Wine prices to fall?

Phil David said:
I'm sure it was joke but Tom is also right.

I suspect rather too many of us invest considerable time and resource into amassing superb collections only to die before drinking them. A greater part of the pleasure is in the acquisition than we would like to think.
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Very true Phil. I have taken concrete steps in the last couple of years to address the balance between buying and drinking to focus more on the latter.
 
Phil David said:
I'm sure it was joke but Tom is also right.

I suspect rather too many of us invest considerable time and resource into amassing superb collections only to die before drinking them. A greater part of the pleasure is in the acquisition than we would like to think.
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In my relatively early days of buying wine/building my cellar, my very experienced wine merchant often used to quip “my clientele are excellent at buying wine, but not so good at drinking it”…

A quarter of a century later, I find myself and almost all of my wine friends almost perfectly “resembling that remark”….
 
Mark Palmer said:
In my relatively early days of buying wine/building my cellar, my very experienced wine merchant often used to quip “my clientele are excellent at buying wine, but not so good at drinking it”…

A quarter of a century later, I find myself and almost all of my wine friends almost perfectly “resembling that remark”….
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I am going to run out of wine at some point in the not very distant future. I am looking forward to it very much, strangely.
 
Richard Zambuni said:
Interesting. Are you looking forward to not drinking much/any wine or to having the opportunity to buy again?
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I remember the pleasure of buying a bottle of wine and then drinking it, which could be quite exciting. Generally speaking I drink wine rarely now except when entertaining or being entertained; I find enjoyment is greatly enhanced by abstention and putting one's mind to wine storage and the rest can be a burden rather than a pleasure, mostly because I now know what wine tastes like, which was not true when I started out.
I am vaguely hoping that by the time I run out having wine delivered from mainland Europe will have become a possibility, there is so much I want to try now that simply isn't available here.
 
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Interesting Tom as I could never give up wine ( or beer for that matter ). It’s so much part of my life and my wife’s although I have certainly cut out the multi bottle lunches and dinners that we used to enjoy . Now it tends to be a bottle with the missus or a bottle or three with son and family who also live in paradise now .
 
Keith Prothero said:
Interesting Tom as I could never give up wine ( or beer for that matter ). It’s so much part of my life and my wife’s although I have certainly cut out the multi bottle lunches and dinners that we used to enjoy . Now it tends to be a bottle with the missus or a bottle or three with son and family who also live in paradise now .
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I haven't given up at all, Keith, I just don't drink it every day, which enhances my enjoyment. I do have the slight feeling that we are all born with a lifetime booze allocation and that mine might be nearing completion!
 
Thom Blach said:
I drink wine rarely now except when entertaining or being entertained; I find enjoyment is greatly enhanced by abstention and putting one's mind to wine storage and the rest can be a burden rather than a pleasure, mostly because I now know what wine tastes like, which was not true when I started out.
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That's interesting. Another forumite was opining just the other day that it has taken him twenty plus years to drink widely and deeply enough to be sure about Cornas and Hermitage to the extent that he can now drink the wines that truly give him the most pleasure without having disappointments. He now wants to capitalise on that knowledge!
 
Richard Zambuni said:
That's interesting. Another forumite was opining just the other day that it has taken him twenty plus years to drink widely and deeply enough to be sure about Cornas and Hermitage to the extent that he can now drink the wines that truly give him the most pleasure without having disappointments. He now wants to capitalise on that knowledge!
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I can certainly see that, but knowing exactly how it tastes for me makes pursuing the actuality much less compelling. It's the same with food as with wine, I don't now need to eat an Epoisses, a sole Meuniere, some buttered spinach, a cotechino or a lobster fully to recall the experience; an upside as well as a downside to a lifetime of enthusiasm. It is difficult for a repeated pleasure to retain its initial impact.
 
I’ve stopped buying new vintages for laying down and concentrate, instead, on everyday quaffers and mature wines bought at auction etc. I’ve also just capped what I have so for the time being it is one in one out, including moving things from storage to home. Later on, a few years from now, I’ll start drawing down.

So at the start of each month I will see where the gaps are in my fridges and racks, and only fill those. I’m expecting it to impact on what I choose to drink but too soon to know how.
 
