I’m 69. I still buy, usually white wine and older bottles I’ve wanted to own. I haven’t sold anything but I probably should because we are planning on moving. I actually drink more now in retirement than when I was working and I’m drinking better wines. We do have a lot of parties where I provide wines and I’ve been steadily reducing the cellar.
Thanks for posting Howard…I sincerely thought that you are around my age but then I realize you started your wine life from your father as a youngster.
Please keep it up and stay healthy with a good physical conditional, I miss some of the familiar posters from the Parker B…and wish they could post here as often as possible. 
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I’m 70 and have been dealing with the same issues for a while now, so your post really resonates with me.
With shipping season upon us, awareness of my intemperate buying has become more acute.
I have found that a change in attitude provided a solution to this part of the problem:
I realized that I will get more pleasure out of the real gems if I drink them than if I end up selling them or passing them on to my heirs. It took a while to realize that, given the number of gems remaining, this has become more important than saving the best bottles to share only with those who would appreciate them. So now, I’m fine with opening them with non-geeks. Or for just my wife and me, where 1/3 may end up in the fridge for the next day or go undrunk.
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I have had a different experience as I drink less, which I most certainly do. We used to have wine pretty much every night, and now it’s mostly weekends, or with company. But I find that the reduction in consumption does not make me emphasize “quality.” I find I love my modest favorite wines as much or more than ever. I go to bed early, and like to be done drinking well before then. On most nights, I don’t particularly want to pay the amount of attention that great wine requires. The sipping, the swirling, the commenting, the thinking, the feeling like this is something special so I have to give it the time it deserves….that part of the hobby kind of bores me these days. I mostly just want something delicious in my glass during dinner. I have to make myself pull the high end bottles, and more often than not, I don’t find I get the same unadulterated joy from those. There are exceptions, of course, and with guests it’s different. But this is more and more our experience, and I can’t say I am sorry.
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I concur.
I was shocked yesterday as I was looking for a bottle to share with an old friend who doesn’t drink much. As I rummaged around looking for inspiration, I found myself thinking I have way too much 20+ - year-old Barolo, Barbaresco, Burgundy and Riesling and – like Greg and David – not enough friends who care enough that I want to share those bottles with. And I’m not going to open them when I’m eating alone.
I ended up opening a Maclura Cotes du Rhone (Pegau), which was ideal with a spicy lamb and eggplant stew. Genuine, balance grenache hit the spot.
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I have no problem opening them alone if it’s what I want to drink. It’s just usually not.
Rhone and Loire are just five tool players when it comes to the cellar. They go great with everything – are open and ready to play and affordable and bring joy. I know the feeling well of staring at aged Barolo and Barb and Brun (not the burgs cuz of the climb in value of the ones I have in cellar) and thinking this 15 year old Italian would go great but the dinner guests would not get it. I alway reach for a $25 CDR or Rasteau and it’s always a hit. Recently lower end Bordeaux have been killer.
This is one of the great changes for me. I moved from NYC, where I regularly opened a case or two a month for tastings. Where I live now I have yet to find wine geeks, and certainly don’t have the critical mass to open a case at a time without being too wasteful. I have found people who love wine, and open four to six bottles at a time for the four of us about once a month, but even that is a fraction of what I built the cellar for.
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Hmm. Maybe I should reconsider if the wine is one that will hold up a few days in the fridge, like a lot of nebbiolo.
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As a 32 year old who is buying too much wine I appreciate reading this thread, as I also am fighting the desire to “taste every wine” because I see where that will lead. I’ve been drinking wine since around 18 (my Dad is really into wine), and seriously buying for about 6 years, and already I buy too much. I’ve done the math. Extrapolating the rate of growth equals a scary large number that I will never drink in my lifetime.
And yes, before someone chimes in, I’ve heard the advice to not buy too heavily at my age, especially in one area, because palates change. My problem is I’m too broad and I genuinely enjoy so many different styles. Maybe this changes with time. But I don’t think I want it to. I love barolo/brunello (that’s how I got into wine), I can’t keep enough champagne in stock, I continue to go further down the rabbit hole of German riesling and now also pinot, I enjoy bordeaux, I love the classic style of napa (dunn, corison, etc.), burgundy is daunting but I still dabble…the list goes on. Shit I even buy radikon and gravner and really enjoy some orange wines. Then I find some random delicious daily drinking $25 barbera that I want to buy a few bottles of.
What’s the solution? Am I just doomed to die with way too much wine? There are worse problems in life I guess
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Diversity is great – can only speak for myself but my tastes have shifted over the years and it’s always great to have wines in your cellar to pivot to or back to. Back and forth in terms of regions and styles (never California - have like two bottles in my entire cellar, IDK why) but the wines that can age and wait for your tastes to circle back are great to have in the cellar. I remember one period when I got caught up in the CDP craze – loved them before Parkerization and kept buying and realized after a few years in the cellar that I no longer liked the huge porty CDPs – stopped buying. Traded, sold or drank off the too big ones and went away from them for a long time. Like I was totally done with them and then I had a few of the more recent style of CDPs and fell back in love with them – the lighter style. Also had a few of the older CDPs in my cellar like Clos Des Papes, Donjon etc and was able to open and find new appreciation for them.
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I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a couple of vertical tastings. One friend who is ITB would like to put together a Duplessis Chablis event. I have around 5 cases from that producer. The other is an Edmunds St. John Rocks & Gravel vertical. I have multiple bottles each from 8 vintages. I could charge for that one, but I’d be perfectly happy if the group just covered the cost of my meal.
Even doing those, the dent in my cellar would be fairly insignificant.
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I had a plan! I was going to run out of wine around age 80. Then I inherited 2300 more bottles. Now I have to live and drink until age 92. Fingers crossed.
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Indeed! As I have said before, I am more worried about running out of something I love than dying with too much wine.
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So in summary, I’m overthinking it. 
Or just trying to find how to properly explain to my wife why we need more storage space
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Heck, there are the unopened bottles of gin, single malts, bourbon, and rye to account for. Probably 18-20 bottles in all.
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Good perspective. If you aren’t digging yourself a financial and/or relationship hole, maybe your problem isn’t really that much of a problem?
But it’s still something to reflect on and to make adjustments where you see fit.
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Thankfully none of those problems. My wife only lightheartedly teases me about it and very much enjoys wine herself, and we’re financially responsible.
For whatever reason, I’ve always told myself I didn’t want to be the guy who dies with a couple thousand bottles of undrunk wine. But I should probably just let that go. If we knew the exact day we were going to die, we could solve that problem! But alas
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By putting wine into the cellar I mean laying them down with the intention of aging. Rather than purchasing for more or less immediate consumption (within six months or so).
I do not use CellarTracker so unlikely I could get very granular on total of bottles purchased. Some of the data I create would distort this. But somewhere in the area of 250 bottles sounds right. Probably a little higher. Wild guess. Most of what I buy is $20 to $40. More under $20 than above $40. I would factor in sales tax in any total dollar figure. That is, what the receipt says.
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