Dropping off wine lists and it feels........good!!

WINE TALK
41

Actually, this is the mark of a true friend [wow.gif]

42

Yes I was thinking something similar. Who is this mysterious new worlder that’s taken over my friend’s WB account?

Joel we need to drink some big Cali’s sometime. I have a few that might interest you.

As I follow the general trend of dialing back my purchases, balancing my cellar, and focusing on my evolving taste, I don’t think I’ve ever dropped a list myself. A few that I’ve been a ‘member’ of for years - and never bought from - continue sending me offers. Eg. Schrader, Colgin, quite a few others. Love their wines but by the time I got on the list the prices had escalated beyond my budget.

43

Not on any lists, so cannot help there (wish I was on the DRC list). But, on the other part of your post, try German wines from Zilliken, von Schubert, JJPrum, Reinhold Haart, Schloss Lieser, Selbach and Donnhoff.

44

On: Rhys, Williams-Selyem, Rochioli, Rivers-Marie, Thomas
Off: All the cult wines that I used to flip

45

You haven’t lived until you make it through the entire month of January being on scores of lists along with BDIX and not purchasing a single bottle.

46

But paying more means buying better wine Bud. Doesn’t it? newhere

47

I read this thread with hope and anticipation that it would convince me to drop more lists (I’ve already dropped a few). However, what really happened is I got FOMO from looking at peoples’ “staying on” lists, and I actually joined a new one…

48

AFAIC there is no direct purchasing of DRC - everything is via their official importers …

One can be on the list of an importer - but not directly off domaine!

(Yesterday I received a mail from a French retailer:
2013 DRC Assortment OWC 11 bottles (1RC 2T 2R 2RSV 2GE 2E) @ 34000€
(+ taxes)

(… I mean - if I had a gold shitting donkey … but …) [head-bang.gif]

49

So, we visit Napa once or twice a year, and try to taste at new (to us) wineries for at least half of our visits. Then we buy from nearly all of them, to commemorate the visit if nothing else. Then we get on the lists. Then we get offers. Then we buy more.

In 2017 we visited twice and added two wine clubs, for Schramsburg and Bremer Family, which we split with friends (ends up being 2 or so bottles from each winery, quarterly, eight total per year).

I’m afraid to list all of the lists I buy from here, as I’m not sure I want to see them all together here, but here goes:

Rivers Marie, Rhys, Kutch, Williams Seylem, Ceritas, Aubert, Sandlands, Maybach, Outpost, Bedrock, Carlisle, Myriad, Quivet, Bremer Family, Scherrer (do they count as a list?). I’m sure I’m missing some.

Then probably dozens (plural) more that send me emails regularly that I usually do not buy, or only sporadically buy. Then there are the winebid purchases and other offers.

As you can see from the list, we very much enjoy having a variety of options, depending on our mood. That’s why I buy from so many producers!

January has been murder. I have not yet got to the point of dropping off lists actively, although I might be getting there. I also figure I’ll do it by simply not ordering, rather than actively asking to leave. Because what if I need more of something?!?!

50

this thread got me to think how many mailing list i was on at the height of my buying years…WOW i was on 61 mailing lists!!!

little older and wiser i am down to 9 (sqn, screaming eagle, maybach, scarecrow, cayuse, rm, w&m and schrader)

51

I’ve cut way back on “mailing list only” wines for a number of reasons. In particular:

  1. At one time, I bought into the notion that building verticals was an important goal. How could you POSSIBLY be a serious wine collector/drinker unless you had amassed 10 or more vintages of the same wine? Now I care very little about verticals as such.

  2. The main problem with mailing list wines is that you end up narrowing your collection, primarily to CA wines. While I live in CA and enjoy many of the wines made here, I started my wine journey with Rhone wines from the actual Rhone Valley. There’s an entire world of great/interesting wines from places other than CA, and I think it’s boring to simply drink CA wines night after night.

Bruce

52

Wow I thought I was crazy with approx 36 lists. Maybe we should start a new thread? Who is on the most lists? And should you be proud or embarrassed to be the leader of that category of most wine lists?

53

Where’s that HAPPY DANCE emoji??

54

It’s interesting to me that people are surprised by “big” numbers of lists. A list is just a producer, right?

If you only buy winery-direct, it doesn’t seem strange or extreme to me to have 25 or 40 producers represented in a collection, especially if some producers do multiple varieties, reds and whites, etc.

55

Good point!

56

Fair point. But you need to account for the retail purchases as well. I buy ~50% of my wine from retailers. If you’re on 40 lists, I assume most of those are domestic. If you collect Burg/BDX/etc., that adds how many more? I guess it all boils down to how big/diverse of a collection you want. More power to folks that are on 40 lists…I hope they invite me over for dinner parties.

57

I am one of those folks who is on 40+ lists - representing approximately 85% of my purchases. For the next couple of years, I will need to divert a major chunk of my wine budget into a wedding budget (and of course my wife and daughter have picked a venue that doesn’t permit me to bring the wine :frowning:), so I will not be purchasing from many of these wineries. Does courtesy dictate that I let these wineries know? I am willing to risk being taken off their lists, so this is not a case of asking them to keep me on in instances where I am not purchasing.

58

Being on a mailing list does not mean you buy every wine every release or any wine any release. It only means you get mailers. T least for me it does. I could never afford to buy from every list I am on. I rotate my purchases based on my inventory with each producer and/or my excitement about a particular wine being offered.

59

That’s not what I’m hearing from simple Berserkers: “all in”, “pulled the trigger”, “maxed out”, “good to go”, “maximum allocation”, “wishlisted everything”… are some of the typical comments one hears when a new mailing-list only thread is started. [snort.gif]

60

Exactly. My mailing list starts with purchasers from the last vintage release. Then expands out to people who purchased during the year, then on BerserkerDay, then on to the year previous. Not everyone purchases every time, nor in the same amount.

As a consumer, I don’t purchase everything each release of the lists I am on. So, as is usual, I experience both sides of it: as a wine consumer/customer and as a vendor.