Cali Cabs used to be #1 on my list of things to drink, but with prices moving out of reach, I have had to do some exploring in other areas. I’m finding the higher end ($60-$100 for me) bottles of Cali Pinot Noir to be more interesting than most Cabs in the same price range and that has been of some consolation. For the same reason, we have been buying more and more Zinfandel too. Higher octane wine has not been an issue so far. Not enough time and budget to explore France adequately and I’m very satisfied with California and some Washington wines anyway. Cheers!
Continuing to pick my spots in Burgundy and Piedmont. Trying a little harder to pick off Mags and more whites, though Germany was definitely a bit of a breakthrough this year and Champagne saw a bit of an increase. Trip to Tokaj was big…there is a ton of good European wine out there in the shadows, but Tokaj is a jewel as is other parts of Hungary.
Just recently bought a house with a spare room for a cellar, so I’m pretty excited to work on my own cellar space. Though I do plan to keep most of my trophy bottles in professional storage just to diversify.
- I also spent a couple of days in Champagne in October, Sacy, and have really changed my thoughts on Champagne. I used to be somewhat indifferent to the wines, but now I am aggressively searching out low dosage grower champagnes, and looking to increase my meager 1.1% to closer to 10% for starters. You *%&#$% enablers I now have an account with Envoyer…
- Cellar space. I have a 800 bottle cellar that is hemorrhaging wine, a 200 bottle Fridge and a 24 bottle fridge in my office for emergencies and I still have bottles on the basement floor. It is nice to be able to share/pull bottles without thinking about it.
- See above I have been slowly reducing my purchases, maybe not slow enough, see 2.
- Don’t consider alcohol levels at all.
- Would like to do more blind tasting, we do a couple dinners a year out and try to host a couple a year. Always fun and informational.
- FMIII Don’t sweat the technigue
Great thread, got me thinking about not only some of what you bring up (which mirrors our year a lot to some extent), but also our own evolution.
w/r/t Champagne, we definitely caught the bug after visiting the region this year and pre-ordered heavily from the Thiese catalog this time around to augment what we brought back. We still don’t have nearly enough of it in our cellar, and it’s what we always want to reach for so we’re trying to put more of our money in that direction.
On the cellar space issue, I think we’ve finally hit our psychological if not logistical upper limit. We have a basement that stays nice and cool finally, but we’re about 200 rack spaces short of being able to store all our wine and given that we are trying to save rather than spend right now we’re going to let that be a bit of a signal to us to cool it off on a net basis for a good while. We have been floating around 475 bottles for a while now and would like to get down to 400 by next summer. We have been net positive by about 100 bottles a year for the past 4 years so we understand that goal is a bit lofty but we’re working on it.
We’ve also finally gotten into blind tasting, and are really liking it. I definitely echo the sentiment that it’s made me more able to taste wines I’m not blinding more analytically which has helped with my next 2018 musing…
Italian wine! We thought we hated Italian wine so we’ve decided to make a concerted effort this year to systematically learn more about it and I think it’s having the desired effect. We recently started a little tasting group where we open 3-5 bottles from a particular region and drink them alongside the foods of that region, and I’m happy to report that I think we are starting to understand the appeal. Taking it from a more analytical standpoint and trying to drink the wines in context has been a much more rewarding experience than just buying random glasses at dinner or bottles from a shop piecemeal.
We’ve also continued our cellar shift towards old world. I think we started off heavily (90%+) US, and at this point are at 70/30. It seems like it will only continue in that direction as we’re buying ~60/40 currently.
I think we’re still in “explore” mode so we’re not buying super heavily for the long-term but we are putting away a decent amount of '15/'16 rhones since we know we like them.
We also found some Australian wine we like, which is a goddamned miracle.
We also ditched most of our wine clubs which were good, but ultimately like training wheels.
I’ll join in, with a totally different perspective. 
This was the year that we finally got into wine in a serious way. We acquired offsite cellar space, started amassing a collection, and visited four different wine regions, all in a year. I spent lots of time on this forum (thanks to all of you!), started subscribing to the major publications, and read a ton about wine. In March 2018 my wine collection totaled zero. As of today, it’s 257 bottles with a 1,000 bottle target.
Here are five things that I’ve learned along the way:
The act of collecting is extremely satisfying. The research, the hunt, and the anticipation of buying wine are all a critical part of the experience. Sometimes they’re even better than the consumption of the wine itself.
