depend on what I can do with that money that will bring me more experiencial enjoyment. It is not about buying something, but a vacation, random dinner experience, weekend adventuring kind of thing.