Do you have a price limit per bottle? A usual or absolute maximum?

[Ivan_T]

@Alex Stewart

+1 on the no limit comment. If I want it and have available funds, done.

But the purchases report on CT is really illuminating. After buying more than 2,000 recorded bottles of wine since mid-2007, my average price per bottle is $28.87. If trying to account for all the unrecorded purchases of QPR wines, the average is probably even lower.

I feel really super good about that.

You made me look at Cellartracker - my average purchase price has gone from $13 in 2008 when I was getting into wine to close to $30 this year. Damn you burgundy! Most of my purchases are in the $20-50 range. I have a tough time opening a more expensive wine during dinner at home. On special occasions or group tastings, I have gone just over $100 but those happen a couple of times a year.

[dr0ch]

@JKim

I’m in the buy less, but more high quality camp (yes, I know you don’t have to spend large coin for great wine, it’s just that the wine I like happens to cost more and I have enough inexpensive daily drinkers to last me awhile). Everyone has different income and comfort levels on what to pay for luxury items (and wine is definitely a luxury item). $500 to somebody might be like $50 to someone else based on their income. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, buy what you like at a price you’re comfortable with.

This.

[AlexS]

And you made me look again. Although overall purchases are down by about 30% since 2010, my average purchase price for 2012 is $38.94. Damn you Burgundy, Loire, and all the CA wine I still love.

[jnbrown]

My max is $50 which I recently spent on Alta Colina and Terry Hoage Syrah.
I try to stay in the $12 to $25 range and found lots of value there:

$13 Tres Picos Garnacha
$14 Caparone Sangiovese and Zin
$25 Jaffurs Syrah

Hard to justify spending more when these wines are more than good enough.
If I felt the value was there I might on occasion spend more than $50 but I have not had that happen yet. It seems trying go below about $13 it just isn’t worth drinking.

[Steve_Saxon]

I don’t think any wine is worth more than a few hundred a bottle though I have spent more. If I had a money back guarantee the wine was going to be worth it I might spend more but there’s a big chance that the wine won’t live up to expectations. When it comes to BDX $250 is my limit, Burgundy is a risk, could be great or could be shit, and white burg is a huge risk.

[Dusty_Kelley]

I don’t go over $100. I really try to keep great wines that are 25 or lower around for the majority of drinking and then aging or drinking my better wines here and there.

[Berry_Crawford]

I rarely spend over $100 but occasionally make exception for amourouses, musigny or champagne.

[Blake_Brown]

No limit within reason for what, when and where. The most I remember for one bottle was a birth year wine from Ch. Latour for $650. I paid $500 as a partial purchase of 1961 Petrus to share the bottle and expense with a few others and create a black tie lunch around this bottle. It turned out the Petrus, which was showing really good, was maybe the 4th best bottle of the day amongst older vintage Krug, Dom, DRCs, other GC red Burgs, Grange, First Growths and d`Yquem.

[Mike_Ritner]

Regarding my earlier post, I did not mean to be condescending, or step on any toes, but since this was a discussion, I gave my opinion, which is past a certain level of price (I set it at a rather generous $100), no wine is worth it. I was not talking about the difference between a $30 village and a $50 premier cru, or between an Offerus and a $25 CC syrah, but whether I would ever spend $275 or $500 or more on a bottle of wine. No. And yes, I know very well there is a difference between the Offerus and the Hermitage. The answer is still no. The good news is, it means more Chave Hermitage for the rest of you.

[Scott_Brunson]

The Chave Hermitage is absolutely worth it
(because I have a buddy who buys it and I drink his bottles)

[Anthony_Hall]

The late Len Evans theory of capacity point 9 stated:

“What part is wine of your life? Ten percent? Ergo, 10 percent of your income should be spent on wine.”

[LMD_Ermitano]

When a bottle goes past US$220, I think twice; and anything $100/bottle and below is fair game. Fortunately, the ultra ripe years/wines of Bdx that WA favors are generally not that interesting to me (though I do get to have them because they appeal to friends).

That said, I spent quite a bit once (back sometime in 2004) on a mixed case of (then) RP 100-pointer Bdx (e.g., 1982 Latour, 1990 Montrose, 1990 Cheval Blanc, 1982 & 1986 Léoville las Cases, etc.) just to see what they were all about. The only ones I ever bought again were the 1990 Cheval Blanc and 1982 Pichon Lalande. For whatever it is worth, a 1982 I do not hesitate buying (within bounds of reason, of course) is the 1982 Gruaud Larose.

[Neal.Mollen]

I have bought fewer than 2 dozen bottles over $100 in my life, and I can’t recall ever spending $150. It is possible I have spent more than that for a wine at a business dinner and cannot recall, but I am certain I have never done so for my cellar.

