I’m pretty new to wine as a serious pursuit. I know what I like, but making strategic purchases is completely new to me.
I read posts on here about people buying cases of particular wines, and in theory it makes a lot of sense. If there is a particular vintage that’s exceptional, it makes sense to stock up for the future so you can enjoy it as it ages. But being a newbie, it’s not clear to me how you know which wines to stock up on.
For example, suppose that you’re a fan of Barolo or Mosel Riesling. (Both of which happen to be true in my case.) Then:
How do you identify those particularly good vintages that you should stock up on? Watch for posts on this board? Subscribe to a newsletter whose writers have early access to wines?
At what point in the winemaking process would a person who is paying attention know that a particular vintage is a good one? During harvest? When first bottled? When the wine is released for sale?
Once an exceptional vintage is identified, how do you know which of the dozens (hundreds?) of producers of Mosel Riesling or Barolo you should buy? Stick to a winemaker you have liked in the past? Take a guess, buy a case and hope you get lucky? Spread it around and buy a few bottles from lots of winemakers?
If anyone out there with more experience than me (virtually every Berserker out there) has any tips, I’d love to hear them.
sounds like your instincts are right on with the questions above. perhaps the only thing missing is developing a good relationship with local sources not only for access, but also for guidance. you can read 100 books, etc., on wine but tasting is the only real way to figure out what you like.
it also depends on your personality re: variety vs going deep on what you know you like. everyone struggles with this. thankfully, if you buy half-decent stuff, you can always sell/trade down the road assuming you store it properly.
i’ve been doing this (that) for 20 years and not totally sure i’ve really scratched the surface…said another way, go with the flow … ?
finding a couple writers/reviewers who’s palate matches yours and paying attention to them helps a lot for when youre deciding to stock on a certain vintage of a wine. mostly because they will have access directly to growers who have been following the wines through the vintage and in the cellar and will be able to tell you how much excitement there may be in a region overall. they also will typically have access to wines sooner than the rest of us to get a feel for the quality. its not a perfect system by any means, but its a really good place to start.
As I’m sipping a de Négoce–don’t buy more than a few bottles unless you’ve had it before and are sure you want a case. I bought this as a cellar defender (and I guess it is)–but wish I was drinking a cheap rosé, aglianico, or zin instead.
You don’t and won’t until you taste more and learn more IMHO. Read on this board and you will find that too many people bought too much wine too early and then their palate changes and they wish they didn’t have so much of certain wines. IMHO, don’t rush into buying too much until you have tasted more and know what YOU want. You are tight to be cautious. Follow those instincts.
There are a lot of folks here who have been drinking well for decades and still do not buy cases. I wouldn’t look at it as a goal, especially not at first. Instead, taste broadly and if you feel there is a wine you need a lot of in your cellar, go for it!
As for knowing the answer a priori, it would help to be familiar with a particular producer you love, even in less than great vintages. If the general consensus is that it’s a better than average vintage, you’re unlikely to be disappointed. I’m thinking of 16 Produttori de Barbaresco for some reason here.
Yaacov is right, it depends on what you have access to, as well.
I would second what Howard said–I wouldn’t buy heavily and deeply of a given wine or producer until you are pretty sure that’s what you’ll want over time. Otherwise you’ll end up with a quantity of wine that you may become less interested in as your tastes change, or as you learn more. In my case, with regard to Barolo, which I became interested in in the middle of my wine career, I ended up with a lot of Clerico and aldo Conterno from the late 90’s/early 2000’s. In retrospect, I wish I had instead bought Giacosa, Bartolo Mascarello, Cappellano, etc. Often folks say you can sell wines you lose interest in, but in some cases, you won’t even recoup your costs (eg Clerico).
Buy stalwarts in bulk. If you buy cases of Rousseau, Mugnier, Cristal, etc and decide it’s not your style, you can trade or sell it and buy what you want.
Welcome to the board! Lots of good tips here. I will just answer one very specific part of your question about sources of info based on your interest in Mosel Riesling: subscribe (for free) to Mosel Fine Wines!
Your post has a lot to pick through however your first real “question” is this… “it’s not clear to me how you know which wines to stock up on.”
Towards that in regards to what you next had questions about… I don’t chase vintages anymore really. Its occaisionally a simple crutch however I’m more focused on who makes lemonade from lemons in good years and bad. The rest figures itself out. I buy producer, some have alluded to this. If you like Riesling or Barolo, research, test and learn among the good and bad vintages for what you gravitate tobased on that research [well enjoyed sipping]; find folks that share your palate or Tns for what you you like, drink and evaluate for yourself, repeat. You’ll find some steady wines you can trust year in and out; its either that ora long list of guesses on the generalities of a “great vintage” early on for more names than you can register; then there’s the hoping in 20 years that “its a great vintage” is still a true statement. I buy bulk on the producer. Plenty of posts in the forum to help you home in on what that is for you.
For sure there are plenty of well informed opinions on this board. But there’s nothing wrong with reading the professional wine reviewers. The pros will go far deeper on any particular region/vintage than anyone here. Read some reviews, taste some recommendations, and you can figure out which reviewers you trust/match your palate. Go to tastings. Make friends who have cellars. Everyone loves sharing wine. Taste more. Rinse and repeat.
