Reading through this, it seems like a common occurrence is that when people start with new world wines (CA, OZ, not OR that I’ve seen), they tend to loose enthusiasm for them over time and seek out European regions. The opposite never seems to be the case, so I suppose it depends on where you started in the journey if you’ll end up needing a cellar adjustment. One of my first loves was Nebbiolo almost 40 years ago. I fell out of love with it…for three months and then we got back together. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve moved to lighter, more elegant wines rather then the anecdotally predicted oppose: Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc, Champagne, and “kinder, gentler” versions of Nebbiolo. Since I started as an acid lover, I expect to die as an acid lover. That is something I can’t imagine changing.
I almost added to my comments how my cellar had drifted toward German Riesling, so there may be some Vulcan mind meld going on. There will be lots of Riesling at our 100th birthday party. I suspect a few Burgs too!
Somehow, I just discovered this thread. Without reading 123 responses, I’ll provide some thoughts to address your reach out:
I’ve gone through at least 3 major palate changes over 40+ years and it’s obvious, more is to come along with smaller shifts.
So, and as the ole adage says, “drink what you like and like what you drink”.
Keep what you have bought and liked at some point as it they may come around again to your preferences.
Do more blind tastings and really hone in on the true essence of each wine and how they match your palate preferences now and evaluate them for potential they have to evolve into. On this note, using the best and same stemware for a more consistent experience is one area you can control. And taste the wines on their own without food initially. And, as I know you have done, make notes in such a way as to be able to refer to them and compare with future tastings.
Most importantly, avoid holding onto what others say and think about a wine before tasting them. This is why I do a lot of blind tastings. It’s so much more objective and results in you REALLY enjoying some wines because you are more objective and therefore drinking what you like and liking what you drink.
I look forward to sharing more of the wines we love Todd.
For what it’s worth, I know several people who moved away from Burgundy. They encountered way too many “misses,” some fine wine, and a few really great wines, and once the crazy price increases started, they felt like they were paying a premium for a lot of disappointment. They point to the Rhone as a more reliable example of beautifully aged wines (that happen to generally be much less expensive).
Price is certainly is an underrated issue, especially if your reference point for Burgundy are wines that are now much harder to afford. If Burgundy prices doubled tomorrow, I strongly suspect I’d reconsider my future cellar composition
It’s more than that. They were always somewhat more expensive overall, especially best producers and wines, and that was fine. But the gap has widened—by price level and breadth of high pricing among producers and wines. At first somewhat steadily and then the last couple years at an accelerated rate.
I do think the idea of “arriving at Burg and just staying locked in there forever” would be a lot different for people who arrived 20 or maybe even 10 years ago than someone today.
There are new producers making good wines at moderate prices from satellite Burg regions now, but even those get discovered for a vintage or two then shoot up in price.
Yes, that’s fair. But wouldn’t you agree that “I’ve decided Burg will be most of what I buy and drink from now on” is quite a bit different in 2023 than in 2010 or 2000? That’s all I meant.
At least for someone who doesn’t have an extremely high wine budget.
Just depends what you’re buying. There are cheaper burgs and more expensive burgs. There’s a lot of people that only drink Napa cabs; if all they drank was SE, Harlan, scarecrow etc it’d also be expensive.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I never understood the “I used to like this but now I hate it” thinking. For forty years now I’ve been drinking wine and I still like many of the first wines that got me interested in wine in the first place. Those were wines from Rioja and Napa and the Rhone. I still love those. I don’t necessarily love what happened to Napa for a while, so never chased any of the wines that people anxiously waited to receive as part of their allocations. Never joined any wine clubs. But I still love the old-school Napa Cabs - Dunn, Corison, Montelena, etc. After years and years and years of being told that Burgundy is the epitome of wine, I think that’s more groupthink than anything else, as I never found it compelling enough to devote much time to. Same with most sparkling wines.
So maybe the problem was chasing what others liked or talked about didn’t leave space for what you yourself liked.
And there’s also the way you approach it. I like the Mae West approach and rather than always go for the familiar, I’m usually happier trying something new to me. So last few nights we’ve been drinking Lebanese wines. I’m not familiar with them other than Musar, so it’s been interesting. As a comparison, last night we also decided to open a few S. Rhones. The Lebanese wines showed very favorably and I will explore more.
And there’s more and more interesting wine made every day. So if you have stuff you don’t like, I would sell it for sure, but I wouldn’t be so sure that you’ll now hate it forever. If you bought it because you liked it and not because it was hyped, there must have been something appealing to you personally, and I don’t think you lose that.
I actually have come back to domestic wine. It started with IPOB and wines in that idiom, but in the last few years I’m back after Cabernet, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and field blends mainly but with others in the mix.
I fell out of love with Nebbiolo for a time myself. I just wasn’t getting much joy from it. Ironically, it was Alto wines that brought me back in and reignited my love affair.
I’ve had a long arc and there are interesting stories in there. I’ve sold off chunks of my cellar several times. The next thing that might go for me is Champagne. Over the last 4-5 years I’ve been exploring everything again with the explosion of new growers available to me and renewed hype around the grand marques, but I think I’m kind of bored with it and have mostly settled on some favorites.
The biggest surprise of the last 5 years is an interest in Grenache, but in a pretty narrow idiom, unfortunately.
Loire Cabernet Franc has fallen by the wayside a bit, mostly because I have a ton and we just don’t drink it as much as we used to. I’m sure that will come around again, who knows, maybe this summer with the bounty of the farmers markets.
To @ToddFrench 's particular predicament, I sold all my “cult” Cabernet in the late 90s (to Premier Cru, ha!) and have actually gone back a bought stray bottles 20 years later as I’ve circled back to some CA drinking and except for a couple, they’re not much more expensive now, there is just the storage risk. I can’t really think of any bottles I’ve later regretted selling. Space is also a real issue, so get rid of the stuff you’re not into is what I’d advise.
Good advice from Troy, which you also say seems true for your situation at the moment. Maybe you should be patient and incremental with any changes and don’t do anything extreme until things become ‘crystal’. You don”t want to Heinerscheid it!
Not unexpectedly, but I think the focus of this thread for some moved to ‘I’m switching to Burgundy and that’s all I like’ - not at all true. I’m not anywhere near a stage where I’ll switch to just one region or one type of wine - I’m just saying my enjoyment levels are changing - my palate may not be, necessarily - it’s just that many wines I used to sort of enjoy I now do not at all, and visa versa some others that were on the plus side of enjoyment are much more elevated now - the gap has widened.
I know my palate has changed throughout the 20 ish years I’ve been into wine, but in general I’ve always enjoyed all wines/varietals/regions, for the most part. Currently I have a greater discrepancy between the likes and not likes, so I have decided (with the feedback here) to just choose what I WANT to drink, what I’m likely to enjoy, rather than pull from the hundreds of other bottles that I’m (currently) ‘meh’ about, because I have more of them and I was raised not to waste
If this trend continues, I should consider selling some of those wines. I still love a wide variety - Oregon Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Zin from all over (except hot climates), Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and quality Cava, Northern Rhone Syrah and CA syrah that emulates it, old school style Cabernet etc - it’s a broad range. I think I should just stick to those for now, rest might come back eventually into the ‘love’ fold.