My tastes are turning out to be much more unpredictable than I expected. I started the year in a Bordeaux frenzy; right now, I’m just not interested. I figured I’d likely be really into the Northern Rhone but the wines leave me with Chow tongue and I still haven’t found any that I love. At the same time, I am weirdly drawn to Vin Jaune and I cannot stop buying higher-end Oregon Pinot Noir.
Visiting wine regions is one of the best travel experiences you can have. However, for whatever reason, the wine has a tendency to taste a lot better when someone is telling you the story, seducing you with the different cuvees, etc. Once back home, in the harsh light of reality, some things disappoint.
Taking meticulous tasting notes is a great habit when you are learning about wine. You start to objectively see what you like and do not like over time, and it helps you remember things you have had. I’ve also been amazed at the number of times I’ve had a wine at a restaurant and later realized it was something I had already tasted at home.
Champagne goes with everything, always tastes good, and is my new aperitif go-to. Screw cocktails, bubbles are where it’s at. Yet for some reason, I have none in my cellar, probably because we always drink it. Better sign up for Envoyer?
I’ve had the same experience re: wine just not being the same once you’ve brought it home, with one glaring exception. I find that Burgundy has a high chance of disappointing me, but we recently opened a bottle we brought home from our trip there in January and wow, one of my WsOTY hands down.
I think that’s our problem, we want to increase the amount of Champagne in our cellar but it’s really hard to do when we drink it so dang fast. It is NEVER the wrong choice, and it’s frequently the best choice.
I wonder if Champagne will follow in the pathway of say Northern Rhone and the price and demand increases. I hope not but I am planting my own cellar’s flag for Champagne. FWIW, as we’re musing here…I finished selling off all of my N. Rhone and Burgundy this week, to re-purpose all of that space to Champagne and California. The proceeds from this can fuel both of these regions into my cellar and I have the capital to get after it the way I want, too. I’m 53 next month, I have no interest in aging my wines for 20 years, nor chasing the pricing of those other regions, and yet I can still make my way to Champagne (which I will again for several days in 2019) and I can maintain visits to the CA winemakers. These kinds of things matter to me.
Muse along…
When I first saw this I thought you were really getting in front of the 2018 vintage in Musigny, and I was really impressed!!
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As you have already seen, I buy too much wine. I have stretched my “cellar pants” and they have split, nay, they’re in tatters!
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Buying Burgundy: My philosophy is to buy plenty of villages, less premier cru and “sniper” a few grand crus. I have pretty much done this. I stick to a handful of producers. Need to buy more Mugneret-Gibourg but they are $$. Dropping Fourrier. Added Trapet statring 2015 vintage as they are beautiful. Also added Hubert Lignier as they are gorgeous as well. I truly beleive there are great wines in every vintage from 2005 to date. I am excited to have a pretty good ammount of wines that are maturing nicely.
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Domestic Pinot Noir: There are some truly great wines out there from some really cool people. Naming some: Sandler, Rhys, Kutch, Biggio Hamina, Vincent, Goodfellow, Briceland, Big Basin, Cabot, Arcadian…
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Berserkerday. Todd really has something cool here, and we all benefit. Its fun, there are great deals, chances at library wines (Thanks Merrill Lindquist!), meeting new people. Also, see 3. above.
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Riesling: I still love them. I stick to my guns on a few producers. Shun (nearly all) GG, I really love the Pradikats! I am loving the wines of Dr. Uli Stein more and more. He can make a Trocken wine that will blow away almost all others.
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People: I have met and hooked up with quite a few super cool folks through WB. Have plans to hook up with a few more over the next two months… this is a blessing!
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Berns: Come to Berns, and drink like Francois Audouze for a day. Seriously, when done right this can be a great great wine experience. Many a WBer have met for the first time at Berns.
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Champagne: Caution: This can be habit forming…Like Frank, this brings me and mine so much joy of late. I love growers and certain big houses equally. We drink it with everything and anywhere. Even boating and in plastic cups. Plus, there are just too many cool quotes associated with Champagne…
Thanks for getting me thinking Frank.
I doubt it. TONS of it available and the area is HUGE, unlike the small area of Cornas or Hermitage which is pretty much entirely developed.
And they occasionally expand the Champagne region too: BBC NEWS | Europe | France to expand Champagne region
Frank, cool thread. Here are a few of mine:
Champagne/Sparkling: We have also become more interested in this category. I appreciate the lower alcohol, refreshing nature, flexibility with food and feeling of celebration. Besides Champagne, we have also been appreciating sparkling Verdicchio, Chenin Blanc and Cava. I don’t see it becoming more than 10% of our cellar, but you never know.
