The daily drinker Pinot Noir thread got me thinking about what we consider to be daily drinkers.
I have reached a point where I don’t care what day it is, and I just open whatever I want to open, but for a long time I was reluctant to open anything over about $25 if I was not making food to go with it, or there wasn’t some other reason to open it.
So I suppose that means my daily drinker limit was $25.
Of course that was in like 2015, so $25 is more like $35 or even $40 now.
de Negoce sort of spoiled me with the fact that you can buy very good enjoyable wines for $8 to $15 a bottle. Those tend to be my daily drinkers. But I also like to drink wine over multiple days, sometimes I have 6-7 bottles open at any given time, sometimes some heavier hitting ones too.
Anything over $100 to me is a special occasion wine, but I wouldn’t call a $80 wine a daily drinker either.
Our drinking has probably halved or dropped even more since I got into wine.
Daily drinkers were under $15 (Vietti Barbera, various Cotes du Rhone) and even cheaper (Jadot Beaujo Villages and Vielle Ferme Blanc). Can still find most of those under $15 still.
Upgraded from there to de negoce in the 15-25 range (still have a couple cases) and @Adam_Frisch and @David_Patte wines during BD. Also @Marcus_Goodfellow for the WV PN. I think theyre all exceptional values.
Since were drinking on average probably 1.5 bottles per week, now most of our daily drinkers are in the 30-40 range. Think LdH Bosconia, Oregon pinot, Huet, German Riesling, Chianti Classico.
I’m always aiming to find good wines as daily drinkers in the $25-$40 range. Can be difficult since my wife prefers Napa cabs. My tastes are a little broader so often have some luck in that range from Italy.
Since my post prompted this thread, I guess it’s only fair that I chime in. For me, a “daily” drinker is under $40 (maybe stretching to $50 with shipping and tax). We reserve the $100+ for special occasions and the $40+ for nice dinners at home.
Similar to the posts above, it’s easier with whites (usually, Sancerre or Pouilly Fuissé for me). Not so much with Pinot or Champagne.
I’m fairly new to this hobby and to buying wine to cellar (and frankly, at retail versus at the restaurant). And what prompted my original question was a desire for something to hold me over until my cellar develops, when I got to the point where I have aged bottles or options to pick from in my cellar.
For context, to complicate things for me on the “daily” drinker front, my wife does not usually drink, so I’ll open a bottle and have to finish it myself - easy with the good ones, not so easy with the bad ones.
At this point (am almost 67), my “daily drinker” is whatever I want to drink. My cellar (perhaps 300-400 bottles) contains under 50 bottles that are under $20-25, probably a similar number of bottles $80 and up, and the vast majority of the rest probably are in the $35-60 range. It’s the ones in that $35-60 range that I visit most often. I’ve been cutting back from what had for decades been “daily” drinking to something more like “weekend” drinking. So those $35-60 bottles now are my weekenders.
Daiky drinkers for my wife and I are usually $25 and under. Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel, Bedrock OVZ, Rioja, CdR. My wheelhouse, weekend openers, drink with guests is in the $40-80 range. Anything over $80 are special bottles.
it usually breaks down by region or varietal:
CA/OR pinot? Under $40
Italy? Under $30
Riesling? Between $20 and $30
Champagne? I guess its under $60
Burgundy? A lesser limb or organ…
Some years ago my spouse and I wrote up an agreement about what counts as a daily drinker. This is relevant because daily drinkers come out of a different line in our house budget compared to nicer wines, which come out of my discretionary portion (fancy yarn and paint coming out of hers) Our house rules for daily drinkers are:
$25 per bottle limit, with reasonable flexibility up to $30 per bottle (e.g. if I’m buying a bunch of $20ish stuff and there’s a lovely $28 bottle, I’m not going to hand wring about getting it because it averages out under $25)
Daily drinkers cannot be purchased to age. They must be stored outside of the wine fridge, in part to act as cellar defenders, in part to remind us to drink them, and in part to save space for my discretionary bottles.
No more than 24 bottles of daily drinkers may be in the house at any given time. This is purely a space and tidiness thing but also has the positive effect of me not overaccumulating.
$25 per month also goes toward a wine splurge line, so that we can occasionally buy nicer (typically $35-50) bottles together for near-term drinking
For us, a “daily drinker” is generally under $20 or maybe $25, and often well under that (I do a lot of bargain shopping). Above that, I don’t have a major distinction between “with friends”/“weekend nice meal” wines and special occasion wines, with some exceptions - it just depends on the company, the meal, and the occasion. It’s quite rare, though, that I’ve spent over $50 on a bottle of wine, so our range is pretty limited compared to most here.
