Assuming I have younger family or friends who would truly appreciate what I collected during my lifetime, then my answer is ‘never’. I grew up in a family that didn’t drink wine, so wasn’t seriously introduced to it until about 30, and its taken me 11 years (and counting) trying to find my way. So if I could help accelerate the next generation’s learning curve a meaningful way, I think that’s a worthy cause.
I expect to stop buying “ageworthy wines” once I retire. No point of buying a grand cru burg in 2040 that wont enter its drinking window until I’m 90 (assuming I live that long).
I’ll still buy short/mid term agers and daily drinkers as long as financials allow.
I am hoping to retire (from my full time career) at 55, and will very likely have plenty of age worthy wines to last me through my leisure years. The 55 retirement goal has been in place since before my wife and I turned 40. I will likely still buy some young wines to drink young, but not wines to age for a long time. Additionally we have no children, so nobody to leave a cellar to, unless you would like to be adopted.
Bought my final Bordeaux vintage at age 35. I don’t drink much of it, have more than enough and really only enjoy it old.
Hermitage is about the same, but still buy a bit new due to availability while looking to back-fill.
Everything else will be dependant on retirement age & relative cost at that time. Still 20 years away, I doubt I’ll buy much beyond daily drinker level wine, once retired.
I’ll be 57. I quit a few years ago, my cellar is packed and I have approximately 20 years worth of drinking to do.
I plan to stop buying new releases when I turn 55. When I turn 55, I’ll start back filling burgs, bdx, and champagne. If I was responsible, I’d stop buying now because I have more wine than I’ll ever drink. My niece loves wine so she’ll Inherit my cellar when I bite the dust.
Hi Jens, thanks for the kind words. I did not say that I would stop buying wine at 50 or 55, but I would likely calibrate my purchases away from new release wines that take 15-20+ years to hit optimum drinking. I will still buy daily drinkers, new releases that don’t take forever and keep backfilling as deals pop up. Of course I will likely violate this rule too. 
You use the term “collector”. I do not consider myself a wine collector at all. Perhaps semantics, but I’m really a wine consumer. I really think more about the consumption and appreciation than the act of collecting, which sorta dovetails into that other thread about what is a “big” cellar. I cap at 1000.
An interesting side note to discuss is whether our palate at 50 will be the same at 75. My father introduced me to fine French wine with classical structure. Now at 75 he loves high octane Southern Rhones and Zinfandel. He thought a Juge Cornas I popped last year was “thin”. Lol.
Think about it: we’re all going to die at some time only known to our Creator. Age-worthy wines will need anywhere from 10-15-20 years to reach some kind of maturity. If you have a cellar full of wine, why buy more wine that will take that long to mature at a point when your health is failing and your tastebuds become shot?
At a point in life, thinking about this becomes sort of an exercise in actuarial science. Rather use my funds to travel while I still can instead of clasping a glass of claret from my stiffened fingers. I think it makes sense to stop somewhere in your 60’s.
Different purchasing plans for different wines I guess. I’d like to think I’ll never stop buying new release Muscadet and Riesling, but cannot see myself sinking lots of cash into new release Piedmont wines after I hit 70 or so.
What a quandary. I could probably afford the cryogenic sleep if I gave up buying wine, but then what would be the point?
The real issue for most of us is the rate of consumption relative to the rate of purchase. At 56, I would at least hope to be around to enjoy current releases of age worthy wine. Many of us have more good aged wine maturing than we will reasonably drink. As a simple math exercise, divide the number of age worthy bottles you now hold by the number you drink in a year. This means excluding the shorter term whites and reds that may be your daily drinkers. By my lights, I’m good for the next 15 or so years and my current purchase rate needs to decline or my kids need to better appreciate good aged wine!
At 50, I’m already tailing off quite significantly. But I won’t stop totally for probably another decade. As a vague guess.
45 - if I run out of wine, I will just buy what I want to drink. Will need something to spend those retirement dollars on.
Alan:
Truly wise words !
G.
Luke, Robert Parker is your father.
Just about to turn 50 in the spring. Since we don’t really drink Bordeaux that’s no issue for us. Some better Burgundy houses and many upper middle to high end US Cab producers are making their wines more accessible young although they still seem to have the balance to age well - point being it’s less important than Bordeaux to worry about 2 decades or more of cellaring. Riesling can be fun to drink young or let age so that’s not going to affect our purchase patterns too much either. I picked 65 just because it seemed like a good choice, but we have no formal plan in place.
In bed the other night my girlfriend asked “if you could know exactly when and where you would die, would you want to?” I said “no”. She said, “OK, then forget it”.
— Steven Wright
I will stop buying all wines En-Premieur at age 55, I am 53 now. But I have actually stopped buying Bordeaux EP since 2010 vintage, the past few years still continue to pick up EP wines from Burgungy and Northern Rhone.
Why 55? I assume good Bordeaux/Burgundy/Northern Rhone would take 15 to 20 years to mature, I will be 70 to 75 when they mature, perfect. But the truth is even if I stop buying today, I should have enough to last 35 years easily, so rationally I should stop buying now!
![[basic-smile.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/83717c74df9b0ce202453063bc4f11baf0ee6b8a.gif "smile"){kind=small}
Yes, my friend’s father is the same way, in his 80’s and love those heavy Australian Shiraz. I think as we ages, our sensory ability fades too, require higher alcohol, heavy and big wines to get the kick.
I said never. I’ve already adjusted my buying, and I probably wouldn’t buy from a Bordeaux vintage that looks like 1986, but I bought a few 2014s from my favorites and I’ll buy in the future if they sound good and prices are okay.
I have some great wines I inherited from my dad. I’m not worried about croaking with wine left; in fact I prefer it, because it will give people an opportunity to talk about me and they often say nicer things about you after you’re dead.