- 21-25
- 26-30
- 31-35
- 36-40
- 41-45
- 46-50
- 51-55
- 56-60
- Over 60
0 voters
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I’m one of the latecomers, at least that have answered so far. I answered 41-45, but it was really at the later end of that range, and I could say 46-50. I’m now 59. My serious addiction started when I moved to Washington wine country in 2008 and could sample dozens/hundreds of wines without the seeming randomness of grocery stores, or even wine shop wines, particularly living outside of a major metro US area. I’ve always had a healthy skepticism for sales pitches and am a more trust my own palate person than any, even independent, opinion writer.
Also, probably a good thing since I had/have more disposable income now than in my 20-30’s. I was more of a beer drinker, and beer snob in development, in my 20’s. Not nearly the craft scene then as now, but even then I gravitated to Red Hook ESB, Dogfish head, Anchor, Sam Adams, Euro imports.
3 Likes
Wow, so many people started in their 20s. I’m kind of surprised. I was into wine starting at 16, but never even thought about actively collecting in my 20s. I guess I just needed the right introduction that I never got.
Growing up my parents were teeotalers, zero alcohol in my house. Grad student into my 30s, then raising kids, I just didn’t have the cash to even think about wine. In my late 30s and 40s I started paying attention to the good stuff shared by a friend with a nice cellar. And then my career veered to a business world that included a lot of dinners with wine, visits to wineries with co-workers and clients. By the time I got to first serious wine purchasing, I was about 50.
3 Likes
There is a big difference for me between the time that I started to keep what most would consider a good amount of wine (say, over 50 bottles) in my passive basement storage and the time I would say I started to more “seriously” collect wine. I also didn’t really have (and still don’t) many friends who were into fine wine in my 20s, so bottles were mostly purchased with the intent of drinking in under a year or two.
1 Like
I consider “seriously buying/collecting wine” to be “when I started buying wines to cellar for an extended period of time.” For me, that was when I was 26. I still have three of the bottles I bought that year (a couple CdP and a Bdx). I started legitimately paying attention to what I was doing with wine a couple years before that, but I don’t consider those couple of years to be “seriously buying/collecting wine.”
2 Likes
A good friend of my introduced me to the good stuff when I was around 26. His dad has been collecting for a few decades so we got to taste some fun stuff.
At 29-30 i started collecting. Some would probably say that I wasn’t that serious, but I was as serious as I am now. I just knew less than I do now.
5 Likes
If I had been a trust fund baby it would have been at age 21 - but didn’t have any money to speak of nor storage. Always was stashing a few bottles in the parents basement even in my 20s - one that I remember well was a magnum of '78 Cos that I drank in 99. “Seriously” would have been around 2000.
Same here - always liked and was around wine with my family but it wasn’t until my mid 30s when it got serious.
I am surprised with the amount of people who started in their 20s (or maybe I shouldn’t be since this is a wine geek site 
). I don’t know anyone in my friend circles that started in their 20s and really only 1 other person started around the same time as me. They all thought I was crazy when I had 20-50 bottles…
3 Likes
the age where I started seriously buying wine was 10+ years earleir than when I started seriously collecting wine. Flawed poll. But I used the later date.
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I remember being proud of the 20 or so bottles in a rack in my kitchen. That was in my grocery store wine days.
Now everyone in my family and wide circle of friends KNOWS I’m crazy with 2,000 or so bottles in a cellar and an acre of vineyard in my yard.
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A bit amazed at how many did so before 30. Around my early 30s, I had a major shift in my tastes for alcohol. In my 20s, I could not stand Bourbon, dry whites, or structured reds. It wasn’t until my mid-30s that I started to really buy and collect.
Wondering if any of you who started collecting in your 20s had any changes in your palate like I did? If so how did you change your buying habits?
25/26 for me. The Bordeaux bug bit.
1 Like
23 years old for me, I already loved French wine having spent time in Europe, but by 23 I had my first real income stream and a place to store (parents’ basement at the time) whatever I bought. Plus we had an amazing wine store where I grew up, Century Liquor, which back then had a huge collection of Bordeaux stretching back to the 60’s at more or less releases prices.*
Perfect storm.
*to start my cellar, I bought a case of the 89 Meyney ($17/each) a half case of the 86 Gruaud Larose ($26/each), a half case of the 86 Rausan Segla (<$30), and several cases of 89 and 90 cru bourgeois for <$10/each.
3 Likes
I started drinking wine in college - mainly inexpensive rielsing and rosé…basic grocery store stuff (but the sorority girls loved that I had wine that I served in “real wine glasses” 
). When I started dating my wife after college we went to Napa with my boss and his wife- I was 27 at the time.
I was the only one of the four who hadn’t been there before and I went face first down the rabbit hole and started buying cellar-worthy wines on that very first trip. My boss knew Napa so I started learning about Bordeaux. Here we are now, 21 years later, and at the high point on this journey, we had about 4,200 bottles in the cellar. I’ve managed to whittle that down to about 3,500 currently.
It’s an addiction, plain and simple, but we both love it and we’ve met so many terrific people for the simple fact that we have gotten so crazy about a beverage.
5 Likes
My father owned a wine store. I learned about wine from him and started drinking good wine at home when I was in college or so. Had my first first growth (Haut Brion) in about 1976 (at about 21).
Dad sold the store and retired in 1981 when I was 26. I was already an attorney by then and he was soon going to turn 65, so there was no reason for him to keep the store. But, while prior to that time I was to get the wines I wanted by going into the store and saying “dad, can I try this”, after this I had to start buying my own wine.
Fortunately, at that time the wine trade in DC was really active and I got to see all kind of good stuff. My first Bordeaux futures (split a case with a friend) were 1981 Ducru ($140 a case) and then, like all good wine lovers my age and older, I bought 1982 Bordeaux futures in 1983 when I was 28. Around that time I bought a bottle of DRC 1980 Grands Echezeaux for my father as a birthday present. He drank it with me one time when I went home for a visit. It cost $35.
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Memories are a little hazy, but I think I bought a case of 1964 Chateau Magdelaine in 1970, when I was 24 years old. IIRC, $4/btl less 10%.
Dan Kravitz
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I was first introduced to Wine and finer dining by my best friend when I was about 30 years old. It was not something anyone in my family did but his mom was a incredible cook, and they were drinkers of nice things. I started buying some better than average wines around then, but really couldn’t afford to buy many. I did make several trips to Wine country and built a small collection over the next decade or so. It wasn’t until my mid-40s that I really could afford to start building a real cellar
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Oh wow that’s cool. You were cool before Magdelaine became a geeky Bordeaux!
My birthyear wine. Any left? I’ll pay $6.