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How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:50 pm
by WAwineguy
I'm curious as to the cellar habits of our various wine tragics.

  1. How many bottles do you have of each individual wine (each vintage of a wine is an individual wine)?
  2. How many vintages do you have for each wine?
  3. How many wines do you have for each producer?
(This is easy to find in Cellartracker using "summarize by" individual wine, wine name and producer), although there can be a few anomalies (eg, Wynns Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon categorises as 2 different wines depending on the vintage).

Here's my cellar:
3.55 bottles of each individual wine
1.68 vintages of each wine
1.92 wines per producer

And of course, this gives me 11.49 bottles per producer.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:29 pm
by Rocky
And if one doesn't use Cellar Tracker?
I like the concept but to be honest I am grappling to get my head around it. Perhaps that nice bottle of Cherubino riesling is clouding that mathematical side of my mind.

Regards

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:51 pm
by Ozzie W
1.83 bottles of each individual wine
1.31 vintages of each wine
4.12 wines per producer

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 7:09 pm
by Ozzie W
Rocky wrote:And if one doesn't use Cellar Tracker?
I like the concept but to be honest I am grappling to get my head around it. Perhaps that nice bottle of Cherubino riesling is clouding that mathematical side of my mind.

Regards

CellarTracker has a bulk import facility so you can import data from a spreadsheet.

I love logging into CT each day and reading the tasting notes others have written about wines I have in my cellar. This is my favourite feature of CT and what sets it apart from a glorified spreadsheet.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 7:09 pm
by WAwineguy
Rocky wrote:And if one doesn't use Cellar Tracker?
I like the concept but to be honest I am grappling to get my head around it. Perhaps that nice bottle of Cherubino riesling is clouding that mathematical side of my mind.

Regards

Then start counting! Perhaps another bottle of that riesling will help? :lol:

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:16 pm
by Rocky
WAwineguy wrote:
Rocky wrote:And if one doesn't use Cellar Tracker?
I like the concept but to be honest I am grappling to get my head around it. Perhaps that nice bottle of Cherubino riesling is clouding that mathematical side of my mind.

Regards

Then start counting! Perhaps another bottle of that riesling will help? :lol:


No , moved to MR cabernet and doest help.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:16 pm
by Rocky
Rocky wrote:
WAwineguy wrote:
Rocky wrote:And if one doesn't use Cellar Tracker?
I like the concept but to be honest I am grappling to get my head around it. Perhaps that nice bottle of Cherubino riesling is clouding that mathematical side of my mind.

Regards

Then start counting! Perhaps another bottle of that riesling will help? :lol:


No , moved to MR cabernet and doesn't help.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:59 pm
by Craig(NZ)
Lots of my favourite producers and many vintages
I've become narrower in my buying over the years as I have worked out what I like

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:50 pm
by Gary W
How deep is your love, how deep is your love
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
'Cause we're living in a world of fools…
Breaking us down when they all should let us be.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:55 pm
by TiggerK
Gary W wrote:How deep is your love, how deep is your love
How deep is your love?
I really mean to learn
'Cause we're living in a world of fools…
Breaking us down when they all should let us be.


Bloody Spammers, just pushing some web link in their sig. I'm not 100 points on that. :roll:

:D

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:22 pm
by felixp21
I always thought it was "I really need to know"
ruined my day!!!!

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:49 pm
by Bobthebuilder
When I red the thread title I thought oh goodie, a basement cellar discussion :lol:
So I went down about 1.5m from natural ground level, but a sloping block so it's around 2.4m down from the higher level and about 1m down from the lower level (it's located right at the transition)
It's about 3m wide by about 3m long
If I could keep the kids junk out of there it would be ample space for quite a few thousand bottles but unfortunately the household junk only leaves room for around 500

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:46 pm
by mjs
Bobthebuilder wrote:When I red the thread title I thought oh goodie, a basement cellar discussion :lol:
So I went down about 1.5m from natural ground level, but a sloping block so it's around 2.4m down from the higher level and about 1m down from the lower level (it's located right at the transition)
It's about 3m wide by about 3m long
If I could keep the kids junk out of there it would be ample space for quite a few thousand bottles but unfortunately the household junk only leaves room for around 500

^^ :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:04 pm
by Mahmoud Ali
Bobthebuilder wrote:When I red the thread title I thought oh goodie, a basement cellar discussion :lol:
So I went down about 1.5m from natural ground level, but a sloping block so it's around 2.4m down from the higher level and about 1m down from the lower level (it's located right at the transition)
It's about 3m wide by about 3m long
If I could keep the kids junk out of there it would be ample space for quite a few thousand bottles but unfortunately the household junk only leaves room for around 500

Very amusing, and apropos from someone called Bob the Builder!

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 12:43 pm
by rooman
I have been thinking alot about the width v depth discussion since it was first posted. It was a topic I discussed with Dave V at the recent offline and it came up again today in the context of liking or not Wendouree wines. The argument for a small number of each wine and lots of small holdings is life is too short not to try lots of different wines, different styles. Implicit however in this approach is that most wines will be consumed before they reach their ultimate development peak.

