I'm leafing through the latest Wine Spectator (Ultimate Buying Guide) with some amusement. The average price of a 90+ point California Cabernet reviewed here is $90. Looking at the ratings and prices of some of the 2002 & 2003 versions of cabs I used to buy, I have to wonder what I was thinking. In 2005 I stayed strictly within the 89-93 point, $15-$35 price point. In 2006 I have vowed not to buy a single wine (for my cellar). I had a momentary lapse ('03 Bordeaux) on Jan 13th, but I have not purchased a bottle of wine the past thirty days and, honestly, I feel like a different person.

I must admit that focusing on 2005 Bordeaux has helped me tighten down the spicket in 2006. Don't worry, I'll be back with a vengeance in 2007, God willing. By cutting back, you feel good about yourself, but by cutting off, you feel like a different person. At first it's disorienting, then very empowering. An adjunct to my resolution is to reduce debt, and it's working quite nicely. Anybody else (not extremely well off) out there struggling with your own compulsion? Anybody got a streak going?

Dude, I hear you. I am currently on the wine-buying wagon. Unfortunately, it's only been two weeks so far, but that's progress. I'm not buying any more wine until I have AMPLE free space in the cellar.

We are creatures of habit and as I have also found out in the past two years, enthusiastic habit = compulsion. At least it's not crack.

Last week my wife "implied" that I need to cut back on wine purchases since we still have a room in the new house with no furniture. Yesterday I dropped $4,000 on that damn furniture. Thankfully we are getting a nice check back from the govt. this year which will cover it. Did I hear someone say that 2005 was a good year in Bordeaux?

Furniture is the biggest "hit" when you buy a house, and it never ends......

It's been 24 hours for me. Big deal you say? I even went into a store this afternoon but didn't buy anything, despite a couple of Rhone bottles calling my name. Turned my back and walked out empty handed.

Taking it one day at a time.

quote:

Originally posted by tannic bastard:
We are creatures of habit and as I have also found out in the past two years, enthusiastic habit = compulsion. At least it's not crack.

Crack would be cheaper

Great post...It is fun to see how long you can go without buying wine. SO far for me its been 2 days. I will say it does feel weird when I walk in a wine store and just look around and leave without buying anything. But I do agree with the rest of you. If you go without buying you sure can save a lot of money. The prices have gotten so out of hand lately these wineries must think we all make a ton of cash. Here are two examples 96 Staglin was 38.99 the 02 is 125...97 Cakebread Cab 35.99 the 02 69.99...Lets get real.

Ok, I think we have to admit that (addicted as we are) we still fulfill a public service. We keep wine merchants in business, and help the economy, taxes, etc, etc, etc.
Sad case in point: There is a little wine shop near me, conveniently located (too conveniently) on the way to the library and my MIL's house. The owners, Don and his wife, run it out of a labor of love. Don told me his wine cellar got "too big", so he had to move it into a commercial space and start selling it. He had some great stuff, most a little over my budget, but I bought a number of bottles over the last year or so since he opened. Heck of a nice guy, though it seemed like he was never very busy; I was frequently the only one in the store. He was always asking me if I had any ideas on what he should be carrying, or how he could increase his business. I felt guilty because I'd sometimes steer clear of his place, just because it was too easy to stop by and drop a wad of cash.
I went to the library yesterday. It had been a couple of months since I last dropped by the store. As I drove by, I peered across the highway toward his shop and saw it looked empty.
I stopped my car in front, got out, and cupped my hands around my eyes as I looked into the bare storefront. Gone. There was a note taped to the inside of the glass that read,
"Closed. Thanks for the good times! Don and Linda"
I didn't know. I had signed up for his e-mail list, but never got a single mailing. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that my semi-avoidence helped sink his business. I know intellectually that I, alone, am not responsible, but I still feel terrible that a nice guy, a fellow enophile, lost something he loved.
So like it or not, people need us! We wine drinkers fulfill a usefull purpose in society. And we should never feel ashamed of that.

(Now I don't want to read any crack allegories. Crack and other illegal substances don't fill the tax coffers, or build up the economy.)

RedMeat -

i'm with you on this one... i am still buying for the cellar but in rare, and i mean rare, circumstances. i've kinda set an artifical ceiling for myself @ $50- and i've only gone over it a couple times so far in the last 2-3 months since i've been tryng (90' Veuve La Grande Dame - i think it was justified , a 97' Kenwood Artist Series, 97' Arrowood Reserve & i think that's it - notice not "new" releases though which i'm proud of)... like you, i feel its changed my perspective on this passion.

i dont think i'll ever stop buying wine altogether for a period of time, as i've limited myself to 200 bottles for the cellar - if i want bottle 201 something has to go... nor do i think i'll ever stop buying the occasional $100+ wine... however, i think the days of me actively searching for grand wines that come attached w/ grand prices on a regular basis is over. i used to be on a few wine lists and now i am on none. sure i am limiting my experiences and horizons, if you will, with this stance but... i've noticed i enjoy wine more now. call it the "grass is greener" effect - i've realized how to be happy with what i have & not dwell on what i don't, with regards to wine at least

nice post, and something i've been thinking about discussing for some time now!

I battle with this all the time. For 2006 (and after the purchase of an expensive custom cellar for our house), we've agreed to a monthly budget of $350 for wine purchases, which would represent a large reduction in my buying. Though frankly I cheat sometimes by buying with cash, at the grocery store, etc. Fortunately, my wife is only very mildly nagging me about wine expenditures and it hasn't risen to the level of a big financial or marital problem, at least not yet.

The mindset I struggle with is this: at any given moment, there are great wines for sale which I've either recently tried or recently read about or seen in my local shops, and I always have the sensation that I need to get them while they're available because otherwise I'll miss my chance. Internet buying and winebid.com multiply this phenomenon even more since they make almost anything you can think of available.

So I try to load up, but of course, each passing month there are just as many new wines I've tried or read about that give me the same feeling. At some level, I need to persuade myself that there will always be good and interesting wines hitting the shelves, and it's only a small subset of the times that I really need to "act now or miss out." Such as when I got my first Williams-Selyem allocation this month.

I certainly struggle with it, though, and good for those of you who keep it under control.

For me, the hardest thing to resist is keeping a vertical going. I have all the Two Hands "garden" shiraz from 2001 & 2002. I only bought the 2003 Bella's, but I have had to bite down hard to resist the 2004 Bella's & Lilly's. I love these wines and the 2004s are rated 95+ by both WS and Parker (at under $50). If I cross this last hurdle, I'm home free.

I just finished building my small wine cellar. It has a 800 bottle capacity. Based on the posts in here, I'm goin' to go broke before I ever crack open a bottle. Am I on the right path of wine addiction?....I try a wine I've read about....if I enjoy it, I buy a case. If not, I keep buying and tasting wine until I find one that is "case worthy".

To quote Frank Lopez in Scarface (circa 1983), after having ordered an expensive bottle of champagne "$400....for a bunch of f@#king grapes !!!"

Part of it (my new abstinance) is that I've got a thousand bottle collection. Also, the first TH Bella's I bought ('01) was $29. The '04 is $49.

I haven't purchased any wine for my cellar since right before Thanksgiving. However, I have bought every day drinkers as needed.

My plan was to not purchase much in the way of wines for my cellar this year, and so far so good. Basically I plan to limit myself to very good deals and not worry about the latest hot wine or high score garnered by a wine. Enough good wine out there not to go chasing, and I have plenty of wine in my cellar that is within its drinking window that I can consume over the next several years.