Lower Alcohol/higher acidity: Our cellar used to be 90% CA and 10% European. Now it is the opposite. We look for, and enjoy, higher acidity, more restrained fruit and lower alcohol.
Cellar Space Our cellar is at capacity. I hope this well help me curtail purchases somewhat. I seem to enjoy the hunt, exploration and purchasing of wines almost as much as consuming them. As I get nearer to retirement, I wrestle with what the perfect makeup of our cellar should be. We really enjoy Bordeaux, Brunello, Barolo, Barbaresco and Burgundy. They are generally more interesting with age, but I am almost 51 and am running out of time for new releases to get to peak drinking. I wish I knew 20 years ago what I know now about wine.
Friends: For us, wine has always been more enjoyable with friends. Through the WB and CT communities, We’ve been able to meet new friends, learned a tremendous amount, not just about wine, and have been able to taste wines I never would have without the generosity of others. Ann and I often talk about how we can pay this forward, especially with others that are new to wine.
Blind Tasting: I love it! Removes label bias, and really gets you thinking about whats in the glass.
Good thread. I arrived in the US at the tail end of 2017 from the UK. (The majority of my collection still sits in the UK). 2018 has largely been a process of restarting building a cellar, which is painfully expensive. The upside is I know roughly what I like. Or at least I thought I did!
So I’ve mostly had a year of discovery when it comes to wines of the USA. The ease of finding lower alcohol native wines surprised me somewhat, given the classic reputation that the US has for heavy handed, ripe winemaking. Sadly I struggle with the pricing of a lot of the more “nouveau” wineries, but I’m grateful for outfits like Bedrock and Dirty & Rowdy.
I’ve been pleased that my love of french wine is very servicable here, at times at better value than in the UK (hello Envoyer champagne).
I too am fully on board the Champagne gravy train and I intend to stay on board for a very long time. I feel we are in a golden era of accessibility to growers at phenomenal prices, and where some of these wines will go in 10-20 years is something I am anticipating highly. I sit at about 40% Champagne in my cellar and that’s pretty much where I intend to stay. 1/3 of what we drink is Champagne so that allows for a bit to age.
Beyond Winebeserkers, I have yet to really experience an in-person wine community, although I confess I have not exactly tried very hard to do so. Hopefully I’ll discover some tasting groups in westside LA, as I’m sure they must be numerous.
My goal for 2019 is to break into Italy with more gusto.
Bassins had a lot of 2015 Bordeaux in half bottles on futures. Don’t know if they still do.
Frank,
I have a similar question to that posed by others. I have a much smaller percentage of white wines in my cellar than the percentage of white wines I drink. That is because, with a few exceptions (including some Champagne), I tend to drink the whites in my cellar at a much younger age than I do the majority of reds in my cellar (esp. with premox for white Burgundies). Do you (1) drink over half Champagne so that it makes sense to have 1/4 to 1/2 of your cellar in Champagne, (2) tend to drink reds younger (you mention that you drink California reds, some of which are meant to be drunk younger, (3) age your Champagne for a long time or (4) some combination of the above.
I also have been drinking more Champagne over the last several years, but nowhere near your percentage. Some of this likely is because I love white Burgundy and German whites.
You might look at the offline planner board on Wine Berserkers.
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I’ve learned that I love Italian wine and need more across the board… Everything from Barolo and Barbaresco to wines from Chianti, Spanna, Etna, etc. Need more of all of it.
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More pradikat reisling at all levels.
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Reconfirmed that most sauternes leaves me wanting, often as a result of lack of lift vs Reisling, Chenin Blanc, and Tokaj. Oh and I need more tokaj.
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Look for more California producers working with old heirlooms, such as Sandlands is doing. Had some pretty fantastic Mataro, Carignane, and Syrah from them.
Great thread which shows how personal wine preferences are. Never developed the Champagne bug, despite being introduced to plenty of good to great ones with Brad B.
Howard, I drink as much Champagne now as still wine. This means that I am turning my inventory 1:1, when say 3 years ago, it was maybe 4:1. I don’t age much of anything, and while vintage Champagne forces some level of aging upon me that I appreciate, I will continue to age some things. But, when the mood is right and friends are nearby me, I really don’t care what bottle it is, who made it and what it cost–we open it. So, aging to me happens within my cellar, but not with a lot of intention.