Too much wine space--what should I do?

[stefan]

This past week I moved virtually all the wine we have in our Eugene condo into the wine room of our new house, so I now have two wine fridges and a wine credenza that are empty. What should I do?

Of course, the BWE quick answer is "what's the problem: buy wine to fill them up". My problem is that we have much more wine in Texas than we have available space in Oregon, so if I buy wine to fill up the wine fridges I will have worse storage problems when the wine is moved from Texas in a couple of years. One possibility is to move, say, 400-500 bottles from Texas soon to make the empty units happy and move the rest later. But won't that drive up my wine transportation costs significantly? Maybe I should just turn off the two fridges and put enough wine into the credenza (which will be in our living room) to make it look nice. The wine fridges will be located in a second room that I'll either fill with wine fridges later or convert into a second wine room.

[JoelD]

There are probably a few questions to ask to be able to give a better answer.

Do you drive from Texas to Oregon ever? If not then I don't think it makes sense to ship any wine to Oregon unless its wine that you definitely want there in the short term. I would just ship as needed.

With limited info, here's what I would do. Leave those spaces for wine open, and start shipping all of your new wine purchases to Oregon to fill them up. Don't buy just to fill them, buy as you normally would and ship them there. That way you're only paying for shipping once.

[stefan]

Joel, we always fly to Oregon. As for new wine purchases, for two+ years I have had all new wine purchased sent to Oregon except for a few bottles that I intended to drink in Texas in the near term. I now have enough wine in Oregon that I don't have to buy any more for short term consumption except maybe for every day Champagne and Italian wines. It's true that with normal buying I'll fill up the wine fridges in 2-3 years. Maybe I'll try the strategy you suggest and defer shipping any wine from Texas until we move permanently. Or maybe (horror of horrors) I'll actually sell most of the Texas wine before we move.

[Blanquito]

As K&L still ships to Oregon, you can designate your open cellar space to serve as the BWE K&L repository (to be collected at the Oregon Convention in 2024 or 2025).

[JoelD]

As K&L still ships to Oregon, you can designate your open cellar space to serve as the BWE K&L repository (to be collected at the Oregon Convention in 2024 or 2025).

I take my answer back. This is the correct course of action. No sales tax to Oregon either...

[jal]

Why only 400-500 bottles? Why not move most of the bottles from Texas to Oregon now? Just leave enough in Texas for the next couple of years.

[stefan]

Great idea, Patrick. Is BWE ready for an Oregon convention?

Jacques, that involves estimating how many we'll need in Texas. Since we have not decided on when to move, that is very hard to do. I'm guessing that the marginal cost per bottle for shipping is much lower than the average cost when shipping 1000-2000 bottles.

[JimHow]

Why only 400-500 bottles? Why not move most of the bottles from Texas to Oregon now? Just leave enough in Texas for the next couple of years.

400-500 bottles is not nearly enough to last through two years in Texas.

[Chateau Vin]

8 years ago, Domaine Storage used to charge $1900 for moving 1 pallet (nearly 80 cases) of wine from Chicago to SD in a temperature controlled truck ...Don't know how much they are charging these days...

[Blanquito]

Is BWE ready for an Oregon convention?

I assume so! Plus with Stefan Jr et al., you'd have a home-court team of participants/helpers.

Ideally, we could time the convention to enable day-trip visits to wineries as well (how's mid-March for visiting the Willamette? Nice enough weather? Wineries open for visitors then?).

Getting ahead of myself, but the only other major variable I can think of is Portland vs Eugene for the main event...

[DavidG]

Bill, are you asking whether to move the wine or how to move the wine to OR? That’s a trickier question than what to do with the storage cabinets.

I would keep the storage cabinets in OR - you’ll eventually need them - and wouldn’t worry about whether you use them now or later. Whatever’s convenient.

You’re not sure when you’ll be permanently moving, so it doesn’t make sense to move the bulk of the wine now.

What about taking a few cases with you each time you fly up? Assuming you and Jan can each check 2 bags without fees, depending on how much personal stuff will fit into carry-ons you could transfer as many as 4 cases a trip for the cost of a few WineChecks and SkyCap tips. Take just enough so you won’t worry about having too limited a selection in either place. You’ll have less to ship when the permanent move comes.

This is like one of those puzzles that starts with “you have 7 people and 2 canoes on one side of a river you have to cross…” Perfect for a mathematician.

[stefan]

That price looks good, CV; only about $2/bottle. Even if the price has tripled it is much better to ship than to sell and rebuy.

David, I want to avoid us moving much wine from Texas to Oregon ourselves. Our backs and joints are not up to it. I bought enough wine for Oregon that we have enough wine here. We'll definitely keep the storage cabinets whether or not they will be used in the near term. For one thing, Lucie would try to steal the room I have claimed for the wine if I don't put the wine fridges there. It does seem that moving some now and the rest later is not the way to go. We can take a few bottles with us if there is something in Texas that we really want to have in Oregon. I did that before we had storage in Oregon.

[Jay Winton]

BWE Oregon!! A state we've never visited.

[DavidG]

That price looks good, CV; only about $2/bottle. Even if the price has tripled it is much better to ship than to sell and rebuy.

David, I want to avoid us moving much wine from Texas to Oregon ourselves. Our backs and joints are not up to it. I bought enough wine for Oregon that we have enough wine here. We'll definitely keep the storage cabinets whether or not they will be used in the near term. For one thing, Lucie would try to steal the room I have claimed for the wine if I don't put the wine fridges there. It does seem that moving some now and the rest later is not the way to go. We can take a few bottles with us if there is something in Texas that we really want to have in Oregon. I did that before we had storage in Oregon.

Well, then the answer is obvious: BUYING SPREE!

[stefan]

So is the BWE consensus is that I should go on a buying spree to prove that we need the wine cabinets for storage in order to keep Lucie from using the room for something else, and worry later about not having enough space for the wine we will eventually move from Texas?

[jal]

I don't speak for all of BWE, my opinion is that you should send at least half the wine to OR. That will still be cheaper than a buying spree.

[Claudius2]

What should you do?
Well just send over the wine fridges to balmy Singapore.
I am running out of space and with the hot, humid weather, they will be gratefully received!
cheers
Mark

[stefan]

>>
I don't speak for all of BWE, my opinion is that you should send at least half the wine to OR. That will still be cheaper than a buying spree.
>>

Which half? You'll have to come to CS and go over the inventory to help me decide.

[JimHow]

I vote buying spree.

[jal]

>>
I don't speak for all of BWE, my opinion is that you should send at least half the wine to OR. That will still be cheaper than a buying spree.
>>

Which half? You'll have to come to CS and go over the inventory to help me decide.

Happily Bill