Verticle vs vintage collecting

[Cactus]

Hey Guys,

Building a cellar from scratch, now up to 480bottles, on my way to 1000 (in order to drink 10yr wine x 1 a week).

Just wondering peoples different views on targeting the verticals?
It seems people I know fall into 2 camps
1) religious about certain wines and buy every year, always have a 10-12yr verticle on these.
2) agnostic, target the deals and load up on the good vintages.

Whats everyones take on this?

[Diddy]

Why not do both!

[Blesso]

Just go with what you think at the time, I guarantee that your tastes will change over time so be careful buying shite loads of the same wine. I have one or two wineries I do verticals for, the rest I just buy what I think may be good in years to come (very much vintage dependable), usually buying in 3's or 4's. No matter what you do you will always get down the track and think....I wish I bought more of that!

[sjw_11]

Why not do both!

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[ticklenow1]

I have 6 or 7 wineries I buy a mix from each year and the rest I buy whatever tickles my fancy at the time. I have good verticals of Noon, Greenock Creek, Rockford, Gomersal, Cirillo, Kalleske, Head, Seppelt Chalambar and Wynn's Cabernet (for reason's I'm not sure of ). I like nothing more though than drinking a vertical with friends.

There is a lot of good quality cheap wine getting around the last couple of years and I've stocked up.

I've found that now I am drinking quality over quantity though, so now I'm being a lot more fussy on what I am buying. Make sure whatever you buy has the ability to age for 10 years though. No point buying wine only to find in 10 years that it's past it. This is where the critics come in handy. I don't pay much attention to the rating, but always have a look at the suggested drinking window.

Cheers
Ian

[rens]

I do a bit of both. Verticles of the consistent wines like Rockford Basket Press. Otherwise I'm a bit of a vintage slut.

[maybs]

I am in the same position Cactus. I am planning on going vertical on some of my favourite wines to drink, like Basket Press, Dalwhinnie Shiraz, Juniper Estate cab, Savaterre Chardonnay, Vat 1 and Vat 47 etc unless really bad vintage, but otherwise open to shopping around and buying variety from good vintages (which probably means I will end up with a lot of margarwt River Chardonnay and cabs, so consistent over there, no bad thing!)

I also think with my Pinot shopping I will be more vintage reliant as i think with this variety it can be critically important (moreso than with some other varieties)

My two cents worth.

[Mike Hawkins]

Trust me, some years down the track you'll open your 6 packs of (for example) a given 2010, 2011, 2012 Barossa shiraz and you'll kick ourself for wasting money on the poor vintage (2011) and not buying more of the good ones (for the same money). Langtons and particularly, restaurant wine lists, are full of the 'off vintages' - and its no accident that's the case.

[catchnrelease]

I avoid bad vintages and focus my money on stocking up on good vintages. Regardless of the wine, I'd rather save my pennies for a better vintage of that wine or a good vintage of another wine.

[Cactus]

Thanks guys, Love the Old-El-Paso reference.

Lot of good advice here. Think I will do both, but only verticles on a few key ones I love. Maybe even skip the odd really bad year on a verticle.

Alternative is could just do it on Margeret River wines. Hasnt been a bad year in ages.

[The fish]

Trust me, some years down the track you'll open your 6 packs of (for example) a given 2010, 2011, 2012 Barossa shiraz and you'll kick ourself for wasting money on the poor vintage (2011) and not buying more of the good ones (for the same money). Langtons and particularly, restaurant wine lists, are full of the 'off vintages' - and its no accident that's the case.

Concur with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Pick a Burgundy for a vertical and see the vintage variation - it's a sure fire way to blow your dough

[Hacker]

Trust me, some years down the track you'll open your 6 packs of (for example) a given 2010, 2011, 2012 Barossa shiraz and you'll kick ourself for wasting money on the poor vintage (2011) and not buying more of the good ones (for the same money). Langtons and particularly, restaurant wine lists, are full of the 'off vintages' - and its no accident that's the case.

Concur with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Pick a Burgundy for a vertical and see the vintage variation - it's a sure fire way to blow your dough

True enough, but Burgundy is a curious beast; if you get in at ground level via allocations, you don't have the luxury of dissing one vintage and picking up on the next, like 2011 and 2012. Or 2004 and 2005. Interestingly, there are more encouraging reports 10 years on that 2004's are shedding their 'greenness' problems and on the whole maturing into a better vintage than feared - at least to many palates on the Berserkers forum. Sorry, this is off topic.

[Polymer]

Burgundy prices are up and down though depending on the vintage...although lately more up than down even with ordinary vintages...

But as far as Australian wine is concerned...On release I'd rather buy the better vintages and stay away from the lesser ones..although there are some exceptions to that for me..

[phillisc]

Trust me, some years down the track you'll open your 6 packs of (for example) a given 2010, 2011, 2012 Barossa shiraz and you'll kick ourself for wasting money on the poor vintage (2011) and not buying more of the good ones (for the same money). Langtons and particularly, restaurant wine lists, are full of the 'off vintages' - and its no accident that's the case.

Could not agree more Mike.
If I can look at this from a different angle, I often go for a horizontal rather than a vertical.
e.g. Wynns cabernet...the 2011 is the one of most difficult wines that I have ever had...after trying it on about 8 occasions now, thin weedy green and short.
Despite having an unbroken run from 1990, and a dozen vintages between 90 and 66, will not be buying.
Rather I purchased the full 10 or so reds from the 2010 vintage and will be doing the same for the 2012.

Did this with 90 and 91 Penfolds and have done it with Wendouree, full range of 2010 and 2012s to compensate for a very small 2011 buy.

I agree with the comment about wine lists and charity auctions being full of 2011s...do the right thing and don't release in very poor years if you don't have the fruit.

Cheers
Craig.