On WB, a fair amount of posts, though certainly not all, concern potential “wow wines”: GC Burg, Bordeaux 1st Growths and so on. I’m nor complaining about that. I like reading most of those posts, getting a sense of these benchmarks. And i’ve managed to drink a few myself and i own a few of these “cherries.”
My cellar–at its height @750 bottles, now down to @500-for the most part is not comprised of these sorts of wiine. Twenty years in, it now gives me immense pleasure. (I stopped buying largely after 2020 and those were mostly whites) The wines–mainly white and red burg, bordeaux, barolo, and some Cali cab and Oregon pinot–are now pretty much all starting to be ready to drink. They are consistently interesting, entertaining, and delicious. It’s a wonderful feeling to have wines that have been with me for such a span of time and be able to choose from them to share with my partner, friends, other collectors and discover how enjoyable they are.
My counsel, then, is keep the faith, as my father used to say. Keep an ear to the ground on this board and elsewhere, find and cellar what seems promising from regions and from grapes you like. Then hang around; you’re in for a treat.
This is where all the action happens. Because ‘seems promising’ can reflect your own deep experience but it can also become newbie miscalculations. We all have a mixture of informed successful purchases and miscalculations, but it’s a delicate balance to strike, because you never really know and the lag time is so long!
The broader point about enjoying your maturing cellar is a good one. And that is definitely a nice stage compared to the early exploration years, because you have a higher ratio of bottles you love. The trick there is keeping an open palate for new things, and everyone decides for themselves how much of that they want!
I very much appreciate this post and this sentiment. I often express here how happy with and excited by our cellar we are at this point, some 25-30 years in. The patience has paid off, some investments handsomely and others, of course, less so. We have very few regrets, and almost no FOMO anymore. To be clear, this is not a prestige cellar - the majority of what we drink is high quality, modest wine that outperforms its pricepoint and pairs well with food. Though we have loved the journey, our exploring is basically done, except through friends or when traveling, and that is deeply satisfying and peaceful. Cellar contentment, I’d call it, and it’s a wonderful thing.
I’m 40 years into this habit, but I’ve tapered off buying high-end things in recent years. I have more than enough fancy bottles to last my lifetime, but I still love to explore new wines.
I have several good friends of a similar age who are in a similar position with their cellars (both have more top Burgundy than I do), but I’ve found that our approach to wine differs at this stage in our lives. Two of them are to the point where they just want to drink really fine wines, and aren’t very curious about less prestigious wines. (Neither of them are snobs in any way, I should add.)
For my part, I love exploring new wines, including lots of inexpensive wines from offbeat areas or grapes that give me great pleasure. My eyes were opened on a trip to the Finger Lakes two years ago, and a bottle of Weis Vineyards gruner veltliner that I threw in an Austrian tasting two weeks ago was one of the group’s favorites, and less of an outlier than a couple of the Austrians. A $12 Ponce monastell/mourvedre from Bierzo of all places turns out to be fantastic. I don’t always have a hankering for Barolo or Barbaresco.
My point is that different people have different goals in building a cellar and, of course, those can change over time.
Yup, Sarah,
It sounds like you are in a place similar to where I am.
Enjoy!
Josh
I here you, John,
Though I don’t think I had any explicit goals when i started a cellar other than acquiring wines I liked and letting them reach appropriate age. It was clear to me that much of the wine I enjoyed needed some years resting to be appreciated. Wouldn’t that be the sine qua non of starting a cellar?
On new more inexpensive wines, I often tell people that if I were just starting out I’d collect a lot more than I have from Portugal, also lesser-known parts of Spain and italy, though I’ve grabbed a fair amount of that last. Oregon, also–unbelievable to me what comes out of there–and I definitely also own some. Still, at least for the reds, all of these need time to really be appreciaated, no?
Cheers,
Josh
I can see echoes of both Sarah and John in my own cellar journey (like John, coming up on 40 years now) and it is such a delight to be able to pull out older bottles that one has kept for years like the 2009 German Mosel Riesling Auslese I opened last night that was in a beautiful place. My advice to newer collectors is to try not to become too focused on a handful of areas. Buy as widely as you can afford and be mindful that there are many high quality wines from less fashionable regions/grape varieties that remain incredibly affordable yet repay cellar time assuredly: Cahors, Vouvray and German Kabinett Riesling spring to mind. One’s tastes may well evolve over time and it is rewarding to have different wines to delve into, while you never know when a random tasting theme might occur?
