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With my cellar on the verge of becoming full (~1500 bottle capacity), I need to change my buying habits. With that in mind, here are my resolutions for 2019.

• Buy primarily from specific producers that I've come to love, instead of more broadly.
• Buy more back vintages rather than new releases. I'll be too old if I wait for many new releases to mature.
• Stop buying Aussie wines to cellar. I've got plenty already.
• Send some Aussie Shiraz off to auction. I'm never going to drink it all.
• Buy a few 2012 vintage Champagnes to cellar.

Merry Christmas to all the Auswine forumites!

Thanks Ozzie for starting this thread. Your resolutions strike me as being inappropriately reasonable and achievable!

I have five key focus areas and priorities for 2019......

1. Buy less wine
2. Buy less wine
3. Buy less wine
4. Buy less wine
5. Buy less wine

My purchases are now between 1/2 and 1/3rd of what they were 3+ years ago but is still too high. I consume/deplete about 200 bottles a year and this year bought just over 130 bottles. So the organic rate of decline in the cellar is very modest. It is only thru sending wines to auction that I have managed to achieve any significant reduction in the total bottle count. Even so I will be leaving a lot of wine to my children at this rate.

Brodie

Ozzie W wrote: Buy a few 2012 vintage Champagnes to cellar.

Ozzie have you already bought enough 2008's? There are still some heavy hitters to come (Dom, Krug, WC etc). And is 2012 the next great vintage? I'm a bit behind on this.

Hacker wrote:

Ozzie W wrote: Buy a few 2012 vintage Champagnes to cellar.

Ozzie have you already bought enough 2008's? There are still some heavy hitters to come (Dom, Krug, WC etc). And is 2012 the next great vintage? I'm a bit behind on this.

Can one ever have enough Champagne!? I've got some 2008's in the cellar and might buy a few more. But it's the 2012's I'm really excited about. Looks like a stellar vintage by all accounts. I tried the 2012 Marc Hebrart Special Club 1er last month and it was wonderful. If that's indicative of the vintage then the hype is justified.

After a year of dipping into the big hitters from a string of top NZ vintages (2013-2015), things are to change next year.

1. Exit from the <>$60-150 a bottle bracket completely. I have too many top end wines. This will mean not buying quite a few labels that I have supported every year for 20 years
2. Explore more from the value for money bracket $25-40 and increase the proportion of these wines put aside for mid-long term
3. Less Syrah, more Pinot Noir. I have given up cellaring shiraz and syrah
4. Keep buying bordeaux blends and chardonnay
5. A few 2008 Champagnes (this could be the only exception to point 1 above)

Ozzie W wrote:

Hacker wrote:

Ozzie W wrote: Buy a few 2012 vintage Champagnes to cellar.

Ozzie have you already bought enough 2008's? There are still some heavy hitters to come (Dom, Krug, WC etc). And is 2012 the next great vintage? I'm a bit behind on this.

Can one ever have enough Champagne!? I've got some 2008's in the cellar and might buy a few more. But it's the 2012's I'm really excited about. Looks like a stellar vintage by all accounts. I tried the 2012 Marc Hebrart Special Club 1er last month and it was wonderful. If that's indicative of the vintage then the hype is justified.

Don’t forget 200 8 Comtes. The WC has come and gone in many markets..

2012 for Pinot dominant champers, and 2013 for Chardonnay based are the ones to look out for. Then 2018... the winemakers were raving when I was there in November. And apparently production will be massive...

I think my cellar is in a position close to where I’d like it to be, so just a few points.

1. Balance buying with drinking.
2. Sort out my cellar, I know what I’ve got but not sure where it is.
3. No new release, just back fill.
4. Focus on red Burgundy, Barolo, Barbaresco and old Aussie Fortified.
5. Drink or put a big dint in my wines from Spain, Germany and white Burgundy.

Cheers Con.

A slightly simplified approach this year, after a couple of years of quite some detail, but that really did help me focus.

So this year will be focused not on individual wines, but by purchases (typically for me by the mixed case). So in the crosshairs are:

- A case leading on the Elston, but also backed up by some Soalheiro vino verde
- A repeat purchase from the local merchant with the good value nebbiolo - more house nebbiolo!
- Another dip into Portugal, leading on more Soalheiro, Sidonio di Sousa and no doubt a couple of curios
- Another case focused around the fringes of Italy
- Although I've just been there, I'm sure another visit or two to an eclectic local merchant, with some more Ch Wagenbourg (Alsace) and Ch Lamartine and maybe some more of a decent Lalande de Pomerol and St Nicholas de Bourgueil
- Although I've spurned them in recent years, maybe a little play in the new year sales
- Odd bottles here and there focused on old favourites, weird new stuff, and plugging any obvious gaps

As a new wine collector mine are as follows:

1. Buy more multiples rather than singles and trophies.
2. Extend and/or complete some of the small verticals that I have started rather than starting new verticals.
3. Buy less shiraz and more cab sav, pinot noir and other reds to cellar.
4. Buy more whites to cellar.
5. Buy some back-vintages so that I can learn what aged wines I like earlier on in my journey.
6. Review what I have and drink some now to free up cellar space (10 case locker) and enjoy my small collection rather than hoarding it. I started collecting thinking that everything needs 10 years on it to be enjoyed. However I think I'll enjoy a few wines that are 5-8 years old now.

