Buy from De Negoce…
Been feeling for a while that our wine buying end is real near. At 67 have plenty to get us through. Consumption was way down this year. Lowest since starting on CellarTracker by a wide margin. Likely purchase another round of a very select few hard to get goodies and then drink down till done.
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Resurrecting this thread because I too have hit the wall, plus I have a provocative thought.
Background: Similar age to Sarah, collecting for five years, now I have 1000 bottles in offsite storage. Most of it is still too young - CT drinking window chart (I know, I know…) says about 85%+ of my wine won’t be ready to drink for another 5 years.
The provocative thought: is it even worth collecting wine at all any more? What, in reality, is the point?
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The wine market is quite efficient and there is good market depth for just about any fine wine you can think of, especially well-established favorites like Bordeaux. With a wine-searcher subscription you can find pretty much anything from almost any vintage.
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Price appreciation? Fugghedaboudit. The low hanging fruit has already been arbitraged out and winemakers are now setting their release prices to match secondary market values.
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So why not just forge relationships with a couple of good retailers nationally and buy mostly secondary market wines? They rarely hold their value, you can get them with the benefit of age, and you don’t have to tie up your capital and potentially living space for a cellar?
Yes, I know, “provenance,” okay fine. But do I really think that a reputable retailer is going to source wines for its customers that are cooked and stewed?
I’m sure someone else is going to say, “well, the joy of collecting.” In my case, there’s no joy when the wines are five miles away in a chilly warehouse. I can’t fondle them nearly as often as I’d like. And seriously, for those of you who have sweet in-house cellars (jealous, btw) how often do you go down and gaze longingly at your pretty bottles? Probably less often than you check your voicemail.
Change my mind
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Build a cellar!
i started buying wine to cellar (don’t like the term “collecting”) around 2000ish. 98 was the first vintage I bought on release. Just had a great dinner with some friends where I opened a few 98’s- there was something more special to me about opening some great well aged wines I bought on release and patiently aged for 20+ years
YMMV
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It depends on what you collect and want to drink. Most of the wine I buy are from small producers around Europe, who make very few wines. They simply don’t exist (or are very rare at least) on the secondary market.
If I was big on Bordeaux or something more available with age, then maybe.
All that said then I do like to collect, I do care about provenance and I do care about price.
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There is something to this but I think a lot depends on how choosy you are. Besides the provenance issue, the other main drawback is many small producers can be hard to find or specific bottlings from larger producers.
I’ve taken a bit of a hybrid approach, where I buy and cellar some from the hard to find category, and source the rest from retail and/or auction- where I accept I may not get exactly the bottle I want but can certainly meet my needs at a “category” level (eg early 2000s mid tier Bordeaux under $75).
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I actually agree - despite the definitive tone of my earlier post I think the hybrid approach is the way. Buy and cellar some hard to find wines or those for which you have some kind of special relationship, source the rest.
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Plus, with the cellar in the home one gets to go down to the cellar and rearrange bottles every week or so . . . . Really good exercise for those of us who are OCD. 
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In the process of doing it right now, took a break, and saw this post. But lifting those heavy SQN bottles is murder on my left arm, which is recovering from a break caused by a minor bike accident.
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It’s not quite that simple. I have really seen a noticeable difference after a decade or two between a wine that sat in one cellar always at the proper temp since release and one that mostly sat in cellars at proper temp, but also traveled to a couple of auction houses and then shipped to different buyers and one of them had a passive cellar that was a bit warm in the summer, etc. Most people even with nice collections aren’t fanatics about their wine storage. Simple stuff that isn’t necessarily derelict can still make a difference between a wine that shows beautifully and one that just isn’t quite up to the level.
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I agree, unless they are new world wines which you might not even like 5 years from now. Why buy new vintages if you have enough that will be eventually ready.
I’m done buying, but I continue to see interesting offers on older wine that’s cheaper than new releases. Envoyer just came out today with the following for $79.99 on vineyards now sold to Ponsot and Jadot:
2008
Domaine François Perrot
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
Petite Chapelle
Don’t underestimate how much your consumption will drop after age 65 (or 60 in my case).
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I have a personal relationship with every bottle in my cellar. I talk to them often and even play their favorite music on request,
There is something to knowing one’s history.
If I order an aged bottle from a retailer and then kill it the following week how is that good for any soul.
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I’m a bit younger I think (36) and I’m at the point with my collection where about half of the wine I buy moving forward will be current vintage and half will be ex-cellar or secondary market. It’ll shift further towards the secondary market the further along in age I get.
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In Quebec, you have no choice but to collect (i.e. buy and cellar) as the secondary market is non-existant. Now that I’m in France, i haven’t been collecting but accumulating… it’s an irrational buying impulse for things I want thinking they won’t be available in the future (or at an acceptable price).
I’m completely out of room now and we’re not sure how long we’ll stay here. I think I might actually start exercising self-restraint. So yeah, I think reaching the “nuff is nuff” point is logical.
For the vast majority of us, the discovery, shopping, bargain hunting and acquisition are a big (bigger than many realize) part of the enjoyment of the hobby.
If that has stopped being true for you, and you’re confident it will stay that way, then yes, retooling your approach could make sense for you.
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I wish it weren’t so, because it makes quitting nigh impossible, but the chase or hunt is half the fun for me. Scoring a deal, finding a long sought rarity, winning a sniping skirmish. And then there’s the rush when the shipment arrives, that’s my Christmas morning (except it comes multiple times a year).
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I agree with Pat,
And I think there are always new wines to be sourced and eventually drunk. I’m at around 1,000 bottles also, and, unfortunately, given my age and other considerations I can’t really justify buying at the rate I once did, But, man, it was a lot of fun and it’s a lot of fun to open and what I bought 10-20 years ago, as well as watch the price on the occasional bottle soar.
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About 3 years ago (+/-) I decided (and announced here) that I was done buying recent vintage reds, and I have pretty much stuck to it. Since then I have bought maybe a case/18 bottles of wine from just-released vintages but the wines are not long agers by reputation.
As for the fun of the chase, I still have to buy champagne, which we never have enough of it seems, and I have allowed myself to buy maybe a case or three of older bottles of bdx/burgs when too-good-to-pass opportunities have arisen. It has worked pretty well for me.
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If what you’re drinking is mostly high production wines that are easily available on the secondary market and that aren’t especially sensitive to storage concerns (i.e. Bordeaux), then there’s really not much to argue about. If you’re drinking Champagne and Burgundy, the above doesn’t really apply.
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That is great to hear @Sarah_Kirschbaum . We all hope to get there some day. Congrats! You have reached wine Heaven :). Part of the experience for me is the searching, but I without ample funds it does get tiring.
I am sure your cellar/collection is absolutely astonishing at this point and something to aspire to. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the spoils of your years of effort. Cheers! But also keep in touch. The forums need you.