Collecting verticals

[Drew_Goin]

I don’t. I fell in love with a few reds back in my retail days, and felt compelled to get my hands on the new vintage of a great wine, but I was typically out of the previous year’s wine by then.

[Jayson_Cohen]

@Jay Miller

@Brian G r a f s t r o m

There are wines I buy every year; some of them I cellar, others I do not. To the extent I have verticals going, no purchases are made for the purpose of maintaining unbroken verticals.

I will, however, sometimes buy a bottle or two of vintage x when the cellar already holds a sufficient amount of vintage y. Like others before me, I can’t recall ever opening more than two vintages of any given wine at a given time. However, experience with any wine across multiple vintages can certainly help one gain an understanding of how a wine presents under certain vintage conditions; eventually, that can be helpful knowledge.

This. For example I’ll buy at least one or more bottles of Ollivier Briords Muscadet pretty much every year but sometimes I’ll drink them all and sometimes I’ll save a few.

Ditto on Briords. Not surprisingly.

Without conscientiously looking to build a vertical, every year I have typically bought JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese, at least one of the Schaefer Domprobst Spatlesen, Donnhoff Hermannshohle Spatlese (not any more), Huet Demi-sec (used to be Clos du Bourg, now Le Mont), and Chevillon Caille. Lots of gaps.

Too late Juge Cornas every year (since 2009); used to drink them young in the 1990s before they became unicorn wines and then there were some gap years where I didn’t buy much of any wine really.

[Wes_Barton]

It’s never the intent, but I do naturally end up with some. When we do themed vertical tastings, it’s multiple people bringing bottles with no need to be comprehensive.

[Jay_Miller]

@Ken V

I think I have two complete verticals: Montelena Estate Cab and Altare Brunate. The Altare is complete. The Montelena will end with the 2015 since I won’t live that long and I don’t want Victor showing up at my funeral to say “I told you so!”

I understand he decided it was more efficient to have decals printed so he can just slap them on the tombstones of everyone he survives.

[Ken_V]

@Jay Miller

@Ken V

I think I have two complete verticals: Montelena Estate Cab and Altare Brunate. The Altare is complete. The Montelena will end with the 2015 since I won’t live that long and I don’t want Victor showing up at my funeral to say “I told you so!”

I understand he decided it was more efficient to have decals printed so he can just slap them on the tombstones of everyone he survives.

[Mark_C]

The only true verticals I have are for a Napa producer whose club I have been a member of for many years. Mostly cab-dominant “Bordeaux” blends SVD from Howell Mountain, Stags Leap, Oakville and their tete de cuvée which is a blend from several of their vineyards.

Haven’t drunk any of them yet but given that the oldest is 2004 or 2005 I’m thinking it will be time soon but not as part of a vertical tasting.

[PhilippeCamps]

Personally I like organizing vertical tastings, as it is the best way to really understand a domain and how the wines are capable to age!

On Thursday I organize a vertical of Clos Mogador 1989 (their 1st vintage) to 2015 (just bottled)… I few rules I follow to avoid making it boring:

• Limit to about 10-12 wines
• Focus to the best wines!
• Put a few pirates in between

[Markus_S]

The only place where verticals make sense is for a winery, really, since these are the best people to have the wherewithal and mission to utilize it.

I like to have and buy multiple years of a producer that I like, simply because I love the style, but I seldom incorporate them into tastings because, usually, people want to bring something (else) too.

[Gerhard_P]

@PhilippeCamps

Personally I like organizing vertical tastings, as it is the best way to really understand a domain and how the wines are capable to age!

…

Well, I agree with Philippe´s 1st sentence …

I love verticals … I did already a lot of them, the most comprehensive one was La Romanee with 41 vintages from 1923 to 2010 in 2012 … (and Louis-Michel Liger-Belair was present).

Sometimes - as was the case with the vertical above - I work several years to collect the bottles, but I have a lot of verticals (10, 15, 20 bottles) ready in my cellar if I´d like to do one … (simply producers i love and buy regularily) …
I did for instance Rayas, Pegau, Bonneau, Rostaing, Chave, Guigal LaLas … but also some Burgundy vineyards with different producers (and not all vintages in a row) …

Usually it takes some time to organize an interested and educated group for such an event (which is also willing to take their share financially … ) - and usually I have also several guests from abroad …

But it must be said: that´s not the only way to taste interesting wines … only one way …

[Brian_Tuite]

@GregT

What they said above.

