How is your average cost per bottle trending?

David_Lewin · April 13, 2019, 4:53pm

Mine is going down as I buy more Riesling and Loire demi-sec and fewer (more expensive) age-worthy reds.

dsGriswold · April 13, 2019, 4:55pm

I balance the few spendy WA Rocks wines with affordable WA reds, mostly Rhone, Spanish and Italian. Also buy a lot of Loire, Savoie, Tuscan and Piemonte affordable wines that can be readily shared and gifted. For myself I buy OR PN that beats the pants off Burgundy for the non-wealth crowd. Also stay away from BDX wines both foreign and domestic. I enjoy buying wine, and it is much easier to by a half case of something I know will be readily consumed than a couple bottles I will resist opening, waiting for that special occasion. Half my cellar just sits taking up space.

Hank_Victor · April 13, 2019, 5:08pm

2018- $36/btl
2019- $24/btl

Sample bottles and gifts are inputted at $0 so that is bringing down the average.

dsimmons · April 13, 2019, 5:32pm

2002 - $31
2019 - $60

It has been pretty stable last 5 years.

Scott_E1 · April 13, 2019, 5:33pm

Trending down. Currently $65 per bottle. Average for Cab and Pinot close to $80, but should continue to decrease since I don’t buy $100 bottles anymore and I’m buying more top shelf Zin at comparably reasonable prices - same for Syrah. Cheers!

G_Bienstock · April 13, 2019, 5:38pm

Since “sorta retiring” 2 years ago my costs have gone way down.

I have 500 bottles cellared going back to the 80’s. I open mature bottles that were bought when costs were more reasonable and my salary was double what I earn today in a low stress fun job. Now I enjoy the fruits of my patience in the cellar and supplement with daily drinkers, mainly crisp whites and roses.

I am able to find a few gems among the mundane plonk at local Grocery Outlet stores, almost always well under $10. Last weeks sale was 20% off on a bottle and I bought 2 cases for around $100. 4 Provence rose, 10 Rolf Binder dry Riesling, 3 Vinum Cellars Chenin Blanc and 5 very tasty Spaniard reds had an average price of around $4 per bottle on sale.

Jim_Stewart · April 13, 2019, 6:14pm

2019 ($85.ish): I’ve finally reached a point where my cellar feels balanced and where I want it. I’m actively at a place where I’m buying wines to replace what I drink or keep a few favorites going.
2018 ($95.ish): Another year of refining what I wanted. No real regrets…but maybe; just maybe I wish I had bought a little more Krug 164eme
2017 ($75.ish): Keller, Barolo, Champagne, and Burgundy…as much as I could justify and find. No regrets.
2016 ($55.ish): This is largely influenced by my trip to Italy. I spent less, but got more of what I wanted. No regrets this year.
2015 ($60.ish): I bought a house so I spent less and invested in a snow-blower. My biggest regret was turning down 2019 Clos Rougeard for $125/bottle. Just because the price went up $9.
2014 ($65.ish): I got a promotion and my comfort spending money on wine went up. My biggest wine-buying regret was not buying 2010 Bartolo Mascarello at $100/bottle.
2013 ($55.ish): I continued the trend cutting how often I drank and started spending more. My biggest regret was selling some of the 2010 A. et P. de Villaine Mercurey Les Montots at my cost. I really wish I had just saved them. What an awesome wine for $30
2012 ($40.ish): I seriously cut back on my consumption to start buying more expensive wines. My biggest regret from this year; I should have bought more Keller back when they were easier to find.
2011 ($28.ish): My first real pay-raise post grad school. Wines got a little more expensive this year. I wish I had realized just how awesome Pierre Peters Les Chetillons was…I only bought one bottle of the 2004.
2010 ($20.ish): Working in wine retail; wines for cost…but my price was going up. Finished Grad School and moved to Portland, ME. Living that first year got expensive…so there was not much buying power. Purchases I regret not buying now: 1996 Salon for $300, 1996 Krug for $300, and 1995 Musar for $72.
2009 ($20.ish): Working in wine retail; wines for cost…but my price was going up.
2008 ($20.ish): Working in wine retail; wines for cost…but my price was going up.
2007 ($16.ish): The first year I worked as the Wine Director for an award winning restaurant. Part of the deal was getting to buy wines at cost. So this doesn’t accurately reflect the value of the wines I bought…but it was about what I paid per bottle.
2006 ($10.ish): I’d been out of the Army for a year at this point and was a full time college student. This was the first year I worked in the wine industry at a retail store. Most of what I was buying was distributor close-outs and wines at cost from the small wine shop I worked at. While low, I stretched my $10/bottle this year. I drank a Romanian Pinot Noir for like $6 that was just plain awesome for the $. Regrets…not realizing that $115 for a 2002 Lafite Rothschild would be the last time I saw a first growth for under $200/bottle.

That’s a fascinating story of developing wine interest (and expenditures) Kirk ! And over a relatively brief time frame from my perspective. -Jim

Kirk.Grant · April 13, 2019, 6:46pm

Jim, I think an interesting component to this shift in price is also that from 2006 my income grew close to 10x that by 2018. I feel like that also seriously impacts the shift in price as well.