POLL: What is your primary connection to wine? ITB or other?

What is your primary connection to wine?

  • ITB: Winemaker / work for winemaker / active investor/business manager
  • ITB: Other industry role (bottle supplier, quality control, transporter, lab analysis, lender, passive investor, etc.)
  • ITB: Supply chain buyer (distributor, wholesaler, or retail)
  • ITB: Consumer buyer (for restaurant, events, etc.)
  • ITB: Front of the house (Somm, service, etc.)
  • ITB: Broker / Auction related
  • ITB: Writer (wine critic, blogger, other)
  • ITB: Other
  • Consumer: Flipper/Speculator (MORE THAN 25%+ of cellar is for investment/speculation)
  • Consumer: Drinker (LESS THAN than 25% of cellar is for investment/speculation)

0 voters

I am often surprised at the knowledge of this board, and sometimes the sheer # of wines that people taste. I have at time wondered how many people are ITB? So accordingly, I set up a poll to find out. I haven’t seen a poll that wasn’t flawed, so please let me know if I should add a category or just flame me accordingly. For now I have “other” as a catch all. I imagine the poll distribution will be different for avid posters versus lurkers, but for the purpose of this poll… if you are reading this post, please post!

99.999% consumer and daily drinker. Pure lifestyle.

Drinker, 0% for investment or speculation.

Consumer - I intend to drink (or leave for kid) every bottle I buy. Even when I go deep on something I don’t end up liking, I just open for people who will enjoy.

My dad’s brother and sister were ITB,I just drink the stuff…am drinking down my cellar, my wife is an occasional sipper and our kids cd care less.

+1

In my 25 in the hobby I have sold or traded about 50 bottles, but never for a profit. On the other hand I have gifted or donated several hundred bottles to friends and good causes.

Interesting that the “and under” figure for “investing “ is 25%. I bet if it were 10% or even lower the results would not change. Most people are here because they drink wine, not because they sell it

0.00% of my cellar is for investment. I plan to drink everything except for what I leave to my kids and to my wife if she survives me. I have never been paid 10 cents as a wine professional, so I am pretty clear on that as well.

I voted in the winemaker spot. If there were 2 options, I would definitely have included the consumer option, and I do not speculate, flip, or buy any wine for investment. I just drink the stuff, like most others here.

Clearly a flawed poll, for which / @ g r @ \ should apologize profusely

Well, people in the business may have two options. On the one hand, they’re likely in the business of selling but most of them are also consumers and treat those personal wines quite differently. I’ve met very few people in the business who don’t drink wine, although I have met a few. But generally people ITB also enjoy wine and often collect it for themselves with no intention whatsoever of selling any personal wines they’ve acquired.

Bart Starr

Disagree! My personal bias is if you are ITB, that is your primary connection to wine for the purpose of this poll. I could have defined “primary connection” better, e.g., “what do you take most enjoyment from”, but my primary goal was separating those ITB vs. lay folk.

Pure consumer. I probably should sell some wine - things I don’t like as much as I thought I would - but have rarely done so.

I have been paid for working in a wine and liquor store, but that was my father’s store and he sold the store and retired in 1981 - after I had finished law school and was working as an attorney. Now my job is to make fun of older attorneys who are still working.

And younger ones!

Drinker, no investment, flipping, etc. I buy what I like to drink.

Yep, agreed.

I would think most people in the industry are too busy and tired of wine at the end of the day to spend time here.

I like to drink wine and have not bought any bottles that I did not intend to drink since I was 25 years old (at which time I may have flipped some Scarecrow to fund some other purchases). I ended up trading a decent amount of Cayuse for Margaux, but that wasn’t planned when I bought the Cayuse. I just realized that I greatly preferred–and still prefer–Chateau Margaux.

I’m 76 and we’re going to drink every damn one of our 3,000 bottles even if I never kick the bucket.