Never.

Halcon Vineyard Tasting in Forestville - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

[Kirk.Grant]

I have many vintages of the same wines…but rarely do I have complete verticals. It’s just not something that I’ve worked to build. I have liked every vertical tasting I’ve been a part of…but they are far and few between.

[Blake_Brown]

I have a few and they were more by virtue of acquiring wines from the same producer year after year. I used to avoid breaking up a vertical, but now it`s more about drinking the bottle I want to drink and if that chops up a vertical, so be it.

[David_Glasser]

@Blake Brown

I have a few and they were more by virtue of acquiring wines from the same producer year after year. I used to avoid breaking up a vertical, but now it`s more about drinking the bottle I want to drink and if that chops up a vertical, so be it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
This

[dsimmons]

Mine are based on mailing lists. I don’t really buy wine to maintain the vertical but sometimes postpone drinking a wine to keep one intact.

[Nathan_V]

@Jay Miller

@Brian G r a f s t r o m

There are wines I buy every year; some of them I cellar, others I do not. To the extent I have verticals going, no purchases are made for the purpose of maintaining unbroken verticals.

I will, however, sometimes buy a bottle or two of vintage x when the cellar already holds a sufficient amount of vintage y. Like others before me, I can’t recall ever opening more than two vintages of any given wine at a given time. However, experience with any wine across multiple vintages can certainly help one gain an understanding of how a wine presents under certain vintage conditions; eventually, that can be helpful knowledge.

This. For example I’ll buy at least one or more bottles of Ollivier Briords Muscadet pretty much every year but sometimes I’ll drink them all and sometimes I’ll save a few.

I’m the same. I buy a lot of the same wines every year so I have verticals of them, but it’s because I like the wines and am a terroir + vigneron trumps vintage kind of guy.

Every now and then the chance for a big vertical tasting comes up but that hasn’t been the case in a while so I generally deplete the old vintages a bottle at a time.

[Richard_Albert]

With the wineries having multi year waiting lists to get on mailing lists, I imagine there are more vertical intact than being discussed.

I started skipping unappealing vintages long ago. Once I broke my first vertical in the 80’s and the light went on, it was real easy to break them–Dunn, Caymus Special, Diamond Creek, etc.

[Neal.Mollen]

@David Glasser

Never.

Used to many years ago, but those dream tastings where I would serve 5, 10 or more vintages of the same wine never materialized.

Never. Never have. Never had any interest in doing that. I buy the best wine values in every vintage (when I buy at all).

[Stuart_BeauneHead_Niemtzow]

@David Glasser

those dream tastings where I would serve 5, 10 or more vintages of the same wine never materialized.

I did…and can think of no better way to “collect” , intellectually, than verticals. There are so many possibilities that way; otherwise, a “collection” is helter-skelter…ie, good on the drinking level only.

I collected that way (until I stopped buying, a decade ago) and have many very interesting such vertical tastings that I could do. LIke David, howeveve, they have “never materialized”, mainly because I would have to organize them and hold them…and use up my wines. Assuming people would pay to taste them, money is not the reason I collected them that way, and I think I’d rather drink them individually or with small verticals, rather than mass killings for people who didn’t collect that way. (And, I have several dozen-vintage wines from the late '80s to 2006 vintages.

I’m all ears though, as I still think that would be wonderful, though I am not interested in food and wine extravaganzas, as I don’t think they really are “tastings”…and don’t know people who would make such a real tasting worth the effort at this point. But, I’m glad to have these and glad I collected that way, as it was a great way to think about Burgundy collecting and to ponder the possible tastings, even if they’ve never happened.

It was fun – and interesting-- during the collecting part, for sure. I haven’t given up the fantasy-- yet.

[A_Songeur]

Well, with the allocation process, one is often obliged to have verticals…but as they don’t mature at same time, one does not have to drink them together… although, after a number of years, they all are more or less on a plateau…
I have a few Burgs vertical in the cellar for the above reason

[JohnP]

Many of the comments above will probably pan out true. I’ve been collecting Spottswoode since 2010 in hopes of enjoying a 10-year vertical one day. With whom, I have no clue. Maybe I’ll market the idea to a local annual wine festival that may help me recoup my cost and taste for free.