Death of the daily drinker

In our house, anyway. Because we don’t drink nearly as often as we used to. Health and weight control. So now I have cases (and cases) of wines for a purpose I no longer have to fill. And they are precisely the wines that have no secondary value to mostly anyone. Sigh. I am afraid any number of them will dry out before I consume them.

Of course, the chorus here is almost certainly going to respond “drink more,” which is of course why I love you guys.

It has always seemed to me, that from a health perspective, (with the exception of specific maladies such as liver problems) that it’s more advantageous to drink a couple of glasses daily rather than 6 bottles over a 3 day weekend, while abstaining the early part of he week. Also, the time spent with a loved one conversing over a couple of glasses of wine, with both the TV and cell phones turned off, has to be a good thing.

We never consume 6 bottles over a 3 day weekend either. We are pikers, I suppose. It is rare indeed for us to drink 2 bottles in a night. Almost unheard of. (Unless we have company).

Quality has gone up; price per bottle has gone way up; utilization has gone way down.

Ive sold a lot of my old unwanted daily drinkers on winebid pretty easily. But then again I live about an hour away from them. It might not be worth it if you have to ship the wines.

Time to find a bunch of marinade/brazing/reduction sauce recipes.

i’ve been noticing that the easy access to amazing craft beer in chicago has dramatically reduced the number of daily drinkers i’ve been going through. in the past, i may have picked up a 6-pack of these wines for $120 - $180 total, now i’m more apt to just pick up 1-2 bottles at around the same total cost.

This string can raise the legitimate question of whether or not it is a good idea to stockpile so called daily drinkers. Of course, one person’s daily drinker could be another’s weekend or even special occasion wine. The thing about daily drinkers is that they are readily available in the marketplace. So it would be reasonable to say that a large acquisition of one of these would only really make sense if you liked it sufficiently to drink up in a relatively short period of time. If not, the possibility of being forgotten and at some point to realize that it has gone south or is not particularly desirable at this point in your wine life, can happen very easily.

Along with [u]The Scarlet A-Word[/u], the beached whale phenomenon is the other dirty little secret of this hobby.

Well, except for David Schildknecht - if anyone knows how that dude can sample several thousand wines a year and yet stay in the shape that he’s in, then I’m all ears.

He must have a metabolism which burns through calories like Michael Phelps training for the Peking Games.

See also Prosecco [which, at the lower end of The Great Prosecco Quality Control Bell Curve, has a tendency to taste like a malted beverage].

It’s a shame that we don’t seem to get Zardetto in our market anymore - about a year and a half ago, Leonard LoCascio sent us a shipment of that stuff which tasted like mid-range Champagne [and I am not even exaggerating].

If I were a daily drinkerer, then that’s all that I’d drinker.

I don’t know what your daily drinkers are but most wines that would be bought in the first place by Berserkers will last far longer than most people think without drying out.

I don’t buy daily drinkers anymore. I find it to be a waste of money for me since I don’t entertain much due to lack of space. So I’d rather get good bottles and enjoy those.

Throw a party!

Neal,

We are coming up soon on holiday season. My advice is to gift bottles for the holidays whether it be something you give to the host/hostess of a holiday party, a gift of appreciation (secretary, associate, etc.) or other occasions. Most likely your daily drinker is better than what they are used to and in my experience a bottle coming from a “wine guy” is always appreciated.

^ This.

There are bazillions of outstanding CdRs and cru Beaujolaises and stainless-steel Chablises and Macons and Argentinian Malbecs and German Kabinetts and Loire Cab Francs and no-name 99th-growth Bordeauxs [Bordeaulaises?] and Chianti Classicos and bizarre varietals from the Jura which could be something really special in 15 or 20 years.

It’s a shame that the bottom fell out of the Australian market, though - we don’t seem to get those epic sub-$20 cellar-worthy Aussie wines [like Wynns] the way that we used to.

I never really believed in the idea of a daily drinker. I would rather drink water with dinner than boring/average wine. Doesn’t mean it has to be expensive though. I had a lovely Chenin Blanc this weekend that cost $15. It was a very nice wine and an excellent pairing with some lemon and rosemary grilled chicken. Far from what I would call a “daily drinker”.

As I drink wine pretty much everyday, I love the “daily drinker”. My problem is the daily drinker keeps creeping up in cost! That said, there are so many really good wines in the under $30 class that the label of daily drinker to me is not a pejorative. I’ve bought tons of wine this year right at that $20 sweetspot (Baudry, Thivin, Lanessan, Bouland, and lots of NZ Sav Blancs).

Jeb; Excellent point. I have too much wine as it is and I would rather drink these better (aged) bottles than buy more “daily drinkers.”
Cheers!
Marshall

I could not agree more, especially with the kinds of wines you listed. Unlike many Berserkers, I have been buying more moderately priced wines lately than I have for several years. I can open them without remorse on any given day, but if I forget about them for several ears they will still be fine.

I must admit that I don’t drink that much. A typical mid-week bottle lasts 3 days, if I can drink the whole thing. Most often, I drink half and the rest gets thrown away when the weekend arrives. Other days, I drink a 1/2 a bottle. Travel also eats into the opportunity to drink wine.

But, I do enjoy wine with food.

As for the weight and health issues, I run 35-55 miles a week, and my biggest problem is keeping weight on. The issue there with daily drinkers, is that it is hard to drink the night before getting up at 5:00am and then running 8 miles.

Those are huge miles, Steve. When I hit 30 miles per week with any consistency, weight (muscle, too) pours off. Sweats out the poison too!

Solving the 5 AM problem is easy: run at night!

I have found that my wife and I have been drinking less, as well. My wife wants to lose some weight before we have baby #2 so we are really only drinking wine on the weekend and when we have people over. My “daily drinkers” will easily be consumed in time for football Sundays and the like, but I do think my buying habits will alter a bit away from the average wines that I had when I didn’t want to open $100 of wine per week.