2018 Wine Goals

[Anton_D]

@Dale Bowers

Drink more, buy less.

Bingo.

That, and trying to not let you crazy people influence me with new finds.

[Carlos_Delpin]

@Dale Bowers

Drink more, buy less.

Drink more, buy as little as my weak self control will tolerate.

[Peter_Petersen]

Will have to check what will happen to my disposable income first.
Most likely I’ll just buy a few cases less from some mailers. I already dropped two big mailers last year: Limerick Lane and Turley. Will probably only buy:
Bucklin
Carlisle
MacD
Ojai
Rhys
TCV
plus some Rhône wines.

[brodie_thomson]

One big goal and actually quite achievable too!

2018 is the year for both of our 60th birthdays → drink some ( a lot) of the special bottles & cellar treasures with friends over the course of the year.

Looking forward to it.

brodie

[Chris_G_l_a_r_n_e_r]

1 Buy less bottles
2 Spend about the same, but on higher quality wines
3 Purchase older, ready or close to ready to drink bottles
4 Stop drinking all of my young wine
5 Take better and more consistent TNs
6 Start exploring French wines

[Michael_Martin]

Buy more on Berserker Day and less on allocation days.

[Mary_Deem]

1 Invest in another wine fridge
2 Drink more Musar - anything
3 Drink more
4 Drink more anything with friends
5 Try more Pheasant’s Tears Wines - especially the whites
6 Explore more domestic wines
7 Drink more weird wines
8 Hang out here more

[bryan_c]

Trim my inventory, figure out a good sweet spot with purchasing/consumption to be net neutral or net negative.

[Craig_G]

Stop watching the K&L new product feed.

[PCLIN]

Buy less and drink less.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Backfill

[Dennis_Borczon]

@Ian Sutton

Hi Scott
Thanks for posting this. For the past couple of years, I’ve tried to be more focused on what I buy, less seeking bargains, but more seeking what I like or want to explore. Ostensibly this came about via having an intentionally size-constrained cellar, and that cellar being full. Here is 2017’s version, with comments on how I did


Aussies & NZ (In relative priority – the lower ones being case fillers more than a justification. More included here than I intend to buy, to allow a specific focus for the Auswine forum)
• Delatite Riesling
• Primo – Moda, Joseph SRS, or anything else from them
• Alkoomi Wandoo if still made
• Houghton Jack Mann
• Explore Aussie Nebbiolo (just had the Stephen Pannell to date) An interesting basic style nebbiolo from Casa Freschi - fair for the price & might seek out their fancier bottling.
• Te Mata Elston for populist Chardonnay fix, but also Church Road reserve if ever available for the full butterball experience.
• Tahbilk Marsanne / 1927 vines Marsanne
• Explore ‘new’ trends but with a hard focus on the more elegant / radical end of the spectrum Adelina Shiraz/Mataro, a newish producer aiming for lower alc%
• Wynns Black Label CS
• Wendouree Shiraz / Mataro
• Woodlands Margaret
• Best’s reds
Zip, nothing, Zilch, nada, etc. The Elston is the one I do need to remedy and the Jack Mann almost happened but I got distracted by other wines. Some of the others are listed more in hope than expectation that I’ll see them


Italy (in no particular order)
• Try more Cascina degli Ulivi, esp. their Gavi
• La Biancara. I loved the Masieri red I tried from them, so try some others but another bottle of the Masieri bought
• More Timorasso
• More Fumin
• Vino Santo from Trentino
• Taurasi, but avoiding high oak/alcohol
• Foradori (Teroldego, or any of their others) x 10
• More Antoniolo Gattinara and Ghemme/Gattinara from Torraccia del Piantavigne (but open to other producers) an old Berteletti & current Travaglini Gattina (Franchino & Travaglini & Vallana on order). Honorary mention to a Donnas, Carema and Vespolina, the latter two picked up in Torino.
• Try another Lacrima Morro d’Alba
• Drei Dona and San Patrignano from Emilia Romagna x 7(Magnificant, Cuvee Palazzo & Pruno, plus an Avi)
• Hauner Hiera (plus other wines from them) (Another Hiera picked up in Torino and another red from them )
• Explore off the beaten track regions / grapes x quite a bit. Definitely expanded my horizons.
• Tiefenbrunner Feldmarschall (to explore ageing it)
• Occhipinti reds + explore other Etna producers not pushing oak / alcohol Just the Frappato for now, others may follow.
• A bottle or two of Brachetto
• Cantine Del Notaio reds, rose or sweet wine
• Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (bad show Ian - why do these always drop out of the basket?)
• Isole e Olena Syrah
Plenty more bought

