To collect, or not to collect....

[winecollector]

This fall I've found myself doing something I've rarely done before... and that is using my wine budget to buy more of less expensive and ready to drink upon release wines than the collectable or ageworthy wines. I've spent the past year opening a lot of my older vintage wines, and though the vast majority of them have held up well and have made for some heavenly experiences, I'm at a point where I'd much rather take $150 to buy an entire case of a wine than spend it on... say... for example, 1 bottle of 1999 Opus One. The cost of some of these more expensive wines has caused me to re-evaluate just how much of them I buy, and if I even decide to buy them at all. I'm finding too many wines in the $12 to $25 price range that are enjoyable, much more economical, and ready to drink now.

Another thing that's changed my attitude toward collectable wines over the past year or so, is I'm no longer buying wines with the attitude of possibly re-selling them in the future for profit. I'm buying them with the intention of drinking them. I've been watching auction prices on wines, and I'm finding at present many collectable wines sell for less than their original release price. One wine I will still buy when the price is right is Mouton Rothschild, and I recently purchased several bottles at 70% of what its original release price was here in PA. If the bidding would have been at release price or higher, I may have only bought a fraction of what I did, if any at all.

So, as I come across these more expensive "cellar wines" this fall, I've been asking myself... what would I rather have... half a case to a case of something I can drink now... or 1 bottle of something I will enjoy maybe 5 to 10 years from now? More and more, I'm opting to take a case of the cheaper stuff. My wine budget goes much further that way, and so far, my taste buds aren't complaining!