I've got too much fine wine in my basement and not enought everyday wine

[Jim_Brennan]

FWIW there are many times where a good everyday wine is EXACTLY what I want, e.g. a Ch Lamartine Cahors or Cascina Saria Langhe Nebbiolo. Anything more powerful, more prestigious, more oaky, would be a less appealing choice for mood & food.

Yes, exactly. I get all the “go ahead and drink the ‘good’ stuff” posts, but that’s really not at all what I want a lot of the time. This weekend, a friend said (in reference to a particular pizza) “that would have been great with an aged meursault.” I thought, sure - but I am pretty sure I preferred it with the jurancon sec I chose. You don’t always want Beethoven’s 9th - that is never background music. Fortunately, I have plenty of both.

Odds are the aged Mersault would have been oxed anyway.

[Kevin_Porter]

I voted ‘yes’ based on an understanding of ‘fine wine’ similar to Sarah’s excellent description. I too often (and too often) stare at my very modest collection of bourgogne rouge and blanc; langhe nebbiolo; entry level riesling; chenin, chinon and muscadet; cru beaujolais; etc. and despair that I have nothing to drink with the simple, often very spicy, foods that I usually eat. For my budget and in the context of my cellar those are ‘fine wines’. I usually end up drinking CA Pinot that interests me less but that I over bought several years ago.

[Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w]

I voted ‘yes’ based on an understanding of ‘fine wine’ similar to Sarah’s excellent description. I too often (and too often) stare at my very modest collection of bourgogne rouge and blanc; langhe nebbiolo; entry level riesling; chenin, chinon and muscadet; cru beaujolais; etc. and despair that I have nothing to drink with the simple, often very spicy, foods that I usually eat. For my budget and in the context of my cellar those are ‘fine wines’. I usually end up drinking CA Pinot that interests me less but that I over bought several years ago.

No beer? I don’t eat spicy foods so wine to go with spicy food isn’t a problem. I don have enough southern reds to go with pizza or red sauce. The selection is SW PA is pretty bleak.

[Ian_Sutton]

Hi Kevin
That does raise another element of having a wider range of wines. Drinking DRC, Petrus and Gaja every night might seem appealing, but I suspect would pretty quickly become the norm and hence start becoming humdrum. I find similar with some very focused offlines, where it’s fancy bottle after fancy bottle, whereas a good characterful wine can be either a strong point of difference or at least give greater context to the fancier wines e.g. tasting the Produttori Langhe Nebbiolo to give greater context to the standard and Riserva bottles that follow.

I’ve no doubt that same factor is at play when considering low-mid priced wines vs. solid cheaper wines (e.g. more rustic lesser seen appellations)

Regards
Ian

[Anton_D]

. . .
I’ll quote Jim Morrison: “You never know when you’re giving your last performance.” Enjoy more of the good stuff.

+1 on this sentiment . . . and good advice for living in general

As for my basement wine stash, it is a relatively small diverse collection consisting mostly of what, until recently, I thought of as “special occasion” wines. Starting to realize that almost every day is a special occasion and worth treating as such. So like Michael I too say “Enjoy more of the good stuff”

I’m going in with Michael and Jim on this.

[Scott_Brunson]

. . .
I’ll quote Jim Morrison: “You never know when you’re giving your last performance.” Enjoy more of the good stuff.

+1 on this sentiment . . . and good advice for living in general

As for my basement wine stash, it is a relatively small diverse collection consisting mostly of what, until recently, I thought of as “special occasion” wines. Starting to realize that almost every day is a special occasion and worth treating as such. So like Michael I too say “Enjoy more of the good stuff”

I’m going in with Michael and Jim on this.

• infinity

[Kevin_Porter]

Thinking on this I think the delta for me is really intellectual wines versus (strike me down if I use the H word) shall we say exuberant wines. As I look for something to accompany ground turkey soft tacos I want the latter and cellar the former. To quote the good Jay Miller “fruit is not necessarily a flaw”.

[Mark_Mason]

At my age and cellar size, fine wine and everyday drinkers are becoming one and the same. It took me a long time to get here, but the journey has been worth it.

[NoahR]

As a “young” wine collector (balding, deaf, constantly exhausted, etc), 80+% of my cellar is made up of wines that’s i think would be better with a lot more age. That could be 2013 Napa, 2001 Rioja, 2010 Loire CF, 2015 Bordeaux or 2012 Oregon Pinot. None of it is ready to go in my opinion. Don’t have space for a lot else and sometimes find myself cracking bottles better than and younger than I really want to open. The last thing I need is more wine…

[Dan_Kravitz]

Thanks for all of the replies. I’ve learned a lot from your answers.

However I didn’t explain my dilemma correctly. Sally and I live alone. She’s never liked white wine, now her stomach doesn’t handle red very well, so her consumption is about one or two glasses of rose, two to four times a week.
I have a basement reasonably full of well-aged reds. I don’t drink a bottle a day. I don’t have many half bottles (Rhys will help with that). I hate to waste wine. Most 1999 Burgundies won’t be any good the second day. That holds me back from opening the good stuff. The alternative is to open something that will hold up overnight, in other words, before it’s fully mature.
I guess it’s time to restock on 375ml lab bottles and start decanting and refrigerating.