ROW and generic (in no particular order)
• Keep the Ch Lamartine Cahors topped up, including the odd magnum
• A little more Pinon sparkling Vouvray
• A little more Madiran / Bandol or similar from Southern France
• Traditional / Rustic Gigondas
• Keep drinking sweet wines, and backfill esp. in halves sort of doing ok, but I do need to order more
• Occasional German Riesling , ideally with a little age and continue tentative interest in German Pinot Noir I’ll cheat here and include a South Tyrol Pinot Noir
• Keep exploring Spain & Portugal – perhaps including some Buçaco red x lots. Buçaco white purchased, plus a couple of bottles of Colares, and quite a bit of Bairrada, some Dao, Douro, Alentejo and Algarve. Two rioja, plus Tondonia halves, vinho verde ‘discovered’.
• LdH 2005 Rioja reserva reds
• Musar Rosé
• Any interesting mature wines, but not too many over-mature x lots, but I think I need stop the buying of very mature / over-mature wines. I like the experience, but it’s not so popular at home
• Grab 2-3 other left-field natural wines to explore the genre a little more My 1st Pet Nat bought and good enough to rebuy! Nothing too weird, but I’m enjoying what I try
• The odd purchase off the beaten track e.g. Greece, Romania, Slovakia A fancy Chilean Carignan, but at only 8 countries represented in 2017 buying, perhaps a little too narrow.

Now to start thinking about 2018

Regards
Ian

Wow, I think you should consider goal #6 above. What else do you do during the week besides collect wine

[Russell_Faulkner]

Sell more than I buy. In volume and value.

[Ian_Sutton]

Hi Dennis
Actually not as bad as it looks - 120 bottles purchased in 2017. Lower than most here I reckon.

The aim is to make sure, of that number, I’m buying stuff I really want, rather than just stuff that’s a good price. There are impulse purchases in there, but I do try to ensure that orders have a good proportion of stuff I really want, plus a few random ‘whim’ bottles, rather than the other way round. I’m definitely not rigid about sticking to the list (how boring that would be), but it’s been useful in keeping a little more focus

Regards
Ian

[alan_weinberg]

buy much less and drink much more. Same plan as every year wherein I fail miserably.

[Bud_Carey]

Amen to that!!!

[Dennis_Atick]

Drink more Rousseau!

[Ian_Sutton]

So to 2018. Here’s the initial take, which I’ll probably tweak over the next week or so (though I always reserve the right to alter the plan - it is a poor plan that cannot be altered)

Aussies & NZ
 Keep an eye out for : Delatite Riesling, Primo – Moda, Joseph SRS, or anything else from them, Alkoomi Wandoo if still made, Houghton Jack Mann
 Explore Aussie Nebbiolo
 Te Mata Elston
 Explore ‘new’ trends but with a hard focus on the more elegant / radical end of the spectrum
 Best’s reds

Italy
 Try more Cascina degli Ulivi, & La Biancara. Or other more radical natural producers
 More Timorasso
 More Fumin
 Vino Santo from Trentino
 Taurasi, but avoiding high oak/alcohol
 More northern Piemonte Nebbiolo-led wines
 Try another Lacrima Morro d’Alba
 A bottle or two of Brachetto
 Cantine Del Notaio reds, rose or sweet wine
 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
 Isole e Olena Syrah
 Top up the ‘value’ nebbiolo from a local merchant

ROW
 Keep the Ch Lamartine Cahors topped up, including the odd magnum
 A little more Pinon sparkling Vouvray
 Occasional German Riesling
 Vinho Verde esp. from Soalheiro
 Sidonio di Sousa – reserva or Garrafeira
 Re-expand to explore a few more countries than last year
 Explore France a little more via a trip there
 Try a Xinomavro or two from Greece
 Keep trying Mencia wines

Generic
 Audit the cellar, mostly to re-order the ready to the top, and the unready to the bottom
 Keep up the low-key exploration of natural wines. Especially from Kofra coffee shop.
 Keep the buying of very old wines in check
 Organise a local tasting
 Don’t forget to open the occasional bottle of Port
 Don’t forget old favourites
 A few more Cab Franc / Cab Franc-led wines

[James_Wright]

remember how fond i am of beer…

[Warren_Taranow]

I vow to fail miserably at any attempts to rein in this madness. Just like the last few years, but more honest.

Cheers,
Warren