Cellar Check and W.B.D.

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Blanquito
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Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Blanquito »

David's thread got me wondering (again) about wine collections and what's a reasonable cellar bottle count. There are definitely lots of moving parts here (age, space, budget, consumption rates, tastes, health), but I do wonder how close we all are in collecting and our wine buying disorder (W.B.D., which I define merely as the inability to eliminate or substantially reduce wine purchasing when one sets out to do so).

My cellar is approaching 2700 bottles, about half of which is Bordeaux. Overall, it's about 75% red wine. It is well distributed across the 80's, 90's, 00's, with some modest amounts from 2010-2015.

This number seems plenty big. I'd like to stop buying wine, and drink down this collection over the next 20+ years. My spreadsheet says I currently go through about 200 bottles a year (including corked bottles, gifts, etc.), but moving to 100-120 bottles/year consumption sounds about right as I slow down (my wife doesn't really drink anymore, so I'm mostly flying solo with my Coravin and wine gatherings are too infrequent to make a real dent). The challenge is I enjoy the "chase" of wine buying, especially via online auctions. Stopping or at least really slowing wine buying has provided quite challenging though.
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AKR
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by AKR »

That's a pretty large cellar, especially given your rate of consumption. (22 years of supply!)

I guess if you are not paying any marginal/variable costs for storage, there's not many delimiters there.

One of my worries is earthquakes, my subterranean storage unit is almost totally filled up, and things are stacked about as high as I feel comfortable with potential seismic activity.

Our area doesn't have a reputation for that...but I think the risk is pretty real, and under protected against. (Seattle, Portland too have this concern too)

Napa got hit hard with tremors some years ago. One of our conference venues had to relocate us.

Generally I don't let whites/sparkling age, only the reds/sweet wines get cellar space.

However its relatively easy to find most Red Bordeaux, and at least out here, older Napa, whereas other regions I enjoy like the Rhone are not so readily available.

That's what I wish I'd allocated more space too, or maybe I drank those up faster....

Our consumption/dinner parties/random gifting is higher so I'm guessing we have 5-7 years of supply.

I do hope some of what I've put away the kids will enjoy.
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Blanquito
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Blanquito »

Thanks, Arv. My cellar square footage is quite big (but it's getting really full) and all it costs is the electricity to run the chiller. Natural hazard threats to the wine are quite low in the Front Range of Colorado, and I'm not near any flood plains. I do have an insurance policy for it though (it's quite cheap).

The funny thing is, at current consumption rates, I have a little less than 12 years of wine! That doesn't sound like much, getting me only into my late 50's. I do prefer my claret and Nebbiolo on the mature side, which is how I convinced myself to lay down so much wine in the first place, so I'd have a good stash of wine someday ready to go.
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tim
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by tim »

I have roughly 1200 bottles in various cellars around the world. But it is a very eclectic mix of wines, some stuff to put down for awhile, others I've bought at auction. But since most of it is in storage, I actually only pull stuff out for occasions about twice a month (e.g. trips to London, dinners, etc).

Most of the time at home, I've stocked up on some regular cheap wines. Tomorrow I make a run to the big independent winemakers expo. Will probably pick up 100+ bottles there, most of it well under 20 euros, including many half bottles. This plus the occasional pull from the storage will last the year.
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William P
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by William P »

I have about 175 bottles. Probably 45% are Bordeaux, 27% Burgundy, 8% Cali Cabs and 10% Oregon Pinots. The rest are ports and a few German wines.

I don't expect to top 200 bottles given my situation.
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SF Ed
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by SF Ed »

I've got about 1500 bottles, an average total consumption per year of about 180 bottles (including gifts, events, etc.) and am 52.

My goal is to be cellar neutral for a while, although the reality is that what I buy today is very different than what is in my cellar. Most of what I buy now is casual and not cellar worthy, and I will drink the treasures in my cellar for many years to come.

I am unwilling to pay the current tariff for the wines I like best (e.g. Burgundy) so hopefully my cellar count will dwindle over time as I drink down the good stuff. We'll see...

SF Ed
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AKR
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by AKR »

I have the same sentiments SF Ed.
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Blanquito
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Blanquito »

Good strategy, Ed. 1500 bottles seems quite reasonably for a 52 year-old wine lover with some space to cellar it.

