I started collecting when I was... now I'm...

WINE TALK
21

For???

22

1985 Lynch Bages was my epiphany wine. Started to collect around that time. Highest inventory ever was about 10years ago which was close to 1000 bottles, but divorce etc led me to bleed it down. Not sure how many now, after a buying spree of 2014-2016 bdx and 2012-2014 cabernets with 2015 coming. Time to really slow it down. Oh, I was 32 in 1985.

23

Started collecting 10 years ago when I was 26. Been selling wine consistently from my cellar for about two years now and am down to 675 bottles. That number should begin moving back up soon.

24

Tooch is back!!!

We missed ya, buddy.

25

My father introduced me to wine at age 16, grew up with it at the dinner table every night. I started enjoying my own wine selections with my dinner while in law school, basic stuff but was a nice wind-down for the day. The bug bit me hard when I graduated in 1992, with a little spending cash in my pockets, and the 1990, 1989 and 1986 Bordeaux vintages were easily found for $40 and under. Caymus was only $16! I bought some of that too, but was much more impressed by Bordeaux. Took our honeymoon in 1996 in Paris, Chinon and Bordeaux, my fascination with wines from the old world grew to another level. Bought some Moutons while there, but it was really the Chinons from 1989 that blew me away. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to Clape Cornas. Light’s out! These three regions still to this day make up 90% of my cellar and my regular drinking.

My wine collection took a little hiatus in 2003/2004, as I started doing Ironman triathlon pretty regularly, so consumption dropped, and then we had 3 hurricanes in 4 weeks come through Orlando. We lost power for many days in a row during all of these events, exposing a lot of my wines for 90+ degrees. We simply had limited options, and my family, dogs and art were more important than bottles of wine that I had not place to put anyway.

So my cellar was a rebuild project starting around 2005 and I’m still building. Some may call it a narrow cellar, but after doing this passion for so long, I have a pretty darn good feel for exactly what I like. I’m 52 in several days and have amassed enough wine to really start tapering my buying, and doing more focused backfilling. The buzz about certain vintages in certain regions, however, continues to hit me, though. It’s tough, as this hobby is fun. I also realize that there is a possibility that the palate will change as we age, I saw it with my father, who was old world and is now new world. I’ll worry about that if it happens, but feel pretty good that some of the geeky wines I have would be worth more then, anyway. My Dad is a healthy 79, and he and my mother still enjoy wine every evening, and really enjoyed all the 2007 Chateauneuf de Papes that I gifted them! It was poetic, since the bug for Southern Rhone bit me when my wife and I stayed with them in the spring of 1997 for a couple months when they stayed in St. Remy de Provenace for several months. That remains one of my most memorable trips, the French lifestyle.

26

Started collecting at 23, mostly by going in to our local wine shop and asking them to build us a case of something interesting. Found this site about 6 months in and suddenly everything became much more expensive.

25 now and I’m trying to curtail some purchases but it’s going poorly so far…

27

27 in ‘97 as a Ph.D. student in Ann Arbor (the 20th anniversary of my epiphany during a Thanksgiving trip to NYC is next week)

Now 47

~1350 bottles but purchases near a standstill

28

I also started at about 25 and I’m 51. Sold about half of what I had when we moved to a condo and have off-site storage now. ~1500btls not all off site.

JD

29

33 and… 33.

Wine was always part of my life and my grandfather and dad had/have really impressive cellars of Australian wines (my first love was a bottle of '69 St Henri that was opened on my dad’s 50th birthday, I kept the empty bottle for many years). I moved around too much to have any serious collection but when my son was born in 2016, I finally had a permanent home so I started looking into birth year wines for him. I’m only up to 90 bottles or so but that’s growing exponentially.

30

Started collecting in 2012 which was my first year of grad school. Now I am 33 (and will be done grad school in June, yay!) - collection has grown to around 750 bottles, mostly Bordeaux. My epiphany wine was in 2011 (December) and it was a 1990 La Conseillante.

31

I always find it interesting that so many folks here are pretty young and nearly everyone started when they were young. Many of the local wine guys here are also very young. I don’t know if that’s self-selection due to the nature of an internet wine board, but regardless, the future is bright. Debunks the stereotype of old stodgy folks drinking Claret.

32

I’m currently 32 and started collecting at 18. My parents collected wine when I was growing up and I got interested in it as a teenager. I currently have about 800 bottles (maybe more since some things never get recorded), but also inherited more when my father passed away last year. I’m sort of buried in wine and find myself drinking less and less. Luckily I’ve only bought about 2 cases of collectible wines this year while I try to figure out a longer term strategy (since buying but not drinking doesn’t really work that well). I love having older bottles to choose from, but I’m starting to question whether I’ll keep collecting as I go on or if I’ll just buy mature bottles when I want them. I’ll likely keep buying a couple of limited regional wines (Thomas, Ovum, etc.), but think my days of buying across the board may be nearing their end.

33

I wonder if it is more of the nature of the internet. I know quite a lot of “old stodgy folks” that have never done the wine boards thing.

34

I forget.
Now 72.
GET OFF MY LAWN !

35

Started buying a case a year at age 10, 1975. Epiphany wine was 1973 Donati Teroldego
Started a more diverse cellar in 1981, age 16. Both 1978 Sterling Cabernet and 1971 Thanish Berncasteler Doctor Spatlese aroused my curiosity.
Discovered Barolo in 1982-83 and that was that.
Today I am 52.
600 square feet of cellar.

36

damn bro, no one wanted your life story. [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

37

I bill by the hour, Fu!

38

I don’t know if you have ever told the backstory as to how it is you began collecting wine at age 10. But if you haven’t, it should be fascinating.

39

I’ll mark it as 1991, when I was 23 and bought my first serious bottle of wine, a 1988 Haut Brion. My initial “what the heck is this” wine was when I was about 14 and dad served a 1984 from somewhere in the Margaux appellation, but my epiphany wines were a 1990 Jadot Chambolle Feusselottes and a 1988 Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes that really turned me on to the fascination of wine.

I have about 325-350 bottles or so and trying to hold the line on that. Having a cellar depressurization event once every 4 years helps!

Single malt and bourbon have a tendency to interfere with my wine buying [grin.gif]

Although I’ve had plenty and still have some, don’t I wish I’d bought even more 2001 Sauternes…and definitely more 01 Burgs, 01 Alsatian and 2010 red Burgs. Ah, well.

On 6 lists, and two I order from only very rarely.

Fun, thanks for posting this.

Mike

40

Bought my first “wine cellar” in 1998 when I was 25, I think it was a 34 bottle capacity. Quickly filled that thing up and here we sit 4 additional wine cellars and almost 20 years later. What is really jolting is many of those wines I bought in the late 90’s (mostly Bordeaux) are now fully mature, having spent their entire life in my cellar. I stopped actively buying new Bordeaux vintages with the 2010 futures campaign; my cellars were full and (get off my lawn) the prices were insane. If I consolidated cellars I could probably close down a 250 bottle one, but then I’m afraid I’d be tempted to start filling it again!

Fun thread, nice trip down memory lane!