FOMO

[Diddy]

FOMO
noun informal
Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media.

My Achilles heel these days is The Wine Front - it seems every day an amazing new wine gets reviewed.

I've come to the hard realisation (my wife) that I don't have the wine budget to buy them all - it's pretty hard letting go sometimes...

Does anyone else experience this? Is it as simple as accepting the next great wine/vintage/offer is just around the corner?

[Ian S]

Yes, there's a vintage of the century every 2-3 years. No need to get hooked in to the hype machine.

[Scotty vino]

I experienced a bit of FOMO when I first started getting into wine. Perhaps it was because my collection was in its infancy
and I felt like I needed to grab everything in sight. Deer in the headlights?

These days I'm really trying to adhere to my 'try before you buy' mantra.
AS with a lot of us I've been sucked into a score hype and found myself with bottles of vino that don't really do it for me.
Based on 'scores' I'd say my hit ratio is about 50/50 at best.
I don't think you can beat getting out to regions, tasting, chatting and getting amongst it.
This is how the bulk of my wines are purchased.
This was made more evident to me when I hit the Coonawarra last year for a few days.
I did a ton of research beforehand, trying to get a read on what I 'should' be buying and 'where' I should be buying it.
Scores, 5 star ratings, reviews, recommendations etc etc.
In the end I was disappointed and surprised by quite a few CDs and it reiterated
the lesson of listening to your palate and not those of others.

I still get the odd twinge of FOMO when I'm browsing here or elsewhere.
I just remind myself the amount of times I've tried a '97' point wine in a cellar door and thought 'yeah, nah'

[JamieBahrain]

There are so many great wines but what I've found is there's even more great reviews and even more reviews where the wine doesn't meet the review or expectations of the critic once the wine cellared as recommended. This helps me as I get dozens of emails a day from the big UK merchants.

That's not a swipe at the Wine Front btw, I'm a new subscriber and I think its fantastic as I'm, keeping up better with the Australian wine scene and there's an unpredictable broadness that keeps good interest. I'm more targeting what seem to be less independent critics with an agenda and I've noted this seems to be proliferating.

If you can find folks that have similar passions for regions or styles, helps to get a tasting group up and running. Otherwise you can end up being a buyer more than a drinker of fine wine- I see a lot of this.

[Ozzie W]

Thank your lucky stars that your Achilles heel isn't Halliday! Mine used to be when I first got into wine. Thankfully I discovered The Wine Front before I started cellaring wines.

I can certainly relate to this FOMO issue. Every time I'd fill a locker at my off-site storage, reality would kick in that I'm buying too much wine. My reaction was then to raise the bar and increase the standard/quality/price of the wines I purchase, which would reduce the number of purchases. That worked, but then I'd still eventually fill another locker. I also didn't start cellaring wines until I was in my early 40s, so I felt I need to make up for lost time. That didn't help either.

Later on, I also came to realise that what I liked to drink most of the time, wasn't necessarily what I was cellaring. So I stopped buying Shiraz altogether. That was a really hard decision, but one that I don't regret. I looked at the 97 point reviews of 2015 Standish's at TWF with zero regrets of not purchasing. My objective is to cellar wines I want to drink in the future, not cellar epic wines. With my heavy focus more recently on buying Italian wines, limited availability in Australia has also assisted in reducing the number of purchases.

[Rossco]

Thank your lucky stars that your Achilles heel isn't Halliday! Mine used to be when I first got into wine.

I think every single Australian who starts off in wine, begins this exact way. I know I did.
(apologies for the gross generalisation)

Im buying a lot more whites recently. Mainly Chardonnay & Riesling, but some Marsanne as well. I think im at the point
that i may have 'enough' reds in the cellar (if that is even a thing?) and only buying drinking reds and now focusing on
buying cellaring whites........... i guess only time will tell.

[TiggerK]

Fully agree with pretty much everything above!!!

Particularly these snippets of wisdom...

Yes, there's a vintage of the century every 2-3 years. No need to get hooked in to the hype machine.

As with a lot of us I've been sucked into a score hype and found myself with bottles of vino that don't really do it for me.
... I just remind myself the amount of times I've tried a '97' point wine in a cellar door and thought 'yeah, nah'

Later on, I also came to realise that what I liked to drink most of the time, wasn't necessarily what I was cellaring. So I stopped buying Shiraz altogether.

I'm buying a lot more whites recently...

If you can find folks that have similar passions for regions or styles, helps to get a tasting group up and running. Otherwise you can end up being a buyer more than a drinker of fine wine- I see a lot of this.

Cheers
Tim

[Phil H]

Fully agree with pretty much everything above!!!

