What categories in your cellar are diminishing and not being replaced?

WINE TALK
41

Phasing out Southern Rhone and California. Never had all that much, but headed toward zero.

Increasing amounts of Loire, Piedmont, Alsace, Germany. And still buying Bordeaux. And buying more whites than I used to.

42

CdP has fallen out of favor and Barolo due to the glacial pace that it ages. Until tariffs lift, purchases have been a split between Oregon and the Tuscan region.

43

California Pinot

44

Two buckets for me based on rationale for “not being replaced.” Only including categories which had any significant number in my cellar at any point (e.g., never collected Brunello, barely collected Burgundy).

Lost/Losing Interest
Châteauneuf-du-Pape (as for many here)
Loire whites (minimal luck aging, prefer young)
Chablis (minimal luck aging, premox)
Australian reds
Spain across the board
Alsatian whites (maybe “priced out”)

Priced Out
Northern Rhone (albeit buying lesser appellations)
North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon
Champagne
Austrian whites
Bordeaux
Abruzzi

Outside of California/Oregon mailing list purchases the majority of what goes into the cellar these days are Piedmont, Cru Beaujolais, Loire Cabernet Franc, a few “affordable to me” Northern Rhones. I need to do a serious gut check on what I buy from mailing lists. It’s the “final frontier” of fiscal responsibility.

45

Going Down:
Aussie wines - just not my style anymore
Cult California Cabs - top tier stuff is just so overpriced these days

Going Up:
Rhone - always been my favorite, especially Cali Rhone varietals
Bordeaux - 2019 futures pricing was just too tempting

46

Zinfandel - down to my last 13 bottles and do not plan on replacing.

47

My cellar largely stabilized several years ago. The only regions where I’m consuming more than I’m buying are Champagne and ‘California.’ Champagne is simply because my partner doesn’t enjoy sparkling or carbonated beverages. The broad category of California for me includes mostly cabernet and chardonnay. I still buy some, but wines from the US have decreased as a percent of my cellar from 39% to 3.7% over the past nine years.

Holding steady: Burgundy, Loire, Austria, Madeira, red Bordeaux, Rioja, Lebanon (Musar), dessert wines (broadly speaking)
Still increasing: Piedmont and German riesling

48

Not much new being purchased for:
Southern Rhone reds - I like them, but drinking down what I have (buy more of the whites though)
Bordeaux (can always buy these anytime I want, not much need to cellar)
Northern Rhone red - not enough occasions to drink syrah
Cabernets sav & franc - not much occasion to drink these

49

??? I realize you likely mean Wachau Smaragd and maybe a few other bottlings from the most prestigious producers, but there is a lot of value there today still.

50

I take the question as specifically “in your cellar to age” rather than buy for more or less immediate consumption. The producers I purchased from say the 1998 through 2002 vintages are mostly priced beyond what I want to pay for the ageworthy (to me) bottlings (Knoll, both Pichlers, Nigl, Bründlmayer, Prager, Alzinger, Undhof/Salomon, Jamek, Nikolaihof, Hirtzberger, Hiedler, etc.). Again, emphasis on laying down from 15-20 years.

1 Like
51

I had initially interpreted the OP as a broad question as to what was diminishing in my cellar and not replaced. Hence I chose Red Burg, which for me is both a price issue and a resource allocation issue with my curiosity about so many great reds at a lower price point from various regions.

But, going back to and rereading the OP, if the focus is phasing out wines due to taste change or realization I had aged wines I don’t really like, I don’t have any.

Re: the OP’s call to discuss CdP and Brunello specifically, neither of which I ever personally cellared much of, there is a lot to say. I’m sure it’s been hashed out by others here many times in other threads. I never much cared for either CdP or Brunello. For CdP I purged what little I had long ago except a handful of bottles. (I never splurged for Rayas although it’s great.) For Brunello, beyond Soldera, Biondi-Santi, and Palmucci’s Poggio di Sotto, all of which are expensive like Rayas, I never found the aged versions that others would pour me got better or more interesting with age. So I generally avoided them always, preferring Rosso. I find Sangiovese wines from a bit N/NE of Montalcino more interesting for aging.

52

Going down
Brunello–2010 was the last vintage I went big on. The price increases and a high rate of flawed bottles have turned me off. The taste of aged Brunello is not worth the time investment to me compared to Bordeaux.
Red and White Burgundy–completely not worth it for the price IMO. Still buying the occasional premier cru or grand cru Chablis which are more reasonable, and my wife likes.
Napa/Sonoma Cabs–also overpriced for quality IMO
Anything purely because it is a good deal, when I wouldn’t get it otherwise–running out of precious cellar space.

Going up
Bordeaux–2019 futures were amazing QPR. Always over performing and the best with age for my taste. I should have bought more and at a higher price point 15 years ago.
Champagne–especially vintage grower Champagne. Love the quality, love the price.
WA red–somewhat of a mixed bag, but this is local for me so I tend to accumulate it.
CdP–primarily for cellar defenders while I wait for my Bordeaux to mature, wife also has a taste for these.
Barbaresco/Barolo–minor purchases to balance out my very Brunello heavy cellar.

53

Everything from California. Mostly due to palate shift. If I looked hard enough, I am sure I could find some that would fit our tastes, but it is less difficult, and less costly to find them somewhere else. Pinot in Oregon, Cab/Merlot in Bordeaux, Chardonnay in Chablis/Oregon, Sauv Blanc in Sancerre, etc.

54

Perhaps it’s a sign of growing older, or I just really know the wines I enjoy drinking.

I have some weird sources which gives me the chance to buy interesting older wines in small quantities, so I am not completely closed to new makers. But now with Covid, and far less opportunity to taste with friends and find interesting stuff, I gravitate towards these wines. There is enough variation in vintage etc, and I trust these wineries to make fine versions of the wine every year.


Prum
Taittinger and Fillaine
Pichon Lalande, Ducru, VCC, Palmer, Magdelaine, Domaine de Chevalier (pre 1990) Figeac and Trotanoy.
Glantenay, Trapet and Rossignol Trapet
Togni and Ridge Monte Bello.