Acquisition vs Consumption

Some smart person once said “to everything there is a season”. This past winter season in FL has seen me acquiring a lot more wine than we are consuming. We have not changed our average weekly consumption significantly; probably we are even consuming a bit more. Apparently, I am in a “season” where my wine eyes are bigger than my wine stomach. (I blame WB!) As I start organizing for our drive back north, I realize that we will be taking back quite a few bottles, but also finally recycling a lot of corrugated bottle shippers.
What does YOUR recent in and out wine flow look like?

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A bunch of us who have been “suffering” from the log phase growth of our cellars have been doing a monthly review for the past year in hopes of reducing.

I’ve bent the growth curve but have not crossed into net negative growth for a solid quarter.

Jim,

I am so guilty of this. Just “discovered” Champagne.

Cheers,
Doug

I’ve spent the last three years building up a cellar of about 250 bottles, mostly new releases and in need of 5+ years minimum. As a young guy, I’m good with that size for now (and out of space!), so I plan for acquisition to roughly equal my annual consumption, which is about 30-40 bottles per year not including “weekday” drinkers.

Acquisition vs Consumption?

I don’t see them in opposition. Usually I acquire before I consume, unless someone else is providing.

And if I am really desperate, I slip into a wine store with a corkscrew in my pocket. . .

Noting Eric’s post above, I would like to see how that works out with 250 bottles. We go through more than that each year.

A 250 bottle “cellar” is probably small by Berserker standards, but in the real world, people can’t believe I’m storing so much wine. It’s also an off-site locker, so I don’t pull from it often, which is great because the wines mostly need a few more years - even the domestic stuff, for my palate.

I don’t consume alcohol daily, but I probably drink beer just as often as wine, enjoy a cocktail, and don’t often BYO to restaurants.

Aha! So you need to cut back on the beer and cocktails!

I fully admit that I love buying wine even more than I love drinking it!

This.

I love a deal. Most of my free phone screen time is spent searching for new bottles and good deals on things I know I like. I also steal out of the house and search in brick and motor stores when I can. This happens less often now than when we didn’t have kids.

Generally we drink 75 bottles a year and buy about 120. So we are steadily creeping north of 300.

TW

I don’t drink nearly enough based on my buying. Cellar is getting out of control.

David Bueker nailed this one… confessing that likes buying wine more than drinking it. I’m at 50/50. My cellar fluctuates wildly because being ITB I almost never buy in stores or on line. I refill my basement about quarterly with mostly my own wines, then also do trades of multiple cases with some of the distributors I work with. Then I buy sporadically at auction, but never just a few bottes and rarely just a few cases. 5 - 10 mixed cases at a time.

I’m gonna die with a lot of wine in my basement. The current count (not including roses and everyday whites) is a measly ~35 cases, with probably another ~10 off-site. When I die, someone else is gonna drink them. Because I’m pretty good at not letting them go over the hill, they’re gonna enjoy them.

Enjoy what’s in your glass tonight.

Dan Kravitz

carpe vinum !

^this.

As I am moving all the wine previously stored elsewhere into my new cellar, the depth of my derangement is becoming all too clear…

Don’t worry, brother. Help is on the way to sort it out. We’re here for you.

I resemble that remark. I have been trying for decades to develop a drinking problem, but I have failed. However, steadily creeping north of 300 is a neighborhood I sped through about a decade ago. It’s much worse.

What David said

Are we " Wine Hoarders Anonymous " ?? [scratch.gif] rolleyes

Yes. Cabinets, cellar, crawl space, cubby holes, and cold corners of stairways/rooms all full. More wine coming soon:-D

I woke up this AM to news about the first-ever photograph of a black hole. Got me thinking a bit about a black hole model of wine acquisition. I have not developed this model beyond stealing this simplified graphic as a starting point:
wine hole.gif
My preliminary hypotheses are that (1) many of us are being drawn in the direction of the “event horizon” beyond which there is “no return”, and (2) that some of us may indeed already be beyond reach and incapable of escape. Quoting an expert: “The event horizon – a.k.a. the point-of-no-return – is not a physical barrier, you couldn’t stand on it. If you’re on the inside of it, you can’t escape because you would need infinite energy. And if you are on the other side, you can – in principle.”
Some of us who are still on the other side of this “event horizon” may want to develop a strategy that will convert this possible escape ( i.e. “in principle”) to an actual escape before it is too late.
Just thinking . . .

I understand the part of the spectrum you are describing.

I think of it this way…


(I think one of only a handful of Garfield strips I found funny, but this one has held up for over 39 years!)