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Thom Blach said:
I remember the pleasure of buying a bottle of wine and then drinking it, which could be quite exciting. Generally speaking I drink wine rarely now except when entertaining or being entertained; I find enjoyment is greatly enhanced by abstention and putting one's mind to wine storage and the rest can be a burden rather than a pleasure, mostly because I now know what wine tastes like, which was not true when I started out.
I am vaguely hoping that by the time I run out having wine delivered from mainland Europe will have become a possibility, there is so much I want to try now that simply isn't available here.
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Thom, out of some self-interest (I am currently living 'on the mainland') what are the wines you would want to try which aren't available in the UK?
 
Tom Cannavan said:
AFAIK you can still buy domestically produced Champagne, Chablis or Burgundy in the US, but it can't be exported under those labels. They may have changed recently, but I've certainly seen 5 litre jugs of 'Chablis' on relatively recent visits. In fact...

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I have happy memories of the wedding in Nevis in 1988 of a very delightful, and very rich, Venezuelan couple. Pre-Chavez, of course. The party of perhaps 16 of us had happily got through four unquestionably genuine cases of Veuve Clicquot 1959, when the wedding feast at Cana reared its ugly head. The problem was rapidly solved by the production of a fifth case of the (allegedly) same wine, albeit in a modest carton rather than an OC, and upon the side of which was prominently emblazoned "Bottled in Caracas, Venezuela". I have no recollection of how bad the contents were.
 
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David Bell said:
Thom, out of some self-interest (I am currently living 'on the mainland') what are the wines you would want to try which aren't available in the UK?
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Many wines from greater Burgundy and Beaujolais of the kind so ably covered by Bill Nanson, for example, and much Muscadet. It is also interesting that there are so many highly regarded German producers that just don't make it here, in general choice has become very much narrower, not at all the fault of our importers.
 
I'm not convinced the choice has become narrower but it is the case that producer's wines we could buy in the past are no longer available and wines that weren't available in the past are now available.
Quite easy when it comes to producers in Burgundy and Beaujolais (or the lower reaches of the Loire) - just stop off if travelling through, or spend a week or two in the region, visiting various producers, or Caves des Vins (e.g. in Chassagne or Vosne) that represent several producers and pick them up there.
I've never been on a wine-buying trip to Germany but I assume it must be just as easy as going to France.
If i can do it from Scotland, it must be even easier for those based in the sarf of Engerlund.
 
Paul Anderson said:
I'm not convinced the choice has become narrower but it is the case that producer's wines we could buy in the past are no longer available and wines that weren't available in the past are now available.
Quite easy when it comes to producers in Burgundy and Beaujolais (or the lower reaches of the Loire) - just stop off if travelling through, or spend a week or two in the region, visiting various producers, or Caves des Vins (e.g. in Chassagne or Vosne) that represent several producers and pick them up there.
I've never been on a wine-buying trip to Germany but I assume it must be just as easy as going to France.
If i can do it from Scotland, it must be even easier for those based in the sarf of Engerlund.
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I'm a proud non-motorist, Paul, and anyway am not certain that the acquisition of wine is worth all that trouble and expense.
 
If you are travelling anyway, then it is worth it though. We go to Germany a lot and my wife has family in the wine trade there (vineyards and merchant) so we do pick up some very good German wines. I think the French Chateau visits are more organised, but it's by no means difficult in Germany.
 
Thom Blach said:
I'm a proud non-motorist, Paul, and anyway am not certain that the acquisition of wine is worth all that trouble and expense.
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Ah well. The "so much wine you wanted to try" may never materialise then. I'm guessing you would probably have enjoyed visiting and chatting with the winemakers, as well as seeing, and walking through, the vineyards that have produced so many enjoyable wines.
I did do a couple of wine runs, with a pal, in the 1990's when Burgundy was easily half the price it was in the UK. I could even afford to buy quite a few bottles at grand cru level back then. Financially, its not really worth it nowadays, as we have so many sales in the UK which can sometimes make the wine cheaper here than even at the cellar door. However, there's much more to it then the actual cost, and meeting, and striking up friendships with some winemakers has been a huge part of the enjoyment.
When not doing specific wine-buying trips (ahem) the family have always enjoyed spending our holidays in France, which always happened to be in a wine-producing region. One of the first ever wines my son (who was about 12 at the time) tasted was a Corton-Charlemagne from Domaine Rapet in Pernand-Vergelesses :) Glad to say they enjoyed these holidays and never complained about not going to places like Disney land or Magaluf.
 
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