Sadly, that means my days of buying first growths are over, and that I am never going to buy (and likely will never drink) the best (or at least the most highly praised) of the CA cabs. I can live with that. It has nothing to do with income; I am fortunate to be able to afford mostly whatever I want to buy. But I dislike the anxiety that comes with an expensive bottle. If a wine I open sucks, I pour it down the drain and open another without a second thought. That would be harder if I had paid a fortune for it. And I continually read about DRCs or bottles of Petrus that were “ok” or “good”; I like to enjoy wines like that, but if a $500 or $1000 wine were only “good” it would spoil my evening.

Lots of really great wines for which you don’t have to spend a fortune, even in the pricier neighborhoods of France and CA.

[dbailey]

As someone else noted, big difference between what I’ll pay for a bottle of wine and what I’ll actually drink. Have regularly bought wines for well over $1k but usually walked around the corner and sold them the same day for a lot more! More generally though, as I focus on champagne and burgundy, I haven’t found a lot of value or enjoyment in the sub $50 area (with a few notable exceptions ilke german riesling) and I mostly play in the $50-150 range.

[Tom_Lee]

@Neal.Mollen

Sadly, that means my days of buying first growths are over, and that I am never going to buy (and likely will never drink) the best (or at least the most highly praised) of the CA cabs. I can live with that. It has nothing to do with income; I am fortunate to be able to afford mostly whatever I want to buy. But I dislike the anxiety that comes with an expensive bottle. If a wine I open sucks, I pour it down the drain and open another without a second thought. That would be harder if I had paid a fortune for it. And I continually read about DRCs or bottles of Petrus that were “ok” or “good”; I like to enjoy wines like that, but if a $500 or $1000 wine were only “good” it would spoil my evening.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

Tom

[Fred_Bower]

I’m with Faryan and others. Spend the same for fewer bottles. I’ve got plenty to drink for today. I’m working to improve tomorrow’s stash. If I need to back-fill daily drinkers, I can do that without any real pre-meditation - there’s lots of great wine to drink now out there to net. Special wines that etch a memory in your life story are what I’m trying to accumulate.

Looking at my data, my per-bottle spend has gone up a big jump (45%) 2010-2011, then a 5% jump to 2012. Absolute dollars spent has hovered in a 15% band around the mean. Dollars per bottle on what I’m consuming are still below what I’m spending, so theoretically, I drink better tomorrow or rue the escalation of prices if the CT data is based upon what I paid not what it is worth when I drink (not sure on that).

I would recommend looking for the Chave St. Joseph over the Offerus. It is a small price increase for a large (to me) qualitative improvement. I’ve never had a Catelin, but have had his other reds and do still find the Hermitage worth a look, but stopped buying after 2003 for new releases.

To directly answer the question posed, no, I do not have a limit, but I do get uncomfortable spending over internal thresholds I’ve established for given genres. $200 for a new world pinot would be obscene to me. For a DRC, it is a steal to jump on.

Cheers,
fred

[M_Dildine]

@Neal.Mollen

But I dislike the anxiety that comes with an expensive bottle. If a wine I open sucks, I pour it down the drain and open another without a second thought. That would be harder if I had paid a fortune for it. And I continually read about DRCs or bottles of Petrus that were “ok” or “good”; I like to enjoy wines like that, but if a $500 or $1000 wine were only “good” it would spoil my evening.

A corked 1982 Margaux opened on New Year’s Eve, 2000, ruined my evening, eradicated my lust for trophy wine (and didn’t improve my attitude towards France).

I completely agree with Neal’s post.

[Ryan_Kilkenney]

@Neal.Mollen

I have bought fewer than 2 dozen bottles over $100 in my life, and I can’t recall ever spending $150. It is possible I have spent more than that for a wine at a business dinner and cannot recall, but I am certain I have never done so for my cellar.

Sadly, that means my days of buying first growths are over, and that I am never going to buy (and likely will never drink) the best (or at least the most highly praised) of the CA cabs. I can live with that.

I don’t mind so much missing out on the high-end CA cabs, despite enjoying the few that I’ve had the opportunity to try. The list of luxury goods outside my price range is long and I don’t lose any sleep over the Aston Martins I’ll never own. But missing the boat on merely expensive first growth Bordeaux stings a little. (I was just becoming casually interested in wine when 2005 futures were being sold.) Those producers are part of the history of wine. But as you say, there’s no shortage of great wine at other price points.

[Greg_Pierce]

I don’t have any set price limit per bottle. However, if it’s over $100, I think pretty hard about whether I really really want that bottle. Sometimes, that decision is easy – I’ve bought numerous burgs and champagnes well in excess of $100. Very few other wines, however, can get me to justify more than 2 figures.

[Russ_Williams]

My goal is to keep my average bottle price under $50. I’m currently at $48.60 so I’m feeling pretty good. However, I’m not feeling so good about the total number of bottles I own. I have to find a way to stop buying so much. I think the number of bottles I own that are over $100 is probably less than 20. Saying goodbye to Maybach will help that number drop.