Blast it! So many good months, and then Jonathan gets wine of the Vins Rare Labor Day Sale. Not to mention UK 2025 Riesling futures….
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I know that feeling. I log stuff when it hits the cellar rather than when ordered, so October/November could be rough. That said, I don’t know about you, but I’m on track to purchase about 25% what I normally have in a typical year. Finally making progress on the buying front.
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Still going the wrong way but bending the curve nicely - next year going to start to go down!!!
Bought: +42 (Rayas allocations)
Drank: -21
Sold: 0
Inventory: 0
Net: +21 ( Rayas makes it worth it !)
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Down 22 for September, another month of success due to both selling and enjoying. October will be more difficult with allocations of B. Mascarello and G. Conterno set to arrive but I’m ready for the challenge
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Another grudgingly small win:
In +19. Out -23. Net -4. YTD: +67
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Back on track in September!
In: 6
Out: 91
Net: -85
YTD: -127
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A spur of the moment case purchase sale I could not resist along with several releases did me in this month.
BOUGHT: +43
OPENED: -39 (1 corked ‘17 Pepiere Clisson)
NET: +4
.SINCE I STARTED in March 2025: +150
Breaking the streak of successful months due to a multi-case purchase of Dureuil-Janthial.
In: 48
Out (including sales): 36
Net: +12
Can’t win ‘em all. Still down for the year.
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19 out and 12 in (Vollenweider).
So still down 7.
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15 out
7 in
A win for September.
Going to try for a buying freeze until the end of the year.
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September: 14 out, 14 in - flat. Close call, kept it at bay. Was all about Riesling, with Tidings being the lone exception.
Q3: 48 out, 42 in - net 6 decrease, 2/month. Doesn’t undo the damage from the first half of the year, but progress nevertheless going into pickup season.
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Irresistible deals and some annual purchases whacked me in September. +12 for the month.
+27 YTD
WAY better than this time a year ago but much work to do to get negative for 2026. Fingers crossed. No purchases so far in October, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
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Minus 20 for the month, passed on a few offerings and getting over FOMO.
Minus 86 for the year.
The positive trends are twofold: buying less YTD last 3 years and consuming more.
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If you lived closer, we’d get that cellar down to the nub!
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September was a good month:
Purchased 3, Consumed 29, minus 26
YTD: Purchased 101. consumed 247, minus 146
I also had a birthday, and on that same day retired from work. What day of the week is it anyway?
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Drank: -3
Gifted: 0
Bought: 24
Net: +21
This thread prompted me to check my inventory to see what I’ve opened since the beginning of August. It’s a pretty eclectic (can I say catholic?) range. Bottles of serious wine consumed far exceeded purchases of serious wine.
1997 Capanna - Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
Taken to a Brunello-loving friend’s for dinner. He loved it. I thought it was vile – coarse, hot, charmless. That’s been my experience with most 97 Brunellos for 10+ years. Blecchh. 70-ish
2001 Dom. Fourrier - Gevrey-Chambertin - Cherbaudes
Corked 
2008 Produttori di Barbaresco – Barbaresco - Rio Sordo
Evolving and softening, but no secondary notes. Tasty and worked well with a dense porcini ragu. I’ll probably hold off another five years for the next bottle. 90-ish
2007 Maximim Grünhaüser (von Schubert) Mosel (Saar) - QbA
Really nice. Their QbAs really go the distance. Acid back bone, some honey and caramel. (Another recent bottle was much more advanced.) 90-ish
2018 Dom. de Cayron (Faraud) - Gigondas
Georgeous! Great depth, lot so dense, earthy grenache, plus structure. Nicely evolved. Could go several more years easily. 90-ish
2020 Ridge Vineyards - Geyserville
Yum! I prefer Ridge zins when they’re still fairly young, like this, and this still shows a lot of boisterous fruit. Complexity? Not so much. But A+ for pleasure. Chuggable.
2020 Alzinger - Reid Loibenburg - Grüner Veltliner Smaragd
Paired well with roasted skate on a bed of sweet corn cooked with oodles of butter.
2001 Giacomo Conterno Barolo - Cascina Francia
Very pleasing to drink, full-bodied, lots of dark/sour cherry fruit, quite moderated tannins, but not much secondary development after 25 years. This has years and years ahead of it. 91±ish? Hard to assess the potential upside at this early (!) stage.
2019 Halcon - Yorkville Highlands Syrah
I’d never tried a Halcon syrah, so I grabbed this in a recent Chambers Street offering. This lived up to its billing. This seemed like a dead ringer for a top-flight St. Joseph at first. There was more New World fruit as it opened up, and in the leftovers on day 2. But real Northern Rhone syrah character.
2009 San Giusto a Rentennano - Chianti Classico
Inspired by an ITB friend who said years ago that she loves Chianti with some age, I stashed away a few bottles of this and, oh, my, was I rewarded. Lots of sangiovese earthiness, only a trace of sour cherry. Very secondary. Soothing, but with enough structure to work with food. No need to hold off on my other two bottles. 91-ish.
1998 Gouges - Nuits St. Georges - Clos des Porrets-St. Georges
Full notes here:
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I’m not even going say how much I failed this month
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Six in and six out.