I’ve been into wine for about 5 years, and collecting for around 3. I find myself in a quandary that has been discussed here before (1000 bottles of wine but nothing to drink - #7 by Chris_Geurkink), but I nonetheless would love some advice. Reading through the thread was helpful, but my position is a little different, and I always love hearing your collective wisdom.
I’ve pretty much maxed out my storage capacity, and while I have plenty of “special occasion” bottles, I oftentimes find myself at a loss of what to open. On a typical weeknight, or with a simple dinner, it feels like a waste to open most of what I’ve accumulated.
Recently, my partner and I were going to dinner with another (non-wine enthusiast) couple, and she asked me to grab a bottle to bring on our way out the door. I couldn’t think of what to bring and we had to swing by the wine shop on our way! Which seems crazy given all the wine I have!
I’m sure many on this board have been in a similar position. I’d love to hear any advice you may have.
Look at your primary purchases and toward their entry level wines. For example I buy a wide range of Pinot from Oregon and California coast. Almost all have a “Coastal” or “Willamette” bottling. In great years these are really good!
Here’s something to try: make a pact with yourself to open excellent bottles from your cellar the next five times you want to drink wine. Just do it, and see how it feels. Tuesday? Fine. Random restaurant? Sure! Pizza night? Heck yea. Maybe take notes in Cellar Tracker or wherever you can so you remember what it was like.
If you have a thousand bottles they can’t all be ‘special occasion’ only bottles. And one of the secrets of wine is that the good stuff is nearly always food friendly with just about anything. Take some risk. Enjoy the great wine now.
If you hate yourself after the five tries, ok fine, save your bottles. But I bet you’ll enjoy that wine a lot!
Berserker Day is a great opportunity to buy daily drinkers
That should keep you on track until the next B day.
Fill out the rest of the year with buying collectibles, long term keepers and from your lists
Also look for some back vintages of stuff you like to drink now. This is what I try and do for European wines
Actually, as fate would have it, tomorrow is a special occasion!
I think we all have a touch of this issue. You need to actually kill that terrible thought on purpose.
This place helps! I see a nice note, or someone here or anywhere makes my day better, a chance to over-serve a non-wino…as Warren Zevon said so aptly, enjoy every sandwich.
Heck pop a great bottle and play your favorite Fleetwood Mac songs and post about it! We will all give you love and kudos!
I’ve had the same issue developing my cellar. “Wow, look at all the amazing wines I’ve purchased. [I’ll be in great shape 5-10 years from now when I can start drinking].”
I started to use Cru Beaujolais as my red cellar defender, but you can get sick of anything if you have it too much. I’ve since found more early drinkers in Sicilian reds, some Italian sangiovese, Loire cab franc, and Langhe nebbiolo. But after a while and at a certain point of accumulation, I’m finally ready to heed the advice of those who always shouted “backfill.” Since I’m used to mostly new bottles with lower risk due to provence issues and still learning a ton, it’s certainly intimidating to focus on more expensive, older bottles. Balancing my purchases by age and style is as important or more important now than finding the world’s best deal on something that’s hyped and I’m unsure of.
For whites, I’ve been much worse at establishing a bench, and I’m always going to the store for a white to fit the occasion. That’s part of my next phase of balance, especially since there are so many amazing whites you can enjoy at almost any age. They need to be less an afterthought for me moving forward. Rose, too.
Champagne, I’ve been better about accumulating, and it doesn’t take long to get some great stuff that will be ready quickly, even with vintage Champagne, but lots of fine NV options to always have on hand or in mind from your local.
I posted something similar here or a previous board 10-15 years ago. Everything was too young, needed age, etc.
Now I have a ton likely ready to go and am worried about drinking up before too late.
Lesson? Not really sure, but something like It is really hard to time things just right and over thinking it is zero help. Buy wine to enjoy it not to obsess over it.
This. Or I guess in theory they could be but then OP needs to change his buying strategy at once. I have to admit I do struggle with a similar thing a bit but for me it’s more of a midweek problem - I want to have a glass of something decent but opening a 75cl seems like a waste. Too bad the availability for interesting wine in the half bottle format is so limited.
I have collected for six(+) years now. So not much longer than you Noah.
