Folks - HOW DO YOU DO IT ???

WINE TALK
41

Ok, thanks, I see that many of the bottles tasted are BYO … that´s also what I do when in my region.
And since many have purchased a lot of wine longer ago (as I have), prices paid will be much lower than today at retail.

But when travelling it´s rarely possible to BYO … and wines from the wine list are often simply crazy priced - except in some wine growing regions … mostly in France.

42

A lot of wines brought to gatherings were bought at release. There’s a huge difference in the purchase price bought at release from a non-gouging retailer who you’ve had a relationship for years vs finding that bottle later on Wine Searcher.

43

My wine group gets together about once a month at a restaurant where we BYOB. Also, we tend to have wine dinners with friends at either our house or their house every one to two months. All the wines come from our various collections.

Another thing to remember. What you consider really expensive may not have cost the poster as much. For example, you may consider a 1982 Canon an expensive or very expensive wine. I paid $9 or so for it in 1983. A lot of people have been collecting wine for many years and probably bought the first growths or DRC wines for a fraction of what they would sell for today.

Then, there are people who even today have ways of getting wines at cheaper than retail prices. For example, I know that some here get some Burgs out of Europe at release prices and that others buy wines when visiting producers.

44

In the Rioja region, good, aged wine is very reasonably priced even on restaurants’ wine lists. Off the top of my head are a 1982 CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva at 40€ (El Rincón del Vino, Logroño), and a 1991 López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva at around 90€ (Restaurante Echaurren Tradición, Ezcaray).

Best,

N

45

If it´s BYOB most of the times, and if most bottles have been purchased long(er) ago I understand everything (and do it myself that way).

But GCs and other rare gems off restaurants wine-lists … that would be out of my (financial) imagination …

46

Howard (I think :slight_smile: ) started to allude to something too, Robert. It’s partially about frequency. Yes, when I was on my 2-week trip to Bordeaux and Burgundy, we ate out pretty much every night, but some of those nights were without wine, other nights—e.g. at L’Univerre in Bordeaux, they had the 2009 Raveneau Montee de Tonnere on the list for, I think, 70E or so. It didn’t take much for me to pull the trigger for a bottle for the 4 of us. And, bottom-line—that kind of spending, I tend to do about once or twice a year at most. Otherwise, here in Toronto, I’m out at most once a month, more or less on the lines Tran has described.

As for the really expensive stuff, my old motto. I don’t cultivate those wines…I cultivate the friends who have 'em and are generous/silly enough to share with me [grin.gif]

Either way, it all comes back to the baseline—I am willing to spend some money to go out and have a special evening with good friends, good food and good wine. There’s a high degree of value to that experience.

Thanks for starting this thread.

Skal,

Mike

47

I wondered why we get so many Mike on the road threads. newhere [welldone.gif]