Todd – Thank you for reminding me that Ridge does Carignan!?!
First, I now have to go out and get a bunch of them, apparently different bottlings in different vintages.
Next: WHERE IS DREW GOIN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

Markus – I don’t think of whites as ‘cheap’; if I did, I’d drink a lot more Montrachet. It’s that I’ve collected a lot more red, because that’s what Sally and I drank together.

to Marcus Dean – Excellent thinking on everyday gulpers with age. I represent a producer of Cotes du Rhone (south, not north), open her 2009 negociant Cotes du Rhone with no qualms even if the last half of the bottle goes into the fridge for cooking.

to Brian Grafstrom – To me ‘everyday’ mean ‘affordable’, not ‘boring and uninspiring’. When my choice is boring and uninspiring, craft beer gets the nod every time.

to Scott Brunson – This is a basement.

Please note that half the boxes are empty, time to schedule Cheryl Ward and her mom in for a special town dump run.

Thanks to all. As soon as I come up for air, it’s time to buy some Ridge Carignan and ask Drew Goin about it.

Dan Kravitz

[Marcus_Dean]

And let’s be honest, we are not the supermarket wine crowd. Even our every day bottles are pretty fine.

This is a key point in this discussion, David, thanks for making it.

I know I’m not using the term “everyday wine” to refer to something boring or mediocre. I never drink wines like that. I consider all the wines in my cellar to be delicious and, yes, special. We’ve spent years finding treasures at all price points, and aging them appropriately, which can mean a variety of things. But there are certainly wines we buy that I’m putting in the “everyday” category, even out of those we love - versatile, give immediate pleasure on opening, didn’t cost a ton, can be replaced when we run out, won’t be sad if I gulp half the bottle without noticing for real what I was drinking, don’t demand attention… “Everyday” is as good a word as any for these wines. We buy these wines in larger quantities one, because we can (price) and two because there are more occasions for these than for “great” wines. Setting and timing do matter to me, and I certainly do think about it before I open something I can’t replace. I want to have attention to give to it, not be tired, not have already drunk something else, have a proper food pairing if applicable, and (maybe most importantly) be excited for the experience. That doesn’t have to be a special occasion. Sometimes all those things come together on a random Tuesday. For when they don’t, I’m glad to have familiar friends in the cellar.

Great post Sarah, my thoughts exactly

[Eric_Ifune]

Dan,
I currently live alone, but want some wine with dinner whatever I’m having. I’ll pull a bottle, decant half, recork the bottle and stick it in the fridge. My wines were all pretty ageworthy to begin with, so a night or two in the fridge doesn’t hurt too much. I’m surprised you say the 1999 Burgundies won’t last. I’ve been doing this with the 90’s and 93’s. There’s not much new over the past 10 years so I’m drinking older stuff, but I’m trying to drink down my cellar anyways.

[Dan_Kravitz]

Eric,

Thanks for the note.

I mentioned 375ml lab bottles. Actually, my office has 250ml. I will look into other sizes. My experience with refrigerating half-full bottles has not been as good as yours… of course my '99 Burgs are almost all Cote de Beaune or Cote Chalonnaise, and mostly split between village and 1er Crus, so not as inherently ageworthy as 1er and Grand Crus from the Cote de Nuits.

Later this month I will turn 72. I am not trying to drink down my cellar, in fact am still adding to it (trying to keep the same amount of wine, I estimate ~800 bottles). Both of my children are teetotalers and as mentioned Sally is currently only drinking Rose (we hope she can return to red at some point). However I have other family and close friends who will enjoy things I leave behind for them, and my children will enjoy the proceeds from selling off the remainder.

Dan Kravitz

[Markus_S]

…strike me down if I use the H word…

Humble?
High-brow?
Hubris?
H-U-G-E?

[edwardmilstein]

Dan- try the repour- pretty cheap alternative and has worked well for me.( no affiliation , yad yada yada )

[Brent_C_l_a_y_t_o_n]

Especially during the summer I’m drinking more cocktails and beer because I don’t want to open a bottle and waste it.

With our first few days down to 60 degrees in a long time, it was nice to have some red wine this weekend.

I can’t just run out and grab an everyday bottle in my neighborhood. Selection is terrible. I have plenty to drink in the house, so I’m going to start using the Coravin at home instead of just considering it a work tool. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Dan, you have plenty of wine at hand, why not have a couple cases each of your favorite inexpensive wines from your portfolio brought to your home every few months so you have the everyday wine you want?

[Mattstolz]

Personally, my opinion is when you have enough fine wine, then it becomes your every day.

I agree with other posters before who have mentioned that on this site, even most of our ‘every day’ wine would be a fine wine for most. Even within the site, some posters every day wine is still MY fine wine!

[A_Songeur]

Just drink fine wine…

[David_Glasser]

…strike me down if I use the H word…

Humble?
High-brow?
Hubris?
H-U-G-E?

Hedonistic.

I liked the intellectual vs. just drink and enjoy it categorization mentioned above. Wines in both categories can be special.

[Sanjay_Nandurkar]

As the goal post moves what used to be my fine wine 10-20 years ago is my every day wine now. So the everyday wine I drink today too is of good quality; just more cheaper and easily available and not as pretentious.