Geriatric Cellar Planning

So, as I approach decade seven of life I’m clearly in possession of enough wine for 15-20 years. As I’m semi-retired, secondary to our nation’s top-tier pandemic management, my wine purchasing is decelerating like a space capsule with the three parachutes deployed.

Will I still really like wine in my 70s? 80s? Will I even be around if enjoyment doesn’t wane? Clearly spending retirement dollars on travel isn’t going to tap me dry. Might have to get a boat to deplete my son’s inheritance if wine buying trickles to a halt.

Election Day thoughts of mortality, and it’s not even a white wine lunch kind of day.

My dad is in his late 70s, and still buying, and enjoying wine.

My wine budget will largely disappear when my wife (probably) retires in a year or two. That’s OK, as I have enough to get my to my late 70s, and will likely inherit a decent sized chunk of my parents’ holdings.

So, you will limit the purchase of your Bedrock winter allocation to just 2 cases now? champagne.gif

I hear you, Doc. First, no more Bordeaux or Barolo and now . . . everything as Father Time combines with Lovely Wife no longer enjoying more than a glass with dinner. My Bedrock comment was only partially facetious; I will have to (meaning “should”) do a serious assessment of my allocation. Unless things go south today . . .

Rather than start a new thread, maybe this is a good place to ask — for those forced to seriously think about what they buy today — what would you tell your 40 or 50 year old self about your wine buying?

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Awesome question [popcorn.gif]

According to a certain country attorney’s father, one’s taste buds get shot as age increases. I’d start buying more shiraz.

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Glenn, I’m about to turn 61 and about 5-6 years ago I thought about the same issue. I love port, but to me it needs to be at least 25 years old to start to be pleasurable to drink, so I stopped buying new vintages of port. Fortunately, you can buy well cellared port from the 1970s/1980s for about the same price as current vintages.

I haven’t slowed down purchasing wines I’ll drink over the next 10 years however. I do want that experience of opening a well-aged bottle when I’m in my 70s. But I’m not buying any table wines that reports indicate that they need 15-20 years of age. I figure I’ll buy those at that time should I want them.

So I would recommend against shutting down purchases but instead tailor what you buy more towards near term drinking. That might be more auction purchases of wine with age already.

Like Graham Nash, I am a simple man, so: go for quality over quantity. Although it is easy to get sucked into “deals”, I’ve had more “meh” moments than “best qpr evah”. I really wish I would have followed that advice when I was 40 and bought more high quality, long-lived wines like Bordeaux, Barolo, etc. to lay down. I am enjoying drinking twice as well (or more) half as often now.

I buy wine since 1970. My rate of buying has never been lower but always higher.
I would consider absolutely depressing to take my death into consideration.

Of course I do not buy the same wines as before, but I continue to increase my cellar.

I have put my new buys, since 20 years in a company which is 75% owned by my children. And there is no better investment than to buy wine. The prices of certain wines have so grown up that my cellar has a value which increases every day even after all what I drink. I think it is one of the greatest assets that I will give to my children when I die.

The fact to think that I do not buy with a limit of time is very refreshing. The domains that are highly represented in my cellar are Romanée Conti, Champagne Salon, Champagne Krug and Vega Sicilia Unico. My children with congratulate me post mortem.

I’m 44, so still at the planning stage, I guess, although I have about a 30 year cellar at present rate of consumption. I’ve been seriously into wine for about 15 years now. I’ve been through the palate twists and turns and now think of myself has having pretty settled tastes in wine. My cellar strategy is depth in certain wines, rather than overall breadth. I hope to follow these wines over decades and get to know them, and use them to reflect on my own time. This also helps a bit with purchasing discipline, though not as much as I might hope.

Well, if you have a shitton of domestic Pinot and > 100 bottles of Burgundy don’t marry a woman who discovers she dislikes PN.

Buy less quantity and more quality

Don’t go deep on blind purchases you haven’t tasted , e.g., based off of Expert scores or Parker/Berserker board posts

When you find something really dialed into your tastes, go long (1) if generally available (+) or (2) seek out in auctions or reputable dealers

Avoid fancy sounding Brunello and Barolo new releases and buy older vintages instead

Buy and drink Burgundy in France only (this keeps me sane and disciplined)

I think that is a given for all of us!

Act 4 Scene 3 for me is red Burgundy. It was my greatest frustration sending me to Piemonte but is now a snug harbor. No, I will never know the joy of a 30+ year old Corton, but thanks to global warming I’m finding plenty of relatively inexpensive Burgs that are a pleasure to drink.

I’m in the home stretch of work and am buying a lot. My rationale is that I wont have to buy when I’m retired,

My father barely sick a day in his life contracted cancer at 68 and died 6 months later. In my mind once I get there its all borrowed time. Thats 11 years away for me. Whatever is ready to drink, any day of the week it will be open season on anything and everything. You can get struck down by something out of left field at anytime and once you hit whatever number it is you have in your mind I say have at it. With auctions and online buying if I want something i dont have or run low Ill deal with buying more then

I’m 57 and I’m struggling a bit. 2013 was going to be my last big Barolo vintage, but then came 2016. So my cellar grows. Ideally I’d like to be slowing down but I’m not going to agonize about it. My plan, like David B’s is to relentlessly drink the good stuff whenever I feel like it. And to try to buy more wine that is ready to drink now, or at least a lot sooner than current releases. With prices going nuts that often means lower than current release $$.

Yep all good. Hmm, starting to hear good things about 2019 Burgundy.

Buy more and better burgundy. Buy less middle tier wine, instead focus on whatever your best is, along with nice daily drinkers.

  1. Buy way more 375s.

  2. Buy way more classic, everyday wines that benefit from age, like Cru Bordeaux, Chianti, Village Burgs, etc.

My parents at 80 still drink wine every night, just as I recall them doing back when I was a child, and like I do as well. Great to have these classic wines with meals on a regular basis. I value them as much as I value the super premium, special occasion wines.