You can make the case that it is the exact opposite. We’ve had a wealth of really good to great vintages, and the pricing is very competitive to the other great wine regions of the world, if not even better priced. Think 2014, 16, 19 and 20. And if you like them ripe, 2015, 18 and 22. Tons of choices.
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Harlan…price
SQN…price and shrinking allocations albeit long-time customer
JJ Prüm…long wait until drinkable (SO2) and lots of bottles in my cellar
really old Madeiras…availability
Quilceda Creek…taste change
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This. One could argue that there has never been a better time to buy Bdx.
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Rhône - esp. Chateauneuf de pape
Spanish reds - I don’t dislike them, just moved on
Ruinart BdB NV - price went way up and we started drinking champagne a lot more regularly which broadened our horizons, with a shift towards lower-to-no dosage
Domestic (U.S.) Pinots - I mostly abandoned OR/CA for Burgundy. Still buy some today because my wife is a fan, but more selectively. (Usual suspects: Occidental, Chanin, Patty Green, Belle Pente, Dusky Goose, whatever Andrew Turner at Valley Wine Merchants in Newberg recommends)
Mugnier NSG Clos Marechale Used to buy and own a lot, but after tasting through a big vertical a few years ago, I just kind of moved on
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I am now 70 and have enough wine to drink for two or three of my remaining lifetimes, so for me the answer would go way beyond 5. I love the wines I have, but am not buying much wine anymore. Easier to state what I have bought this year:
a couple of bottles of 1979 Ridge Zin.
2008 Montrose
2018 Ktima Gerolemo Commandaria (from a trip to Cyprus and other areas in and near Greece)
Samuel Billaud Chablis - I still buy a few whites every year.
Half bottles of Rossignol-Trapet GC (I love half bottles)
Falkenstein Gisela (while I have way too much German wine, I love the Falkenstein wines and still buy a few every year)
Most recently, a Ping G440 Driver and 5 wood
In the spirit of this thread I will add:
- Among the first wines I cut back on were Ridge MB and Chateau Montelena as these wines take a long time to mature. Love them, but have enough.
- I cut out Jadot because I don’t like the wines I have tasted from them since Jacques Lardiere retired.
- Cut back or out on Prum and Reinhold Haart because I have so much of these wines. Top two producers in my cellar so I love the wines.
- Some Burgundy producers are no longer making wine. Blake Brown just posted about a tasting of the wines from Alex Gambal. And, Blair Pethel sold Domaine Dublere, very sad as I loved these wines. If these guys were still in business, it would be harder to have stopped buying their wines as I cut back, esp. since I have drunk all the wines I had from Alex Gambal.
Most of my weaknesses when I still buy wines are when I visit Burgundy (2023 was the last time) or Bordeaux (2024 was the last time).
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Yeah. In recent years, Bordeaux has become a much higher % of my purchases.
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No Bordeaux producer made my list because I never went that deep on any particular one. My top 5 were all a dozen plus cases purchased over all time. Just for grins I resorted by total amount spent instead of number of bottles and was surprised to see Chateau Margaux appear at number 5. Go figure.
Now a great time to buy Bordeaux? If you love/prefer the wines, and are under, say, 40, absolutely. I’m almost 62 and really like Bordeaux with age (30+ years usually). Recent tastings of very young Bordeaux didn’t change my opinion - so much so that I’m thinking of selling off all my Bordeaux from 2009 on. Especially when there’s so much nicely aged Bordeaux available in the market.
Though my top 5 drops were driven by price (Burgundy) or change in taste (California), there is a broader story of my age and overly large existing cellar. I’ve been massively cutting back buying and will continue to do so. Lots of producers had to go.
The reason we drop wineries is mainly due to price. They include: Araujo, Shafer, Marcissin, Kistler,…… and Aubert.
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Yeah I was focusing on individual producers.
If it was general my list would look like:
- bdx (except Sauternes)
- Napa
- rhone
- other domestic
- white burgundy
Pretty much I only buy red burgs, champagne, and Sauternes.