I’m also fortunate to have a number of like minded friends who enjoy sharing bottles from their cellar or new discoveries and the latter is something I still get a thrill from. I enjoy drinking widely and exploring new regions and grape varieties, though in fairness I have covered the majority of the world by now. There are so many young winemakers that are either reviving older regions or pushing into new (and more affordable) territory as they simply cannot afford to source land/vines in many of the ‘prestige’ regions. I like to think that I’ll never stop learning and having fun along the way.
This is exactly the type of cellar that I hope my collection of wine grows into over the next 15 years or so. Cheers! 
Great post @Joshua_Kates
I’d add a couple of small tidbits for newer collectors.
-
Don’t go all in on a vintage and/or producer. There are lots of fish in the sea and your interests will wander. Embrace it.
-
Personally, I don’t buy to pair with food. I buy stuff I can sit and enjoy by itself. BTW those pair great with food. LOL
My collecting only began 7 years ago or so. But thankfully my drinking began many years prior. I stumbled into the reality that you really can’t go wrong buying blue chip Burg at good prices. Any vintage, any (blue chip) producer; if your interests change you can always swap or even make out better.
I went wide in exploration, but now have begun narrowing it down again. Part of that is due to financial constraints, but another part is hust really loving some things and juat really liking others.
Always excited to try new bottles and producers, but spend most of my budget hunting down Huet, LdH, Napa cab I can afford (whether its from the 80s or today…), etc
I started collecting with 1995 Bordeaux, and first bought EP in the 2000 vintage.
The first thing I’d check before going deep is confirm that you like older wine. For me trying old Barolo and Bordeaux at restaurants was enough to make me believe collecting was a good idea.
My second piece of advice is that tastes change, so don’t go crazy in your early collecting years, even for vintages of the century. We don’t drink that much Bordeaux now, and are fine owning what we have, but I wouldn’t want much more.
I agree with others above that there is no reason to spend more than you’re comfortable with, unless you are buying as investment. Know your budget and find wines that fit within that. I love burgundy, and it’s by far the largest share of my cellar, but my purchases have plummeted since 2017, largely due to price.
I buy to drink, not to invest. But I would say that if investment is a goal, buy blue chip wines. My beloved Jouan and Hudelot Baillet haven’t increased in value nearly as much as DRC and Rousseau. I’m cool with that, but wouldn’t be if I was hoping to profit.
The biggest trap I’ve fallen into is buying too much wine. Be careful, before you blink, a 100 bottle cellar becomes 500. Blink again and it’s 1000. I understand that a 20 year cellar of 1000 wines is just 50 bottles a year, but it’s hard to drink that much. And we like young wines too!
Finally, be open minded. If your tastes have changed, and a large percentage of your cellar matches your old taste, then sell the wine. This might even keep you liquid for a few years.
I’m happy to own maturing and mature wines. It’s a fun hobby. No real regrets, yet. But I am about to sell a good chunk.
A month? 
I wish I had been more focused on the wines I really liked earlier in the process.
I feel this to my bone. Went in a little too aggressive with domestic bubbles and champagne in the beginning and now my taste has somewhat shifted to FLX Riesling and OR Pinot. I’m officially one year into my wine collecting journey and I’m clocking in at 200 bottles, but I’m still in my early 20s and there’s plenty of time to drink up. Plus, plenty WBs here think all roads lead to champagne (and bubbles) so I’m content with my decisions.
FIFY
That’s solid. My first year collecting I bought about 1000. Most of those bottles I’ve sold aside from the ones I drunk early on. Keep that in mind in what you choose to buy early.
My palate and wallet are not developed to the point of appreciating and affording 1er, let alone Grand Cru Burg yet. That 01 La Tâche can’t be THAT good right? 
Unless you started as a toddler, I’d say you are very much right now in the very beginning! The upside is that you have lots of time and can age some special things. But, of course you can expect to learn a lot about your evolving palate over the next years/decades.
As long as you enjoy the ride…
This post resonates a ton as I cross in to the 20 year mark. Well said and cheers. Maintaining while discovering has been a treat too.