Don’t worry about what others are spending. Spend what you can afford and don’t spend so much it hurts other aspects of your life.
Pay the most attention to getting the most bang for the buck in what you spend. Read Robert’s post carefully as to what he buys. Don’t make the mistake of thinking domestic wines are cheaper than European wines. There are values, overpriced wines and great wines for high prices in both places. There are great wines for $30-40 a bottle in virtually every wine region.
Agree here and also, as always, if you can find Didier-Fornerol - buy it!! There is good, relatively cheap Burgundy out there if you are willing to ask around. Drink aligoté, it’s good for you!
I drive a 17 year old car and have often justified my wine buying as spending what I might otherwise on a car payment. Doesn’t necessarily make great fiscal sense, but you have to find the lie that works for you.
Yea, the 30-40 range is my playground (with some outliers). German riesling, Loire chenin and cab franc, Rioja, Chianti Classico, and Oregon pinot are all winners at that price point. Oh, and half bottles of aged sauternes - cant forget those!
This is definitely that I can relate too 
Mine lines up pretty well with this. I’m 35 I probably spend about $1,000/mo with a mix of ready to drink and short-to-mid term aging. 650 bottle storage and about 200 bottles a year consumption, many of which don’t make it to the racks (from store to table). My purchases are a lot of dN (I split the cases with 2-3 friends) and Berserker Day producers like Sabelli-Frisch, Briceland, and Franny Beck, plus some Beaujolais and entry level Burgundy like Pierre Guillemot.
Did Bordeaux EP for '19 (about $2.5k), but sat out '20 and '21 (with the exception of LCHB). I splurged on strong vintages of Brunello ('16) and Barolo ('16) for long term aging. I also have certain producers, like Le Chiuse, that I will sentimentally buy every year which stems from a memorable visit to the winery. I also go married in Tuscany, so we drink a lot of Chianti. Part of a few wine clubs: Sandland, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, and Bedrock.
Just had a kid, so I’m sure the spending will go down.
Fantastic thread, fascinating in so many ways, and some really unique responses - thank you, @Sake_Schoorl
With the help of CellarTracker, of course, I exported my purchases and did some calculations of my own, and found that I spend a lot less than I expected - about $10,000-$12,000/year, but going up each year (no surprise - though I’m drinking less, I’m spending more per bottle, for the most part - influence from from close circle of WB buddies has driven my price-per-bottle average up, no surprise.)
I’ve had other expensive hobbies in the past, notably club racing (cars) - I spent FAR more on that hobby than I do on wine, particularly now that I have the details on what I spend. Second homes, boats, any number of hobbies have a high annual spend, but isn’t that one of the main reasons why we all toil as we do? To enjoy the fruits of our labors? (whatever is leftover from spending on our children, of course, for those of us who have them)
Much good advice here. For me, I’ve been thinking a lot about average spend per bottle and have been tracking that steadily down for the better part of the last decade. And I think I’ve been drinking better. One of the fun elements of this hobby for me is the constant learning about new producers, regions, grapes and discovering tremendous values. That has been more of a focus for me than finding the highly allocated, high priced cherries (though of course I can’t resist a bit of that, too). This board is a fantastic place for discovering great values in the wine world.
€300 per month is certainly a healthy spend level that gives you a ton of flexibility. And it’s not too much if you can afford it! Spending is always about choices.
I work under the premise that there is ALWAYS someone with more money so don’t compare yourself to anyone other than you. The OPs budget is more than enough to drink world class wine and enjoy the hobby. And that is where the conversation can end.
In regards to myself, I am in the same boat as Todd (or car) in that my “other” hobby revolves around motor vehicles and is WAY more expensive than my wine habit. I’ve spent an entire years wine budget on a single engine overhaul.
We are in DC and always on the lookout for people more in our age range to talk/drink wine with. I have a respectable collection of moderately priced wines… very few cherries or blue chips.
Given your spend, you may be disappointed in the bottles found in my collection though! Happy to hang out either way.
It me. +1 to all of this.