My main "regrets" are twofold:
(1) buying so heavily in the 2000-2005 vintages (all Bordeaux), which I did before online auctions were a going concern-- online auctions and consignment options have made backfilling on mature vintages so easy, and these days you can buy single bottles if you want, so if I knew then what I know now, I would spent less $$$ and cellar space buying Bordeaux futures and waited for the internet to save me;
(2) not buying enough northern Rhone or any vintage champagne when these regions were affordable.

But someday (in another 10+ years or so) maybe I'll be thrilled to have nearly 30 cases of mature 2005 Bordeaux, cellared since release at 57F, just like those of you who went crazy with '82 Bordeaux back in the day...
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DavidG
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by DavidG »

I am with you Ed, and when i was 52 I was pretty close to where you are now.

But at 60, Peggy and I are drinking less. And I failed to adjust my purchases accordingly. Though I will say I now have the right stuff in the cellar in terms of matching my region, style and aging preferences. I just have too much of it. At current consumption rates, I could go 30 years without buying another bottle.
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SF Ed
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by SF Ed »

Then a good cautionary tale, David ;). I'll try to keep my buying down.

SF Ed
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JimHow
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by JimHow »

I usually have my cellar around 1200 but right now it is low, around 800.
My goal is to get it up to about 2000 by the time I retire in 8 years at the age of 66 and 8 months.
I figure I'll be lucky to live to 80 with all of my health problems so I'll have a 14 year plan after that.
2,000 divided by 14 = 142 bottles per year.
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DavidG
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by DavidG »

Ed, something to keep in mind but not obsess over. If this is the worst thing that happens to me in the coming year, I truly have much to be thankful for this season.
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Nicklasss
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Nicklasss »

220-250 bottles for me. Don't have more room for more bottles. I think i will never go over 500-600 bottles. Life is so fragile today, and i don't mind letting many things down on Earth, but not too much great wines! A few bottles for my three kids, but I want to let them the passion, and let them find their own bottles for their different palates.

Nic
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DavidG
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by DavidG »

Nic, that is a wise child-rearing approach on many levels beyond wine. The hard part comes when it is time to accept that their passion has taken them in a different direction than you would have chosen for them. You are on the right path. Stay true.
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Racer Chris
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Racer Chris »

At 59 years of age my WBD is in full swing, but I just caught it a couple years ago.
Primary focus has been loading up on '09, '10, '11 short and mid-term agers at the Cru Bourgeois level, with occasional purchases of something more special.
I'm up to just over 300 bottles in my cellar after buying nearly 450 this year. My purchasing goal was 2 cases a month and I've exceeded that every month this year.
Consumption will be 250+ bottles this year, and I expect that will continue for a few years to come.
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by Comte Flaneur »

I need to update my cellartracker, but I have about 2 1/4 K bottles give or take and, aged 53, I am implicitly assuming another 20 years or so of consumption. 

Currently I am burning through about 300 bottles a year including gifts and replacing a similar amount. About half of that replacement is wines for current consumption, i.e., within one year, and these wines are mainly value burgundies (not an oxymoron), mainly white, e.g., Rully.

Most of my other purchases these days are Bordeaux and Piemonte with the occasional Northern Rhone purchase.
I have serious and chronic WBD, but I rarely if ever regret buying. More often I regret not buying, especially earlier this year as the Brexit vote has driven up London wine prices.

My biggest and most bitter regret is not buying more burgundies 8-12 years ago, which are now way out of reach. But I am very glad I had the foresight to buy a lot of Great Bordeaux between 1990 and 2000. 

I very much doubt I will buy EP again, but I will look to buy opportunistically back filling holes in my collection. 
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DavidG
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by DavidG »

Nice summary Ian. I too never regretted my buys, and only lamented the missed opportunities. Of course those are pathognomonic symptoms of WBD.

But even now that I am beginning to confront my disease, like you I have no regrets about having plenty of great Bordeaux from 1990-2000, and even more recent years.
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stefan
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Re: Cellar Check and W.B.D.

Post by stefan »

We have around 2500 bottles and drink around 400 bottles/year. I would like to have more but am faced with storage limitations and the difficulty of having wines shipped to Texas. Being almost 72, our collection is perhaps large enough to last my lifetime, but my children and their spouses as well as our grandchildren will be happy to drink whatever is left after Lucie and I adjourn to That Great Tasting Room in the Sky.
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