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As someone who fits this profile, yes, absolutely, this is the time to buy and hold.
Ulysses Collin - price inflation went crazy - looooove the wines
Janasse CdP - stylistic preference change
Guigal - declining interest in wines with titanic oak treatment
Grange - price plus oak profile
Alpha Omega/Hall - ever increasing ABV, homogeneity of napa cabs, over extracted globs of gunk, excess oak
Mine are mostly palate shifts that affect regions as much as producers.
Though to add a data point for @LaurenB I bought more widely early on and then began narrowing my focus to lighter wines (which I had always liked).
I dropped Beaucastel because CdP is too ripe for me, and I needed to allocate more of my funds for Champagne and Riesling.
I dropped White Burgundy because it was too much money and pre-mox really took the joy out of it. I’ve had some lovely white Burgundy courtesy of other Berserkers but don’t buy myself. But I quit buying Dauvissat because chasing it down in Oregon became difficult, somewhat expensive, and I needed to allocate more funds to Champagne.
I dropped red Burgundy because of price and availability, at first. Almost all of my favorite producers went beyond my price range. But the recent vintages are mostly too ripe for me now as well, 2017 and 2021 excepted. Burgundy is such a wonderful and complex region to immerse yourself into, and that’s a lot of the fun. Feeling guilty trying to talk myself into 1-2 bottles of village wines from a good but not great producer that cost the same as a car payment just isn’t fun. It’s not helped by the fact that I can trade with just about anyone in the Willamette Valley. And unlike the two above, I still own a fair amount of older Burgundy. So, more money for Champagne.
Clos Rougeard-Price
Egly-Ouriet-Price
Donnhoff-switched to Hexamer
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What has the increase been?
Second to none, but maybe not first among equals?
For me:
Napa pinot - I started here and my taste changed
New Tempier (anything post 1999) - Mostly style change with winemaker shift, but prices are now so high for a wine that, for me needs 25 years.
Marguet Champagne - was always variable, but price increases flipped the ev
Many Cru Beaujolais - Foillard and Dutraive for example. I got on the train a year before the price jumps to $50-$60 new release. Enough to anchor me, but not enough to fill a cellar. This is probably the least fair as I do think great beaujo (especially with age) is worth that and more.
All Prosseco - Viva Cava
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An evolutionary stable strategy if ever I saw one…
[quote=“gavin.f, post:73, topic:339136, full:true”]
I think I was buying 18/19s for under 40 for Kabinett, I think the 23s are coming in around 60, which is what the ausleses used to be, and those are around 90. Not completely mad, I think similar to your point about Beaujolais, when you are used to it being such an insane value, significant price increase can shift how you think about the wines.
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Roumier … just too expensive for me … the villages isn’t really that exciting TBH and the bigger guns are never ready it seems … there’s just a hardness to the wines
Chevillon … I used to celebrate the value play but like Larry Link I don’t want to open my bottles. Well made enough and sturdy but you wonder where the magic is. A Marie Kondo producer — you pick up a bottle in your hand and fail to find joy.
Sauternes … I just never open them. My philistine crew has very little interest. I’d rather have a cleansing ale after a wine dinner
Rhys … stopped after they were fined for violating the federal Clean Water Act by illegally destroying a protected wetland and streams to make new vineyards
Dehlinger … loved the Dad’s wines … the new regime is too spoofy for my tastes
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Gotcha. That’s helpful. Thanks, Alec.
Right. Not mad, but between expectation anchoring and the competition (my Q to Robert) in the Mosel Significant enough.
I am going with 1983-1992 (vintages 1982 through 1990). Great vintages (1982, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1990 (1983 and 1988 also were excellent vintages)), lower alcohol levels, no Rolland and unbelievable prices. Still drinking them.
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Were or are they shrinking allocations for long time purchasers? That would surprise me - unless a) they had smaller than expected vintages or. b) they are actively growing their list.
Cheers
Didn’t realize there had been a major shift in style . . .