Embrace your cellar diversity

WINE TALK
21

I’m the definition of lack of diversity.

France 80%
Italy 14%
USA 2%
Aussie 2% (virtually all white from the Margaret River area)
And less than 1% each of:
Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Germany.

Over 90% of my cellar is from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Rhone. Add in white wines from Australia, California, Loire Valley and I’m up to 96%.

Over the last 5 years I’ve worked hard to increase Barolo, virtually all of my Italian wines are Barolo.

When I started this hobby, in the very early '90s, I wanted to try everything, bought stuff from all over. Over time I’ve honed in to what I like, jettisoned the stuff I do not…

22

I’ll second lack of diversity

Approximately 75% Italian, 25% French

In time it will likely become 100% Italian

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23

Doesn’t sound bad. Italy IS the definition of diversity in the wine world. So many regions, so many grapes…

24

By volume, solely based on country:

France - 44.8%
Germany - 24.9%
Italy - 14.9%
USA - 4.3%
UK - 3.1% (this is all whisky)
Spain - 3%
Portugal - 1.5%
Austria - 0.7%
Others - 2.8% (this includes unusual countries due to spirits)

More relevant to me is this:

Riesling - 24%
Burgundy - 20%
Champagne - 12.8%
Piedmont - 12.5%

Huge drop down to:
California - 4%
Scotland - 3.1%
Bordeaux - 3%
Southwest France - 2.5% (our rose, mostly)
Loire - 2.2%
Rhone - 1.7%
Rioja - 1.3%
Jura - 1.1%
Everything else - <1%

The above, when compared to consumption rates, shows that the top 69% of the cellar accounts for 66% of consumption. So I’m doing something right.

By the way, there are at least a dozen other past threads with these stats in them. I say this not to criticize putting up another, but to suggest bookmarking these as they come up. It’s a good way of warehousing your historical data.

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25

US 65% (Dominated by MN wines neener )
Australia 12%
Spain 8%
France 4%

I need to buy more Bordeaux and German wines in 2021. Used to be a lot higher.

26

Given my rampant and rather undisciplined buying of late, I had expected to see some changes, but no.

I still have twice as much Riesling as any other grape. #2 is Pinot Noir, and it holds a 2:1 lead on third place Syrah.

My holdings of Nebbiolo are up, now comprising 5% of the cellar, from under 2% last year. It’s mostly Barbaresco, with about 1/5 Barolo. Chardonnay has also jumped up, as I bought more Chablis and bottles from my preferred California producers such as Ramey, Kutch, Ceritas and Rhys.

I don’t have enough Sangiovese, but it’s not hard to source a good bottle of Chianti Classico or Brunello.

27

I have no specific idea, but easily French #1, then US, Germany, Italy (small but on the rise).

28

Keep in mind that your cellar composition is different from, and may be very different from, your actual consumption percentages.

For example, you might drink NZ Sauvignon Blanc fairly often, but you might have little or none of in inventory. Among more serious wines, some (not all) people may tend to buy Champagne or Port more or less as they intend to drink them, rather than storing and aging them for longer periods.

On the other hand, you might be stockpiling young Bordeaux and holding a lot in inventory while drinking relatively little of it, particularly if you’re earlier on your cellar curve.

Just food for thought.

29

no longer on CellarTracker so just an approximation:
89% Burgundy
8% Champagne
2% Riesling
1% miscellaneous

30

Been playing around with my search filters. The number of bottles of CA wine I buy year-after-year has been generally steady, and my OR wine purchases went up dramatically (not surprising as I just started to get into pinot noir and chardonnay from this region this year). What is most impressive however is I bought ~400 bottles of German wine in 2020, which is waaayyy more than in any previous year since I started collecting.

31

My cellar is very diverse. I have wines from all over France.

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32

I was thinking of making a comment about how amazingly diverse France and Italy are. Does country diversity really mean something important? These historical boundaries have become a side issue to a global wine making culture that is open, integrated, and very deeply committed to sharing what to do and what happens when you do it. Especially true among the younger generation of wine makers that are more an international community of craft artisans that lonely toiling farmers.

And as usual Craig made the same point with more humor and pithier than I could muster. :smiley:.

33

France 37,0% (Burgundy 8,5%; Rhône 6,0%; Champagne 5,0% Loire Valley 4,6%; the rest 12,8%)
Italy 18,0% (Piedmont 10,9%; Tuscany 1,5%; Etna 1,0%; the rest 4,2%)
Germany 7,0% (Mosel 3,9%; the rest 3,0%)
Belgium 5,4% (this is mainly beer with a few wines)
Spain 4,3% (La Rioja 2,8%; the rest 1,5%)
Portugal 3,6% (Douro 1,3%; the rest 2,3%)
USA 3,6%
Australia 3,3%
Lebanon 3,2% (all Musar)
Finland 2,2% (this is all beer)
Austria 2,1%
Greece 2,1%
Hungary 1,7%
Georgia 1,5%
United Kingdom 1,1%
Norway 0,7% (again, all beer)
Japan 0,6%
Estonia 0,4% (beer)
Chile 0,3%
Croatia 0,3%
Netherlands 0,3%
South Africa 0,3%
Ukraine 0,3%
Denmark 0,1% (one beer)
Macedonia 0,1%
Slovakia 0,1%
Sweden 0,1% (one beer)
Thailand 0,1%

34

Wow, you mean you guys keep track of that! Just guessing but I’m probably something like this :

France 60%
Germany 20%
Portugal (Port & Madeira) 8%
USA 6%
Italy 4%
Spain 2%

35

42.7% France
37% USA
10% Italy
5.9% Spain
1.8% Portugal
1.7% Germany
0.6% Lebanon
0.3% Austria

It’s an easy, quick report in CellarTracker.

And Chris is correct. Consumption and cellar can vary a good deal if you have many short term purchases.

36

France 50%
Germany 23%
USA 13%
Italy 11%
Germany mostly white, Italy all red, US and France probably 60/40 red/white.

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37

USA 38.7%
France 32.2%
Italy 12.7%
Germany 11.1%
Spain 4.9% (All LdH)
Lebanon .4% (all Musar)

Not surprising to me, I am buying way more French, Italian, and German wines than ever before. These are the regions that excite me, the USA wines are being consumed but not replaced except a few notable producers.

38

France 90+% Mostly Bordeaux,Burgundy, Loire, Rhône, Champagne, SW France in descending order.
Spain 5%
Portugal 4%
The odd Musar, Morelino, Nebbiolo Tokaji, Etc.

39

49% USA
29% France
12% Italy
4% Spain
1% Germany
1% Australia
Less than 1% = Lebanon, Argentina, Chile, Portugal, South Africa, Greece, Canada, Israel, UK

Italy continues to grow, Germany would grow more but my wife is not a big Riesling fan.

40

Holdings would paint a distorted picture. I buy and drink tons of Bojo all year, but as a collector, I primarily collect California (older the better), so my holdings will skew USA something like 75+%, but consumption is probably more like 40% France, 40% USA and 20% Italy/Argentina/Chile/Spain/Australia.