I have a few, probably not dissimilar to last year

1. More Grower Champagne & Good Sparkling (Whites & Reds)
2. More Barolo, Langhe, Nebs & NZ wines (Felton Rd Block 5... im looking at you!)
3. Less Australian Reds (especially shiraz, but wifey loves Cab's so im in a bit of a pickle here)
4. If im buying reds, 2012 & 2014 Vintage as birth year wines.
5. Whites from burgundy (im going to go broke if I go down this path hence its #5/last)


Any new vintage reds I buy (apart from birth years) are to drink now. Im not really interested in storing more, not juts because of the
sheer lack to space i have, but im impatient and dont really want to wait for them to mature. I have enough
young wines in the cellar.

brodie wrote:I have five key focus areas and priorities for 2019......

1. Buy less wine
2. Buy less wine
3. Buy less wine
4. Buy less wine
5. Buy less wine

You can say that again!

1. No shiraz buying
2. A few more whites in 2019

Pricing is helping me not buying wine like Burgundy, as it has risen 30-50% since the 2009-10. I also agree with not buying Shiraz, as I am full to overflowing with the stuff. Having said that, there is the mandatory Rockford, Wendouree and Marius. Damn, breaking my resolutions before the new year starts.

Buy less. Simple. A couple of years of excessive wine spending and it’s time to re-enter a drink > buy phase.

Go beserk on 2008 tete de cuvée champers

tuxy85 wrote:As a new wine collector mine are as follows:

1. Buy more multiples rather than singles and trophies.
2. Extend and/or complete some of the small verticals that I have started rather than starting new verticals.
3. Buy less shiraz and more cab sav, pinot noir and other reds to cellar.
4. Buy more whites to cellar.
5. Buy some back-vintages so that I can learn what aged wines I like earlier on in my journey.
6. Review what I have and drink some now to free up cellar space (10 case locker) and enjoy my small collection rather than hoarding it. I started collecting thinking that everything needs 10 years on it to be enjoyed. However I think I'll enjoy a few wines that are 5-8 years old now.

Seems a very sensible plan to me

On the subject of verticals, it's very easy to get hooked on the collecting aspect, envisaging an event in the future where the vertical is rolled out to an appreciative audience. In practice this almost never happens. You might end up drinking a matched pair in an evening with friends, or take 1-2 along to a tasting event that focuses on that wine. That's about it.

Collecting verticals isn't wrong, and there is enjoyment in seeing (over time) the subtle differences vintage to vintage, either seasonal or as the winemaking approach is tweaked over time. However the strong messages I'd give are to ensure this is a wine that you simply really like, and to not get precious about preserving the vertical for one big event that may never happen, but to treat it as a large vertical that you experience over time.

On 5, there are enough folks here that talk of their tastes changing, and their cellar having older wines they aren't getting through, so I wonder if there is the potential for some private sales, even if it's just the odd bottle or two that get brought along to an offline for exchange?

One more to add - consider a set of Zaltos in the new year

More Gamay and lots more Oz Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. I’m not up for the Burgundy Pinot and Chardonnay lottery.

Once again, buy less wine. Unless it's pinot and on clearance!

For me, my plans say (not so much "resolutions") would be..

> Buy even less Aussie wine for my cellar back in Oz... I have already curtailed it a lot, but this year I think it will just be Rockies BP, Wendouree, Grosset riesling/Gaia (only in 3 each), and Marius. I might even drop the Wendouree.

> Buy some Bordeaux en primeur, it seems 2018 came out reasonable.

> Add more Italian and Spanish wine to the cellar.

> Continue drinking predominantly French wine while in Paris, and try and perhaps drill down a bit more on the less high profile regions.

> Continue to largely ignore Bourgogne!

If I was to add some more hopeful ones which probably won't happen....

> Add some German riesling somewhere to my drinking/cellaring... I just don't seem to see it around.
> Add some champagne to the cellar.

And one more not specifically about drinking or cellaring per se...
> Actually organise to get my car here and visit at least a couple of the French regions.

sjw_11 wrote:For me, my plans say (not so much "resolutions") would be..

> Buy even less Aussie wine for my cellar back in Oz... I have already curtailed it a lot, but this year I think it will just be Rockies BP, Wendouree, Grosset riesling/Gaia (only in 3 each), and Marius. I might even drop the Wendouree.

> Buy some Bordeaux en primeur, it seems 2018 came out reasonable.

> Add more Italian and Spanish wine to the cellar.

