How generous are you with your Cellar?

WINE TALK
1

With the holidays approaching, most of us will be invited to parties and will bring a bottle of wine with us. What kind of bottle will you bring? Like most on this site, my bottles in my cellar are there for a reason…I really like them or really want to try them. I do believe that wine is for sharing and when I have some people over or go over to a friends house, EVERYTHING in the cellar is fair game. But what about when you go to a small gathering of say 10 people hosted by a very good friend (but not one who knows wines very well)? I will drink whatever the host is serving and will not “offer” to open my bottle. The future of that bottle might be that the host decides to open it and you get a taste with others, some other guest decides to open it and gives themselves and a buddy their traditional 13 oz pour, or it never gets opened that night and put into the pantry and may never again see the light of day. Are you willing to bring a better bottle from your cellar? Maybe something like a Myriad or RM that most people won’t recognize and may never open? Or do you stick with that better $25 wine like a Halcon? Or do you bring that tasty $13 Aussie Shiraz that got good ratings? How generous are you?

2

Other than the stuff my wife “owns” (the Donnhoff, the Champagne), it is open season for one and all at Schloss Bueker.

3

Extremely generous with most, extremely scroogish with several.

it depends on the person.

4

Most of my family does not share my passion for the grape. I tend to bring things that will not overwhelm them. Stuff like Kosta Browne (someone has to drink them), Rieslings, and NV Champers.

5

Play to the level of the crowd. Don’t waste a Kapcsandy GV on a pink Zin group.
But will hit a Mag of it with winos of similar ilk to us .!

6

Other than a few bottles i’m saving for a purpose, people are usually free to drink whatever they want. can they open a really young/unready bottle… yah…
but so what really if it’s enjoyed with good company… if they enjoy it, if we have a good time, share some family/friend time… it’s just wine.

If i was to bring: i usually bring crowd pleasers unless it’s a wine specific crowd.

7

Perfect.

8

I am often guilty of bringing somewhat geeky wines or older wines to such dinners, knowing that they may be unappreciated and that I may be “pushing” the palates of others. That said, they’re often not all that expensive - most of my wines are not.

At some point, I’m sure, they’ll stop inviting me to parties and Incan sit at home and drink my own delicious wine without fear of their sneers. :slight_smile:

9

[rofl.gif]

Your PN palate seems to have changed quite a bit, D

10

I’m typically a very generous guy. Every year we’ve sent our clients really nice gifts. A couple years ago I sent clients a bottle of 07 Colgin IX Estate. This year more than ever I’m enjoying the wine. I was planning on sending clients bottles of 02 Shafer Hillside. But I’m having a really hard time letting go of my bottles.

11

The gems in the cellar are much more fun to drink with wine geek friends. So yep with them…anything goes.

12

Phil, with all due respect, sending your clients nice bottles is done for an ancillary business purpose, and at least IMO, is not really what the OP is driving at.

BTW, Scott, I had the same reaction you did regarding the comment on Kosta Browne - it can by dizzying how quickly the “flavor of the month” goes out of style. I can recall on the RMP Commerce Corner when Kosta Browne was the hot new thing that one seller had posted a thread looking to trade their newly-released KB mailing list purchases for either aged Bordeaux or Barolo. My only thought at the time was “good luck with that” [cheers.gif] .

At any rate, to respond to the original question, I never get invited to Holiday parties neener .

13

Focusing on the title of the OP: How generous are you with your cellar? I have found…and am finding increasingly…that people have their own ideas about what constitutes being generous. Those who think they are, seldom really are.

14

I tend to lean towards opening whatever I want or what someone expresses interest in when we entertain. If we go to someone else’s house, I tend to take wine that suits the crowd. If I know the ‘inner circle’ will be there, I will take something better.

15

And I met some people early in my wine geekdom who were very generous with their cellars so I try to do the same.

16

I’m lucky! Friends know I own a craft beer distributor so they expect me to take beer…

17

I have found over the years that I have little use for cellar defenders. Living in a small town with relatively few wine aficionados and a larger than I need cellar, I used to find myself excited when someone liked say a 40 dollar rhone ranger I brought to a party and would run home to grab an Alban or SQN fir them to try. Now a days I just bring whatever great wines I want to drink and share them. Regardless of the nature of the party. The only complaint I get often is that people end up spending more money on wine as a consequence of something they try with me :wink:

18

Most of my wine is opened for groups because we entertain a lot. I have too much in my cellar and I tend to pull a lot of corks so I can taste many things.

With that said, I generally have more success making my friends happy when I try to match the wine with the crowd. My palate is pretty different from my friends who generally like RS and softer, fruit forward wines.

19

In my experience, this is key. Back in 2003, when I really just discovered wine, I was very fortunate to meet someone who had a huge cellar (13,000 plus bottles), wanted to share those, and delighted in opening what I now know was amazing stuff. I “grew up” on this stuff. At the same time I had purchased my Calistoga property, founded my label, and started to figure out what the heck was going on.

My daughter, who is now 21, has more knowledge of more great wines, winegrowing, the ability to spot a corked wine a mile away, and yes, an ability to “taste” that far exceeds her mother’s.

Back to the OP: where you start has a lot to do with how you proceed. None of it is right or wrong, just different, and largely based on early experiences.

And there ends this evening’s armchair psychology session.

20

Fairly generous. There are many wines which I won’t share, mostly as they aren’t nearly mature.
Love opening interesting or older bottles when there’s interest. We hosted some friends & their spouses for a cassoulet dinner in the spring and we had a bunch of different stuff. I know they only drink recently purchased wines and have no cellar, although they will spend a few bucks on wine.
We were opening some cool recent Rhones with dinner & I know they don’t have experience with mature/ older wines, so I opened a '90 Hermitage Sizeranne so they could try a mature Syrah.
Happy to share it as there was interest, discussion & appreciation.