Particularly these snippets of wisdom...

Yes, there's a vintage of the century every 2-3 years. No need to get hooked in to the hype machine.

As with a lot of us I've been sucked into a score hype and found myself with bottles of vino that don't really do it for me.
... I just remind myself the amount of times I've tried a '97' point wine in a cellar door and thought 'yeah, nah'

Later on, I also came to realise that what I liked to drink most of the time, wasn't necessarily what I was cellaring. So I stopped buying Shiraz altogether.

I'm buying a lot more whites recently...

If you can find folks that have similar passions for regions or styles, helps to get a tasting group up and running. Otherwise you can end up being a buyer more than a drinker of fine wine- I see a lot of this.

+1 especially on buying cellar worthy whites, and trying to stop buying Shiraz.

[Michael McNally]

My objective is to cellar wines I want to drink in the future, not cellar epic wines.

This is some stellar advice! I often get trapped by the "this would be brilliant to take to an offline in 10 years' time" trap.

Cheers

Michael

[Ian S]

My objective is to cellar wines I want to drink in the future, not cellar epic wines.

This is some stellar advice! I often get trapped by the "this would be brilliant to take to an offline in 10 years' time" trap.

Cheers

Michael

Yes, finding that balance can be tricky. I suspect the balance varies quite a bit between us.

I found the hardest part of this was when building the cellar up.

My clear focus early on was wanting to cellar wines that needed time in the cellar and rewarded that effort. In time I found this meant I was having to raid the cellar to drink too many whilst they were still young - the classic 'many bottles but none ready to drink'. Luckily I didn't ignore cheaper cellar-builders such as Tahbilk Marsanne, Houghton HWB and others, though for a brief time I got a bit too hung up on fancier wines (aka 'modest but passable' wines to Ozzie & Jamie ). Whilst this caused the problems of 'nothing ready / vinfanticide', playing the auction scene for a while really helped avoid going thirsty.

Later I rediscovered the joy of cheaper cellaring wines, not just because they offered 'value', but more importantly because they offered additional variety and often a lighter style is exactly what I want. This recognition was helped by a trend (that seems to be relenting a little) for prestige wines to be rather 'identikit' with rich fruit, strong oak influence, and without extended cellaring, a bit hard going/repetitive. A good example for me is Ch Lamartine Cahors, with me preferring the cheaper estate bottling, rather than the more prestige cuvee particuliere or cuvee expressione. 5-10 years in the cellar and the rusticity eases, revealing an interesting, somewhat complex wine, but crucially one that has great drinkability.

I still do have wines that I don't open "because I'd like to open it with ...... (person)". Plus some which I feel need more of an occasion than a weekday meal at home, but I am working on this. Wine is for drinking, not laying down and admiring.

regards
Ian

[phillisc]

Ian, great points
I now say to the better half (no one better than you) so that puts me in the frame to open the best stuff.
I am conscious that I need to get people around more to open a spread of bottles.
Cheers
Craig

[rooman]

Interesting topic, it does throw up the thorny old question of taste before you buy v buying off critics write ups. Sadly with growing kids I simply do not have the time to race around to the local wine shops trying wines before I buy. I reckon I might get to 2 or 3 instore tastings a year and probably one wine region a year - this year being something of a waste of time with Mudgee. Hence I am forced to rely on critics reviews and yes, my go to is The Wine Front app. Despite their somewhat inflated egos, Mike Bernie is really good on riesling so I will pretty much buy new wines based on his recommendations. As for the ever so humble Gary, he is good on cab sav with a particular passion for Bordeaux - sadly I can't play at present in the Barolo space as much as I would like too since my oldest boy moved into high school with accompanying fees.

[Ozzie W]

Interesting topic, it does throw up the thorny old question of taste before you buy v buying off critics write ups. Sadly with growing kids I simply do not have the time to race around to the local wine shops trying wines before I buy. I reckon I might get to 2 or 3 instore tastings a year and probably one wine region a year - this year being something of a waste of time with Mudgee. Hence I am forced to rely on critics reviews and yes, my go to is The Wine Front app. Despite their somewhat inflated egos, Mike Bernie is really good on riesling so I will pretty much buy new wines based on his recommendations. As for the ever so humble Gary, he is good on cab sav with a particular passion for Bordeaux - sadly I can't play at present in the Barolo space as much as I would like too since my oldest boy moved into high school with accompanying fees.

I've got exactly the same issue. There's quite a few weekly tastings at various stores in Melbourne that I'd love to go to, but I simply don't have the time to do so. I actually end up doing most of my tastings at offlines.