I decided before I started with wine that my goal was enjoyment and sharing with friends/family, not to invest in a portfolio or add Instagram followers. While I have been sucked in to more than a few “trophies” (usually after trying from a generous friend, really liking the winemaker/vineyard story, or telling myself it for a future event/anniversary), I personally get more enjoyment out of discovering a riesling like prum, trying a new n/v champagne producer, or landing a hard-to-find magnum of cru Beaujolais than picking up a known triple-digit score wine. Some regions (Barolo/brunello, Napa, burgundy) still require you to pay the piper just to say hello. But my expectations are high if a wine is over $50 and I prefer to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. Even if I have to kiss a few frogs along the way, I prefer this method of discovery to always “buying” my way to my next favorite wine.
Sometimes I wonder what my collection and wine exploration would look like if I spent 5 times more per bottle and cut my bottle count to 10-20% of what it is. That would probably make the most “financial sense” and I wouldn’t have my current storage problem, but to me it would be less fun.
Agree, kids & other factors have a major impact on spending. I’ll pass along my own experience as someone who’s just turned 50.
We had our kids during our mid to late 30’s. Before kids I thought I spent a lot on wine and did relative to income! Our kids were a young toddler and newborn during the Great Recession, my wife was breast feeding, not drinking; so was very easy to cut wine spending significantly. Since then life has been good, incomes have risen.
My point- As I’ve gotten older I spend more and more on wine, but it’s become a smaller percentage of income as incomes have risen. Depending on the stats, peak earning years are 35-55/40-60yrso. During these years most wine drinkers (higher than average earner) see good income growth.
Some younger drinkers may think they’ve already reached their wine spending Apex and it’s all down-hill once kids arrive, but I was pleasantly surprised that wasn’t the case for us.
(perhaps my wife not so pleasantly surprised…)
Those who are young and settled in their tastes (e.g., you either altogether avoided, or moved past, the “sign up for every hot CA mailing list” phase) should absolutely stretch their incomes to accumulate as much and as serious as possible. Think of it like your 401k. Your best ally in appreciation is time. The more you put in early the bigger the payoff. This is the only way to have mature wines with perfect provenance in your prime years. And they are still assets so you can always sell off excess if you need to raise cash. To say nothing about all the expenses of adulting competing for your attention as you get older.
My spending has gone up pretty substantially over the past few years, but thankfully so has my income, so wine is probably a smaller percentage of my income today than ever before.
I also have two kids (9yo and 7yo) in private school, and our travel budget is pretty obscene by any measure–and adding to that, we bought and remodeled a new house last year. So there have been lots of competing demands on my bank account.
I used to have a rough $XXX per month wine budget–a strategy that was honored in the breach. Now I’m far more irregular. I will spend a fair bit of $$$ when wines I love become available, and then go months without buying anything. I also find myself buying more 6-bottle lots, whereas I used to buy a lot more 2-3 bottle lots.
The biggest problem I’ve run into is something many of us have experienced: Burgundy pricing has become stupid, and allocations have dwindled. So there are a number of wines I love where I’m buying 1-2 bottles or nothing at all.
It feels like this is flawed logic. If you put $100 in the S&P in 2002 it would have appreciated to $496 today (over $600 a few months ago). Save a select few wines (blue chip burg, 1st growth bdx, etc…), those $100 bottles you bought in 2002 probably aren’t worth $500 today. When you account for the “off” vintages that barely appreciate at all, proper storage costs, and risk of loss…
You are most likely better off putting your money into equities and letting it compound for 20 years then buying back vintages that are ready to drink later in life. Even with a few bad provenance bottles, you’ll be money ahead.
I agree its somewhat flawed, but also its difficult to find back vintages. I look at it more as investing in my ability to enjoy a wine when i want it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I find and buy plenty of wines that will be impossible to buy in 20 years, I also find and buy plenty of wine that will be readily available in 20 years. I just don’t lie to myself and say that it in a monetarily sound strategy. Its a hobby after all.
**Edited for typos
And that logic overlooks the human element, which is the fun and passion of accumulating the cellar. I generally do agree that backfilling makes a whole half of a lot of sense, but then again, about 40% of what I buy is Bordeaux, which is easy to backfill. Some of the premium Northern Rhônes that I drink, exceedingly difficult to backfill and at a very significant cost multiplier.