For Riesling MFW is awesome as has been already mentioned. I get SO many ideas from them. For Barolo (and Italian wine more broadly) I have come to trust Vinous. Robert Parker is retired but the Wine Advocate is very strong for Burgundy and Champagne (thank you William Kelley!). For all the web sites I find their scores highish but the if you read the details you can learn a lot. There are many other excellent professional reviewers. James Suckling is universally panned here on WB and I have found his scores to be meaningless so I ignore them. You might find differently.
If you have a local wine store with smart people they can be a good resource. And absolutely ignore (!!!) every email you get from online retailers. The hype from that source is almost universally noisy and hard to actually make sense of. Yes there are exceptions but they are oh so rare.
There’s no hurry. New wine is released every week, every day. If you miss today’s offer don’t worry there will be five tomorrow.
I almost never buy cases btw. A few producers that I love, sure, but even so it’s usually two or three of three or four different bottlings. For German Riesling especially it’s hard to pick one wine when producers I adore seem to make dozens. So I tend to get assortments.
If I define bulk as anything over a six-bottle purchase of a single vintage of a specific wine, then my answer is:
Make bulk purchases after I have established a track record of outstanding value and assured future enjoyment potential with a producer and understand the vintage potential…
–and–
…when I have the available disposable income and storage space to contain the purchase.
30+ years into the hobby, I’ve only bought in bulk a handful of times, mostly due to the income requirement. There is always something out there that I want to purchase that I cannot procure in bulk (the Burgundy allocation/availability problem). Happily, none of my bulk purchases are regretted. My cellar is very diversified.
Under different circumstances, I could imagine a different perspective. Let’s say that instead of chasing pinot noir, I had been exposed to well-aged classified Bordeaux and developed a sense of which chateau and types of vintage I value, then perhaps I would have been a bulk purchaser of every “great vintage” en primeur going deep on my favored selections to build my stock of well-aged Bordeaux economically for the future. Storage and expense would probably still temper my enthusiasm in that circumstance, but I could see a different version of me doing more bulk purchasing and being very satisfied with it.
I am the voice on this board (one of them anyway) for buying in quantity. I now buy almost exclusively in sixes or twelves plus of the limited number of producers I love. I do agree, however, that doing so takes funds, space, patience and knowledge of what you like. So even I will tell you to drink broadly as you are learning, and make note of those wines that wow you, or producers who impress you again and again.
That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to occasionally buy 6 or even 12 of something that makes your toes curl, even now, if you have space for it. To me, there is almost nothing about this hobby that brings me more pleasure than following a wine over time. Why not learn about that pleasure in tandem with learning about other things? So maybe buy a case from time to time and see how you enjoy the experience, if it means anything to you, like it does to me.
I’d also say listen to, but don’t fall prey to, the dire warnings of “your palate will change.” It will, but the risk of ending up with some wine that isn’t your favorite is, in my opinion, much less than the pleasure that comes from a smart buy of a beautiful wine you can get to know over years. And remember, for every person writing about a palate change, you’ll read someone saying “I wish I’d bought more of this wine!” Palate changes don’t necessarily mean total rejection either. In my case, for instance, I used to love Rhones, both Southern and Northern, and bought a lot of cases of my favorite producers. I no longer care for Rhones as much and don’t buy them anymore, but I still have odds and ends from earlier purchases in the cellar, all nicely mature now. Though they aren’t my favorites, I do find them enjoyable from time to time when the food or the company calls for them.
As to how you know what vintages to buy, I have nothing to add to the smart advice above.
I have gone in phases regarding buying solid cases. When I had better opportunities to taste early I could better strategize exactly which wines I wanted to load up on. That’s how I ended up buying a huge number of solid cases of 2001 German Rieslings. Those cases have served me extremely well. Post-COVID the tasting opportunities may come back, but I don’t know.
These days, I mostly stick to a 6 bottle max for most wines, except for some tried and true things (e.g., Idlewild’s Flora & Fauna Red, Bedrock OVZ or their Cali Syrah, Donnhoff Estate Riesling are some good examples) where I will buy solid cases, or at least 8-10 bottles. A lot of that is really down to space limitations that have already been exceeded, and also finally getting to the point where many of my prior purchases are getting into some really nice drinking windows.
Don’t worry too much about vintage; a good producer still does a good job in an “off” vintage. Good producers with good track records aren’t that numerous and, curiously enough, are not always the most expensive. Although, in Barolo, most are pricey.
Remember that, as you age and have more experience your tastes will change. Until you are confident in what you like, buy 2-3 bottles of something and try not to drink it all at once. You may love the third bottle two years later and regret not having more but there is a lot of good wine out there so find something else. It’s easy.
Once you are confident in your likes (and assuming you have disposable income), buy a case of what you love and follow it over a decade or more.
And, IMO, the first question you should ask when considering a purchase is “does this go with the food I eat?”
Best, Jim
lots of great advice and I’m sure I’ll add little but I see 3 scenarios w wine buying—you buy too little, the right amount, or too much.
If too little, don’t fret, as soon another wine or vintage comes along as good or better.
If the right amount, drink happily.
If too much, drink, sell, trade, or gift what you don’t want.
Amoebas change their shape, pushing out “pseudopods” and pulling others back. I look at wine collecting that way. Your cellar will change as your tastes change. Enjoy that.
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