The alternative is one collects 6 or 12 of a wine but have less variety (assuming one is not James Packer and you can have both). My personal preference is I am after complexity that can really only come with age in the case of reds as the initial fruit drops away and the secondary developments comes into its own. Hence I am interested in anywhere from 4 to 12 bottles because I enjoy wines when they reach their peak drinking window. IMO you can achieve this if you have either (a) incredible self restraint or (b) 6 or more of a wine which allows you to drink some too early. I get there is a budget aspect to this discussion.

I started thinking about this recently when I purchased just one of each of Passopisciaro single vineyard wine due to their scarcity. So now how do I know when to open it? Do I want 5 years, 10 years. etc. I appreciate there is an element of OCD to this discussion. In my case to deal with re the Passopisciaro wines, I have worked out where I can buy more of each in the US at Xmas whilst we are up there on holiday. The aim will be to buy at least 2-3 more of each and bring them back.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:36 pm
by TiggerK
I agree it's frustrating only having one of a particular wine and not knowing when is the best time to open it. First world problems eh. I too love that aged character and finding the drinking window via Cellartracker can be helpful, but one persons 'past it' is anothers 'still too young'.

Price is usually the main factor, we can't all afford cases of Burgundy or Bordeaux. Most wines I only have one of are amongst the most expensive bottles I have. Or they are wines that I'm curious about (maybe a new region/style/producer etc), bought one on impulse but want to give it a year or three to settle/improve or just waiting for the right crew to drink it with.

Availability - Is this your only chance to buy this wine before it sells out? If so, depending on price, I'll usually try for 3 bottles, one for soon, one for much later, and the last depends on how the second one was travelling. If not, I'll often buy one to try young and see if I feel it's exciting enough to buy more.

Cellar space is another big factor for me, as is Dave's point that there is so much good wine out there, that buying 6 or more of all the stuff I want to try is impossible.

Only got a few, but I'm going to drink my Passopisciaro single vineyards around 7-10 years old I reckon.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:16 pm
by Ozzie W
I see no reason why you can't have a wide cellar and also drink the wines with an appropriate amount of age for your palate. Drinking windows on CellarTracker, The Wine Front and other sites are useful, but probably not sufficient on their own. Combined them with tasting notes which are frequently posted and you can get a good idea of when to open those bottles. Of course, storage conditions, bottle variation and personal preferences will play a part too. I have more confidence when the sample size is larger and from posters who's TN's seem to align with my palate. This would be nigh impossible pre-Internet!

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:22 pm
by JamieBahrain
Diversifying in my circumstances is difficult . I've seen a six pack of Italian wine I've sourced from U.K bond, for the price of bottle and a bit in NZ !

I've had little success on the secondary market . Though Wickmans is super where provenance is checked .

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:26 pm
by bdellabosca
Seeing as this thread has reactivated, my response to the OP:
3.35 bottles of each individual wine
x 1.35 vintages of each wine
x 1.34 wines per producer
= 6.06 bottles per producer

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:35 pm
by rooman
TiggerK wrote:I agree it's frustrating only having one of a particular wine and not knowing when is the best time to open it. First world problems eh. I too love that aged character and finding the drinking window via Cellartracker can be helpful, but one persons 'past it' is anothers 'still too young'.

Price is usually the main factor, we can't all afford cases of Burgundy or Bordeaux. Most wines I only have one of are amongst the most expensive bottles I have. Or they are wines that I'm curious about (maybe a new region/style/producer etc), bought one on impulse but want to give it a year or three to settle/improve or just waiting for the right crew to drink it with.

Availability - Is this your only chance to buy this wine before it sells out? If so, depending on price, I'll usually try for 3 bottles, one for soon, one for much later, and the last depends on how the second one was travelling. If not, I'll often buy one to try young and see if I feel it's exciting enough to buy more.

Cellar space is another big factor for me, as is Dave's point that there is so much good wine out there, that buying 6 or more of all the stuff I want to try is impossible.

Only got a few, but I'm going to drink my Passopisciaro single vineyards around 7-10 years old I reckon.
This discussion is interesting from the perspective of making me focus on my buying habits. I realise that years when work has been successful I will buy cases of decent wines. Thankfully life was extra good when my son was born in 2005. In other less successful years, since my preference is to buy 6 packs etc, I tend to spend less per bottle purchased than people who buy just one bottle. Watching what other people buy I see a lot more higher priced purchases but lower volume. At the end of the month the total expenditure might be the same but the pattern is different. Having identified the trend perhaps it is time to rethink buying a smaller number but better bottles.

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 4:47 pm
by Craig(NZ)
I gave up keeping records ages ago though I think 50% of my cellar would be three producers lol

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 6:01 pm
by TiggerK
Craig(NZ) wrote:I gave up keeping records ages ago though I think 50% of my cellar would be three producers lol
Te Mata, Puriri Hills and Kumeu River?

Re: How Deep and Wide is your Cellar/Collection?

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 7:45 pm
by Craig(NZ)
TiggerK wrote:
Craig(NZ) wrote:I gave up keeping records ages ago though I think 50% of my cellar would be three producers lol
Te Mata, Puriri Hills and Kumeu River?
lol good guess

Te Mata, Puriri Hills, Stonyridge

Kumeu River, Neudorf wouldn't be too far behind either. Then it's probably bordeaux.. PC, LB, Montrose and then Penfolds and Wynns