Thankfully I haven’t had too many bad buys, but I absolutely would’ve spent less on California mailing lists. It’s vastly easier to buy stuff I want with age (or producers I’d like to give a shot) from Winebid or other retailers and buy a bottle or two as opposed to sitting on like 4-5 cases of Rhys that I have zero clue when I’ll drink
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I have only been into wines for around eight years, and this is my 6th year collecting. As Greg mentioned then we all have to go through the journey to learn, so i don’t really regret much.
I am still adjusting though. Buying more focused now. Fewer but better bottles. The biggest change though, is that i have been backfilling a lot in the past two years so i don’t have to wait forever on certain wines.
Of cause there are certain wines i “regret” not getting. My biggest regret is probably a few Jura producers i didn’t buy enough from and not going for a Jamet allocation a few yeas back. But my financial situation was also different, so it felt like it all made sense back then.
More whites, fewer mailing lists–I’ve got a ton of Rhys also, Keith–I agree with these. Not on so much of a champagne kick as other folks. I, too, got out of collecting when I stopped having cellar space and then got back in again around '05 when I did. I got in before the huge Burgundy bumps and I am enjoying the village that are now coming around–love Burguet and Roty, which was recently a revelation and others that don’t got so much notice as Dujac (which I also bought) or Roumier (only a bit), Rousseau and so on, which I understand. But I guess most of all what I would do now if I began is really dig into more different grapes, especially those of Portugal and Italy, in a way that I’m not positioned to do–no cellar space, too old and so forth. So interesting and so many well made wines, though I still love the Big B’s and wouldn’t want to miss out on those.
- Less mailing lists
- More champagne - even today I find myself restocking and drinking and restocking and drinking in a never ending cycle to catch up and over buy.
- Buying in quantity before tasting. This could have mitigated a few unfulfilling h full case purchases.
- Buy more bottles of less variety. I am notorious for buying 2-3 bottles of many things instead of cases of what I really want / habitually drink.
As a 1 year old?
More German Riesling, Champagne, 1er/Village Red and White Burgs,and Chianti Classico/Riserva.
Probably nothing. I just bought what I liked and as I learned more I found more things to like. And I never chased any wine, all my buys were purely opportunistic.
The only thing I would do is probably buy more slowly. But that may not even be true - it’s just hard to pass up a bargain!
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Buy less wine.
More Hunter Valley semillon.
More Barca Velha.
More of Ken Burnap’s wines.
Less pinot noir/Burgundy, syrah/Rhone, German riesling.
For those wishing they bought more champagne, I don’t think there is a better time than now to buy! Sure, producers like Ledru+Uly Collin+Cedric Bouchard have gone stratospheric, but they were also very much $65 bubbles for a long time as well. There’s so much more available these days and it’s strong across the board
I wouldn’t buy anything just because it’s a “good deal.” I’d focus more on buying only what I affirmatively wanted to buy, even if I had to buy less wine as a result.
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This is an easy one for me. First off, my mix is solid - mostly Bordeaux, Chinon and Rhone with a smaller smattering of Beaujolais and Zins. That’s primarily what I drink.
Were I to start over again, I would:
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Try to buy as many 375s as I can, as these are perfect for daily drinkers, since my wife only goes white.
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Load up on a lot more daily drinkers that benefit from some maturity, rather than having a glut of premium wines. While I love unicorns and premiums, I also just like to drink regular nice bottles during the week with no guilt or restraint. The under $40 wines are a great category.
Oh, and would have built a kick-ass walk-in cellar! I kept assuming we would move, so I held off, and we are still there damnit!
Would be great for the pricing standpoint but there was no attention to detail with shipping and storage. Coupled with a lot of mediocre wine making you would have bought a lot of disappointing bottles. On the other hand the great bottles would have made up for that. I was born in the 1950s and started buying wine in 1975.
One thing I did at least learn quickly is that too much of “value play” burgundy is a sucker’s bet.
Less auslese, more kabinett.
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Overall, I like but don’t love the Bordeaux I bought when I started collecting. I’d trade much of what I bought for Figeac and some FGs, for example. But, we’ll see… I tend to drink cabernet and merlot based wines on the older side, so they’re still sleeping.
Of course, there are moments that stick out in other regions where I wish I had pulled the trigger or bought one thing over another, but I’m pretty happy in general with how things have played out. I have to remind myself they’re not Pokemon. I can’t catch them all!
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Probably buy less Cali like many here. I love a lot of Cali wines, but I’d probably have narrowed my list of producers a bit tighter instead of just scooping up everything that’s “hot” and not really even drinking a lot of it.
Less CA Pinot
Less $50-100 bottles
More Burgundy
More higher-end wines / cherries / splurges
My mix is about 50% red and white Burgundy, 20% German wines, 8% Bordeaux (including Sauternes), 6% California wines (mostly Cab but some Ridge Zin) and the rest other. I don’t think that would change much, unless I raised Burgundy a bit.
I think I would buy more of my favorite producers and own fewer producers. But, one only knows one’s favorite producers in hindsight. Unless I had current knowledge about what producers I would eventually like, I don’t know how to do that. Still, I would have tried to concentrate purchases among fewer producers, esp. in Burgundy, and bought more wine from my favorites, esp. Truchot.
Also, I would have bought fewer everyday wines and in fact should own fewer bottles of wine.
Why is that, Howard? I would think in retirement that’s a goal, it is at least for me. Do you drink wine every evening?
I know you accelerated your purchases leading into retirement, something that I have done as well.
I do not drink wine every night or even close to that. I thought I would drink wine more often when I retired than I do. But, a lot of nights - for example, after playing golf, when I take evening classes, etc., etc. - I really don’t want alcohol. I bet you will be sufficiently busy in retirement that your wine consumption will not change as much as you think.
I love buying more everyday wines in half bottles and wish I had more half bottles. Also makes me drink more German wines (which is fine) because they do very well over 2 or 3 nights.