Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

No, this is not about politics. Or my health.

In preparation for retirement, and considering a future budget and the prospect of moving the cellar as part of downsizing in the next year or two, I finally screwed up the courage to review my CellarTracker stats. This should have been obvious just from looking at the cellar when pulling bottles, but... OMG.



I thought I had been doing well by dropping off almost all mailing lists. Apparently, I more than made up for that with local purchases. I guess a part of me knew this, but it was easy enough to remain in denial about my Wine Buying Disorder because it never impacted our budget.

Early NY resolution: quit cold turkey on non-restaurant wine purchases. Zip. Zero. Starting today. Nothing from now until the end of 2017. No exceptions. Mailing lists are over as of now. Not even for a special occasion wine. Already have too many of those. (Secondary resolution: increase consumption of those special occasion bottles.)

We'll see how much we drink before we move/downsize, but I suspect a large chunk will end up going off to auction.

Are you dropping your Screaming Eagle mailing list???

David,

I know the feeling...

Especially since neither of my children are particularly interested in wine.

On the Wine Berserker's site, someone invented something like an "open a bottle you've been saving for a special occadion" day.
In other words, just opening up something that is great - or thought to be great - for no special reason!

Apart from wines that are patently to young, at our age, it behooves us to just grab bottles of the good stuff and go for it!

Alex R.

Hahaha
Been there done that
I sold 3/4 of my cellar
Dropped off all mailing lists
Bought in 1-2 bottles quantities instead of by the case
Went from about 800 bottles to 150
After the Afib and the off wine period, I started drinking again. I now have about 200 bottles and 4 cases of birth year wines for the kids.
Selling the house and moving to a condo helped. Who wants to pay for storage? Who wants to risk a hurricane in Sarasota wiping off the stored wine?
Good luck David

It is a real pain moving a cellar. I've had to do it a few times, although at least relocation packages softened the financial/labor outlays.

To me the biggest culprit in cellar bloat is when enthusiasts buy cases, rather than a couple of bottles.

And if people reduce their purchasing below their baseline consumption, over time the cellar should shrink.

Sounds like you shouldn't move, David. Selling wine is nearly as big a pain as moving it.

tim wrote:Are you dropping your Screaming Eagle mailing list???

Yes. And Sine Qua Non.

Blanquito wrote:Sounds like you shouldn't move, David. Selling wine is nearly as big a pain as moving it.

Finding the right place to move to may take long enough to seriously deplete the cellar.

I've sent fair quantities off to auction twice in the past. Excess Napa Cabs and CduPs that I fell out of love with or knew I wouldn't get to until they were OTH. It was a piece of cake both times. Auction house sent boxes, I boxed the wines, they sent a truck, and a couple of months later I had a check.

Ah, if they send a truck, it's much easier. When I shipped a few hundred bottles to WineBid to sell a few years ago, that was a real pain (finding the right bottles, getting shippers, boxing it all up, hauling it to FedEx, getting everything scanned).

Sounds like a plan!

Oh the lyrics of your caption are...

This is the end, my only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes, again

It can't be that bad.

I tried to find a way to embed a YouTube clip of that song when I wrote the post, Bill, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

And he walked on down the hall…..

I'm nearing the end, too, I've been cutting back on my consumption for health reasons.

Alex, my daughter likes wine but wouldn't bother to store it or care that much. There's a case of 1989 Lynch Bages and a mixed case of other 1989 birth year goodies for her.

Jacques, glad to hear it can be done. Like you, I have no interest in off-site storage.

Arv, no doubt moving a large collection is costly and worrisome. At this stage of my life. I'd like to minimize both.

Jim, I need to lose weight. And an extra glass of wine at night, while not that many more calories in and of itself, inevitably leads to another round of refrigerator/pantry grazing late at night. So my consumption has decreased.

Yes, same here, David, I need to permanently lose 20 pounds, not the usual lose 20 and then gain 20….