You can save money by drinking it quickly and not requiring any storage. 
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If anyone wants to store their Wine in my cellar in France i promise not to drink it 
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My personal storage capacity seems to have diminished over the years…
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Funny you should say that I have gone through so much in the last 12 months.
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Pete_the_painter: Quote
You can save money by drinking it quickly and not requiring any storage.
Yes … and you can also save a lot of money by just listening to an old Sony receiver and a pair of Radio Shack speakers instead of Naim gear. 
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Have you been talking to my wife?
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That’s hilarious!
Thanks for the belly laugh …
Dave
I’ve gone through a noticeable amount more alcohol over the last six months. From talking to my friends, they have as well. Doesn’t it ward off corona-virus though? 
Dave
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We’re basically all pissheads who enjoy hi-fi 
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In my stomach - temporarily at least 
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Hi David
My local wine supplier says he has never been busier. His sales are up 33% on same time last year, and more so on the expensive bottles. People are spending their ‘would be’ travel dollars on the nicer things of life.
Interesting your daughter was in the far north of NZ. She may have been in the Doubtless Bay region, a lovely part of the world.
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Hi Hugh,
Glad to here a local business is doing well. Quite a few are struggling, so that’s great.
My daughter was working at the Omata Estate vineyards. Its north of Aukland, near Whangarei.
I think the name of the town is Russell.
I used to make furrniture, and I gave my uncle an office suite at one point. Then a few months later he gave me a bottle of wine the company gave him for a great year. He was a stockbroker. It was a Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1983.
At the time, I wasn’t even collecting, and just stuck it under the basement stairs till I got a cabinet. Then 22 years later, which was last year, we opened it and had it with 2 of our daughters. So we got one glass each, and I never drink wine that is $250 a glass, but it was fabulous. Even though it was about 5 years past it’s prime, it was still the best wine I’ve ever had.
Normally if I had a bottle that was worth a grand or two, I’d sell it on, and buy some cases. Because it was free tho, I drank it.
Oh yeah, one thing I do to try some better wines is; if I find a good vintage of a good Amarone or CdP or the like, I buy two 375 ml bottles, and just have the half bottle with a a meal, and open something else if it’s not quite enough. It makes it affordable, and we get to try the wine at 2 different ages.
Cheers.
Dave
Gosh Dave I envy your Lafite experience. It certainly is quite at the opposite end of my affordability spectrum. I note that circa 1960 the Lafite was 6x more in price than a basic claret. It is now 33-60x more expensive in its recent releases. It must have been lovely to actually drink one. We have a bottle of DRC 1996 La Tache in our cellar bought when it “only” cost $600 , now it is worth $4000 and we cannot afford to drink it!
I am gradually building up a more affordable cellar as I am retiring in a few years. Currently I am buying affordable wines in 6s to enjoy in retirement but I am not as organised as you. Good idea about half bottles, affordable and also ready earlier to drink.
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It used to be that a top wine would be 20-30% over the price of the next level. It is now 3-10+ x depending on where you are, specially in Burgundy. For example, 2015 Meursault Perrieres from the good second leaguers is roughly 50-70 a bottle, 250-300 when you get to Comte Lafon (a first leaguer) and 800+ when Roulot is concerned. I don’t know what the price of Coche-Dury is but likely to be higher than Lafon.
Unfortunately, it’s all about supply/demand and these differences in price are not reflected in the differences in wine quality.
You can take similar arguments in Bordeaux, but generally the difference is not as extreme as in Burgundy, due to higher production levels - and a more transparent market.
I’ve converted a small basement room into a cellar using a Eurocave room unit. Before that, I used a couple of Eurocave ‘fridge’ units (and still do) but I’ve outgrown them 
Most of my wines are still kept at BBR.
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Wow, we have a very similar philosophy when it comes to wine collecting.
That’s what happened to us with the Lafite. It was worth about $200 when it was given to me, but 20 years on …
If it had been an 82 instead of an 83, it would have been a 4-5000 dollar bottle and I would not have drank it.
And we were talking last week about maintaining the collection in a simple way, and we decided to be even more choosy, and then get 6 bottles of a selection instead of just 1 or 2.
I’m 64, but have been retired for a while, and my wife will be retiring early next year. But we’re always just buying the next years collection of wines to be drank in 4 to 6 years.
I guess it will get to a point that aging wine won’t make much sense anymore. Like when you get to an age where you won’t even buy green bananas. I did buy a bottle of 2011 Porto for my kids to enjoy, because it won’t be ready to drink till I’ve been dead for 20 years. Hope they like it!
Another of the wines that I buy in 375s is Brunello di Montalcino. I have a few pairs that are about 5 years old now and should be ready soon.
Dave
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seperate point for a possible discustion, but with wines that you are going to age I would always look at 75cl or even 150cl rather than 37.5cl -
with the avialable tech in the wine world today, I can see half bottles with the exception of sparkling inc Champagne being a thing of the past
if you don’t wish to finish a nice bottle, I would highly reccomend Coravin (use Argon Gas) to serve from the bottle, and themn go back to the bottle when you wish too, the restaurant trade is moving over to Corvin to offer rice bottles by the glass, Verre du Vin is ideal for fast moving wines in restaurants the Corvin system offers something to the home drinker
it’s also saved the wine trade and hugh amount of sample costs, I know!!! just an idea
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I don’t understand the not drinking because its worth too much, argument. If you bought it at a good price then you have benefited, drink and enjoy it.
If you are an investor then don’t even think of drinking it. Lay it down in a vault somewhere, never look at it, and move it on at the peak of the market, as with any other investment.
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Is that you in the picture Mike?