I’ve noticed a seasonality to my enthusiasm for buying and drinking wine. Does this happen to you all?
Am mostly a Burg/Riesling guy. I think some patterns are driven by marketing: Most of the best Burg offers I see come out Feb-April and Sep-Nov.
But my interest does really seem to ebb at predictable times of the year.
What about you?
My patterns: Sep-Dec: As the weather cools, interest, tasting and buying peaks. CT says 40% of purchases Jan-April: In denial and “not buying so much wine this year”, but still um, buying… 40% May-Aug: Weather is hot, buying is not. Time to sip a chilled white maybe…
Buying is based on offers. Seasons are not a factor. For the most part, consumption is fairly even with the exception of the 4th quarter. Holidays and gatherings increase consumption that quarter.
My summer whites tend to be lighter/racier/less oaky. I rarely touch Chardonnay in the summer but like it well enough when its cooler.
For reds, I drink more zins and syrahs in the summer when a lot of the meals we are making are coming off the grill or smoker. The cabs mostly come out in cooler weather.
Less buying in summer, because it’s just too hot and cannot ship or even travel with wine in a car.
Rose, save for drinking in winter, when you need a pretty color to look at and warm your soul.
May 15-Oct 15 drink a few whites, whiskey and vodka ‘cause it’s too hot for reds, unless it rains in the afternoon (which it hasn’t this year) or we go out to dinner (not often)
Oct 15-May 15 game on for reds, make up for lost time
I definitely drink more wine during the fall harvest season. Good thing I live in Southern California with fairly hot temperatures from June to October, or I’d be buying all year long!
We have, for the last 25 years, always left our home in FL for cooler climes during the summer and thus, really have only one season - because we chase that which is temperate.
So white wine has become our strong preference.
After moving to Singapore, my consumption of white, pink, sparkling went up a lot. Turns out they go way better with most food anyway. We’ll see if that keeps up when I decide to head out…
My 4th Q is consistently where I spend the most. 2nd Q and 3rd Q are about the same and 1st Q is usually where I spend the least.
When I look where I spend I see three clear trends: 1) auction season, 2) offer season, 3) search season.
The reason my Q4 is the max has to do with the combo of offers and auctions at that time. Conversely, in Q1 I don’t really get many offers or so much auction-wise (starts to pick up toward the end of Q1).
I pass on a lot of good offers in the summer because I never want anything shipped that time of year and I’m not that enthused about relying on the vendor to store for months on end. Fall is when my club memberships hit, both buying and shipping so that’s a bigger cash outlay that time of year.
Drinking-wise, when it’s really warm I’m pretty much uninterested in reds and drink whites, a few roses, and especially lately increasing amounts of Champagne. But it often cools off nicely in the summer evenings where I currently live and I really enjoy pinot, red Burg, lighter reds including grenache, and CA zin blends, the latter with grilling which I do a lot in the summer. Much more big reds in the fall/winter/early spring.
Agree on not shipping - I’ve been ok with the various places I buy from to either hold for me or I employ cold chain shipping.
On the variety point, I was curious so I checked: my white and red purchases show similar patterns with the one difference just being when certain offers happen.
The question this thread raised is: what % of people’s consumption is on purchase vs pull from cellar? I’d expect the more you are in the former camp the more seasonal while those in the latter camp are likely less seasonal.