Dan I am more extreme than you: ~400 singletons out of ~900. The most I have of any wine is 7 bottles. I don’t need to know what a given wine is like at every stage in its evolution, what it tastes like on root days vs. fruit days, etc etc. If the stars align, I’ll go deeper, and if they don’t it’s no skin off my nose and I’ll happily move on to the next. When you consider the sheer number of producers, cuvees, vintages out there, I’m happy to leave it to the fates whether a bottle shows well or not. But perhaps I’ll change my tune with age
At the Santa Cruz Mountain tasting in San Mateo, I was either the oldest guy there, or about tied for it. All of the Young Whippersnappers (not all men!) brought some of the world’s very greatest wines that no amount of money can buy!
I don’t have the cellar depth of these people, but I’ve always got a glass of something good, interesting and unusual for Berserkers headed to Maine.
I go long on wines I love. I currently own many more wines (same exact wine, same vintage) in quantities of 6 or more than I do 5 or less. Singles and doubles make up approx 10% of my cellar v
Sign me up for the minimal duplicates club. Makes offsite storage difficult tho when each case is often nothing but singletons. 1.5 fridges on site (really should get rid of the half for 2nd full size) and ~1k capacity offsite.
On the privacy issue – No issue at all here, film away and ask questions on $$, #s ect. In fairness, like others wouldn’t do it without asking.
Finally on sharing, like many others on the board I have a larger buying problem than a drinking problem. I’d love to share anything I’ve got, albeit with limited options living in a small rural town.
Here is a full frequency table if you care.
n f
|1|94|
|2|68|
|3|60|
|4|37|
|5|24|
|6|12|
|7|1|
|8|1|
A favorite book of mine is ‘The Discovery of France’, about how the nation was knit.
An interesting quasi-statistic (accuracy far from guaranteed):
During the Middle Ages, into closer to modern times, in many parts of France wine amounted to as much as 1/3 of calories consumed by an adult male. I’ve seen this described as typical:
Breakfast: Bread, porridge and a bottle of wine.
Lunch: Meat pie (with very little meat), salad and a bottle of wine.
After work: Bread, maybe a little cheese, and a bottle of wine.
Dinner: Whatever, with two bottles of wine.
Five bottles of wine a day. In those days, average alcohol probably 6 - 9%, a thrilling, upscale treat to get something “Onze Degree” (11%), which through the 1900s was the aspirational standard for blue collar French men. Appellation definitely not Controlee.
When we bought our current home a few years ago it was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to build an in-house cellar. Justified the cost vs off site storage (it pays for itself!). Holds 1000 bottles if it’s really stuffed, but it’s been a good way to visualize the collection and know when it needs to be culled. Boxes were stacking up outside the cellar, so sold a bunch and passed on a bunch of offers the last couple of years. Sitting pretty at around 850 bottles. Convincing myself that any wine I buy must fit in the cellar has been a great way to limit purchases. Still…I have too much wine.
I have 929 in my cellar and 69 pending. I originally built it for 400 bottles and a little room to grow. I wedged in some more racking and shelves but it is really inconvenient. I am truly trying to reduce buying this year and get down to 800 because at 1000 bottles it is too crowded. We hope to start building a house this year and it will have a proper 1000 bottle cellar.
To @Dan_Kravitz point, de Tocqueville was amazed at how much whiskey Americans drank when he visited in the first half of the 19th century–claimed everyone was borderline drunk all the time. (Picked up on by William Grimes in his cocktail book, of which I am a fan. ) This quote from an “English traveler” (from the web) seems typical:
“I am sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink. If you meet, you drink; if you part, you drink; if you make acquaintance, you drink; if you close a bargain you drink; they quarrel in their drink, and they make it up with a drink. They drink because it is hot; they drink because it is cold. If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice; if not, they drink and swear; they begin to drink early in the morning, they leave off late at night; they commence it early in life, and they continue it, until they soon drop into the grave.”
Grimes also mentions that insurance companies used to charge you more if you did NOT drink.
I just sent 17 cases off to auction on Tuesday. My wife was shocked when she went into the cellar later in the week for a bottle and it wasn’t totally empty. She assumed that was ALL the bottles (even though she can do quick math and has our CellarTracker on her computer and phone) and not just a rounding error of stuff we don’t like anymore
I think it’s a generational thing. A LOT of the younger generation have almost no sense or need for privacy in their own lives, a lot b/c of social media (tiktok, snap, IG, etc) attention, cell phone tech, and feel it’s okay to do the same with others. I always get a kick out of people who spend hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on concerts or sporting events, and literally watch almost the entire show through the camera screen instead of their own eyes. It’s as if the “hey look what I saw” attention is more gratifying than the actual experience.
The same phenomenon occurs at tourist destinations. It is not about experiencing the site, but about getting a quick picture before dashing off to the next thing. I think this started with the invention of digital cameras.
