The Official Wine Thread

[poorsod]

If you like the nuttiness/brioche of a Champs with lots of time on the lees try Pierre Peters. Should be able to get for around $50.

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll have to remember to pick it up the next time Astor has it on sale. These days I’ve been leaning to the side of “quantity is a quality all it’s own”.

 

[esoxm]

Has anybody had "The Prisoner" wine. It seems to be in a lot of shops these days. I remember having one maybe a year ago I liked and I revisited it recently and hated it for the same reasons I hate the Pablo. 15.5% alcohol candy cane.

The prisoner is a crowd pleaser but I can’t stand it - big juicy over oaked vanilla bomb. For 40-50 there are exponentially better options for a big red

 

[Principle]

Saw this for $24 yesterday, first Merkelbach wine and it’s delicious.

Thanks for the feedback on the champs!

 

[reidd]

Merkelbach is great stuff! Will age like a champ as well but why wait?

 

[Principle]

The nose completely closed around the hour mark, even though it was very perfume-y when just opened. Would definitely have this again though.

 

[Omega Male]

Not sure about dessert wine. Haven't started dinner yet!

 

[Piobaire]

View attachment 1154407

Not sure about dessert wine. Haven't started dinner yet!

Love that stuff. It is just killer but a very New World vibe for a CdP.

 

[Omega Male]

Love that stuff. It is just killer but a very New World vibe for a CdP.

The 2005 is so good right now. Wish I had more.

 

[Piobaire]

The 2005 is so good right now. Wish I had more.

Our friends that own a winery...that brought over some of their best stuff last fall for my cassoulet...love the stuff and have cases of it. Same folks that hosted us and broke out all the killer Eye-tie and First Growth stuff in January.

 

[Omega Male]

Go visit more often!

 

[Omega Male]

Bought two cases of Kutch rosé. Hope it’s good — Summer is coming!

 

[Principle]

Curious to see, where do your collections stand in terms of bottle count? Do you use at-home or off site storage?

I’m currently using a Eurocave I purchased used from EMP, approximately 200 bottle capacity and it’s about half full, give or take some half bottles of sherry and mags of Rioja. Hoping to never reach a point where I store my wine off site, as the immediate accessibility is incredibly appealing.

 

[reidd]

Immediate accessibility is a must for me as well.

My cellar consists of some racks in my concrete slab/dirt floor basement. Temp is probably a little too volatile for absolutely ideal storage but I haven't had any problems yet. Probably gets down to about 50 in the winter and up to low 60's in the summer.

Currently have about 150 bottles. I'd say that in recent years I've started to narrow down on what I want to collect so I see this as pretty much a base number. From here, I will add to what I have when new vintages are released; usually 3 or 4 bottles of each wine per year, drinking one or two of each wine per year.

 

[Omega Male]

I'm the opposite. Deliberately went to off-site storage to have less accessibility as I was drinking stuff too young, because self control is not my strong suit. Will say that once freed from space constraints my wine buying accelerated rather quickly -- which you may take as a bug or a feature. Have a small dual zone serving unit in the kitchen at home that's usually stocked with a dozen reds and a dozen whites.

Try to keep it all faithfully logged in CellarTracker but, physically, managing inventory is still a pain. Stacks and stacks of cases broadly organized by drinking window (ie. 2020 ->, 2021 ->, 2022 -> etc.) but if I want a particular bottle from one of them, which box is it in? And if it's in the bottom one, is it worth crate digging for? First world problems.

Anyway, I'm in the 800s right now after Spring allocations. Figure that to be about a two year supply, as I subscribe to the dictum in Pio's signature. Don't collect trophies, everything is meant to be consumed eventually.

 

[Piobaire]

CellarTracker, usually have between 800-900 in inventory, two Vinotemp units. One sits in my music studio, one is a nice looking console that is in our formal dining room. In CT I organize like a spreadsheet using the "Bin." M-1A would tell me music room, bin in the very upper left hand corner. Etc.