> Continue drinking predominantly French wine while in Paris, and try and perhaps drill down a bit more on the less high profile regions.

> Continue to largely ignore Bourgogne!

If I was to add some more hopeful ones which probably won't happen....

> Add some German riesling somewhere to my drinking/cellaring... I just don't seem to see it around.
> Add some champagne to the cellar.

And one more not specifically about drinking or cellaring per se...
> Actually organise to get my car here and visit at least a couple of the French regions.

Definitely get the car..When I lived in Notting Hill it was exactly 6 hours to Reims... definitely worth the drive..and you can have a 45 min snooze on the Chunnel

Mike Hawkins wrote:

sjw_11 wrote:
And one more not specifically about drinking or cellaring per se...
> Actually organise to get my car here and visit at least a couple of the French regions.

Definitely get the car..When I lived in Notting Hill it was exactly 6 hours to Reims... definitely worth the drive..and you can have a 45 min snooze on the Chunnel

I am actually living in the 16eme now so I make it about 2 and a half hours to Reims. My main problem is haggling for somewhere to park the car!

why not hire one?

sjw_11 wrote:

Mike Hawkins wrote:

sjw_11 wrote:
And one more not specifically about drinking or cellaring per se...
> Actually organise to get my car here and visit at least a couple of the French regions.

Definitely get the car..When I lived in Notting Hill it was exactly 6 hours to Reims... definitely worth the drive..and you can have a 45 min snooze on the Chunnel

I am actually living in the 16eme now so I make it about 2 and a half hours to Reims. My main problem is haggling for somewhere to park the car!

If you can’t get your car, Take the 50 minute train to Reims... there’s an Avis and Hertz at the station

I'm running out of space, so I've been trying to buy less over the last couple of years with some success. Trying to up my consumption as well, with some small success there too. So the main theme for me is to buy less and hopefully better. My wine budget will take a huge hit in a couple of years, so I want to focus on wine that will age well. I won't change what I am buying so much: German riesling, Oregon pinot, Loire whites and reds and champagne are what I enjoy drinking the most, always with room for other regions that completely haven't been priced out of my reach (a growing list).

sjw_11 wrote:
> Buy even less Aussie wine for my cellar back in Oz... I have already curtailed it a lot, but this year I think it will just be Rockies BP, Wendouree, Grosset riesling/Gaia (only in 3 each), and Marius. I might even drop the Wendouree.

I was in Adelaide for a few days and drank older Grossets white and red / Wendouree/ Rockfords back to 94. Be hard to cull any on this performance.

Having just visited my Aussie cellar my resolution will be to drink a lot of older Aussie gear and make room for continued buying of premium foreign gear.

Nice way to start I opened a 99 Plantagenet Mt Barker Cabernet which is holding but in its prime.

Ian S wrote:why not hire one?

I am entitled to a car as part of my package, I just haven't bothered to arrange it yet as it isn't exactly an essential in central Paris! I did try and swap it out but it was a challenge and I thought without the need to cross the channel & the need to take the bulk of August off when Paris becomes a ghost town I might get some use out of it to get out into the country side (I do enjoy a road trip).

With the year just passing the 3/4 mark, I thought I'd check in and see how I'm doing.

Ozzie W wrote:Buy primarily from specific producers that I've come to love, instead of more broadly.

While I have favourite producers that I buy from regularly, I'm still not buying "primarily" from them. I love variety, exploring and trying new producers. This resolution is going to be much harder to keep than I thought.

Ozzie W wrote:Buy more back vintages rather than new releases. I'll be too old if I wait for many new releases to mature.

I bought no new release Cabernet, only buying some older bottles from auction. About half my Italian Nebbiolo purchases were pre-2014 from auction. All up around a quarter of my purchases in 2019 were from auction. On the right track here. But.... next year the 2016 Barolo's will be released which will put a dent in this resolution and also fill up my cellar to the brim (I've left some room for them).

Ozzie W wrote:Stop buying Aussie wines to cellar. I've got plenty already.

I bought some new release Hoddles Creek, Gembrook Hill and By Farr Pinot to cellar. About a dozen bottles all up. Happy with that.

Ozzie W wrote:Send some Aussie Shiraz off to auction. I'm never going to drink it all.

One of my friends expressed an interest in my Aussie Shiraz. I gave him a few bottles to try and he loved them and has taken about 40 bottles of my SA Shiraz over the past 6 months. This has saved me the hassle of sending to auction. He'll take more of my Shiraz in the future too. Win win!

Ozzie W wrote:Buy a few 2012 vintage Champagnes to cellar.

I've bought 9 bottles of 2012 Champagne. Will undoubtedly buy a few more as they are released.

Well done Ozzie. Thats a pretty good attempt to stick to your goals.

My goal was not to collect anything and just to buy interesting wine to drink now. The only Eurocave I have is full and the spillage around it is at 2.5 cases, with another 3.5 to come and at least another case about to be ordered. Think I have failed.