Most of the wine i buy needs a few years. But i also try and add maybe one or two “everyday” drinkers to my orders. There is a lot of good wine out there that is instantly ready or just need 1-2 years to shine. As an example i just bought 6x 2020 Crozes-Hermitage from Franck Balthazar. It is a cheap wine i know will really shine within two years time. Getting into the habit of buying a few wines for short term storage is working great for me. I have maybe 5-6 different wines i buy in small quantities every year now, and then age them for a year or two to have some really good interesting stuff to open on a Monday. Both red and whites.
And you are still so early in your journey. Be adventurous!
Sometimes there is a bit too much focus on aging wines - once you pop that perfect aged wine and all stars are aligned - it’s magic. We all looked for it and still keep on but I personally prefer drinking bottles while they are on the upside oppose to the disappointment of a wine race downhill.
Any night of the week can be a great time to open a special wine. The one thing I consider though is more who I am opening the wine with - prefer opening very special wines with others who are likely to enjoy them. And I am very positive to even open a bottle on my own (or several together with a partner) as an educative experience, tasting the wine over several night (can be good to open more then one bottle). A good way get to know wines/producers, especially together with other bottles as reference.
Now I am in Europe so might differ for you, but there is such a wealth of excellent wines with high drinkability at modest prices. During certain period/moments I can find more joy drinking these wines and they are great to have around for when you just need to bring a good bottle to dinner (both wine lovers and novice usually love these bottles). Delicious and vibrant is the emotion I look for in these wines. Depending on the circumstances this type of wine can be “greater” than the “special wines”.
A bit depending on what you grapes you are in to or might want to explore then there are plenty of them.
In Europe that’s probably EUR10-20 (in US probably USD20+?) bottles. For me during that last year that has meant:
Red: Dolcetto, Langhe Nebbiolo, Aglianico and Sangiovese / Spatburgunder / Gamey, CF, PN (entry level good producers)
White: Riesling - There are incredible value dry and off-dry wines (~Eur10), and in good vintage complex and with depth, you can drink right away or over a decade / Pecorino (Tiberio - great US value, but it’s also something you can age), Ribolla Gialla.
With the right producers many of these can also age well or 10-15 years - offers a great opportunity to have wines for consumption right away but also mid-term cellaring.
If I was you I would spend a day on Wine-Searcher when you have the money and buy three cases of 2009 and older wine. Try to find stores that have at least 4 attractive bottles to you to maximize shipping and just buy a lot. You can probably with hard work find Bordeaux barolo, German Riesling and barolo that’s between $80-$160. For $3k-$6k you can solve your issue for awhile.
I’m in a fairly similar situation. What I do is try to keep a stock of 20 or so daily drinkers through a combination of the discount sites (LastBottle, Winespies, WTSO, etc), BD (coming up soon!), or loading up on entry level wines from mailing lists I’m on (Bedrock OVZ, Lulu for instance).
In a couple months I’m having my basement waterproofed, which will necessitate moving all the bottles out of my cellar so they can work in there. This has given me a carte blanche excuse to open some heavier hitters on weeknights or maybe a little earlier than I usually would, and so far very few regrets on that. So don’t be afraid to give yourself permission to live a little as well. Cheers!
I’m in the same boat. I made the mistake of opening Allemand, Dujac, Mugneret Gibourg, Roumier, PYCM, Roulot, Rousseau, Burlotto, Bartolo, Cappellano, etc. on the younger side and while its fun to taste them, its kind of a waste. That list above makes up 70% of my cellar which is almost at capacity. Especially where these were all purchased when I was working at a retail shop and with a generous employee discount which makes them twice as hard to open until theyre in the sweet spot i enjoy. Unless I’m drunk, then that stings twice as much the next morning…
Everyday drinkers do not need to occupy space in the cellar. I keep a rotation of daily drinkers in the bottom of two closets. Even in the summer when the storage temp is like 68 Fahrenheit the wines are fine, and with 20 minutes in the fridge they are nice serving temp.
#1 Put together a selection of grab and go bottles so you’re never wandering around the cellar as your sig other is in the car waiting to leave. I have Chablis, Chianti Classico Riserva, Borgogne, California Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, and some low fill bottles ready to go.
#2 We’re in the same boat, mine is just bigger. Wines are either too young or too expensive.
#3 Don’t worry too much about what drinking companions want to drink and open bottles that make you happy. There are great values in all the great wine regions of the world. Find em, buy em, drink em.
#4 You are of course welcome to come and drink some of my wine again.
