CWD: Cellar "Terroir"

V

VLM

VLM
I've been thinking about and trying to reduce my wine footprint for a few years now. The first step is just letting go of some wines (of course, there are some I *have* to have because I'm human and imperfect). It has an environmental source, I'm trying to do my part but there is also another aspect that I think of as cellar terroir. I remember going to dinner 20+ years ago at the home of a local ITBer who had been in the business for a couple decades. He wasn't a wine geek but he liked wine and kept a cellar > 1000 bottles < 2000 bottles, I'd guess. He mostly just bought from whatever distributor he worked for at the time. He changed companies several times and the portfolios of the company he worked for would change. I found it fascinating because there were wines I wished I had and other wines I would never consider buying. I drank wine with him a few times after that and it was always really fun and interesting. His cellar was a map of his career and what jumped out at him at the time. Not all wines are available in all markets and some markets just favor some wines over others and all of that on top of personal taste. As the years have gone by, I can get most of the wines I want to buy here in NC. I can't buy some because I don't get an allocation or they just aren't available.

I've divided the country broadly into NC, East Coast (EC), West Coast (WC), and Middle (MC). Anyway, here is what my Cellar "terroir" looks like for 2021.

Bottles:
NC: 77.4%
EC: 18.0%
WC: 4.5%
MC: 0%

Spend:
NC: 66.3%
EC: 28.1%
WC: 5.7%
MC: 0%

I made sizeable purchases (for me) of Magdelaine and Dom. Collier wines, neither of which I can get locally. Both of those will taper significantly this year. I'd hope to get my NC to 90%+, and I think it will unless my recent foray back into Bordeaux yields some fruit. This isn't a big or competitive Bordeaux market.

Curious what folks think about this idea and what your "terroir" looks like compared to where you'd like it to be..
 
Not sure there's a big environmental difference between buying a European wine from a retailer in a coastal port city then shipping it by UPS/Fed Ex, as opposed to buying the same European wine from a NC retailer who had it delivered to their store from the coastal port city? Is the truck size really that big of a deal.

Wouldn't the real environmental savings come from loading up on NC wines!
 
I have not done such a precise analysis, but being on the East coast, I have made a concerted effort to buy less than I used to from the West coast. One of the reasons for that is environmental. It's not clear to me whether buying from NYC or elsewhere on the East coast and shipping down to DC is all that different from buying locally in DC (to Rahsaan's point). But I imagine that most wine I would source from the West coast either would come in originally on the East coast and make its way West before being sent back East to me (an unnecessary cross-country trip), or at least would have a much longer container journey getting to the West coast from Europe (which is where 95%+ of the wine I buy is produced) before being sent East to me.
 
I don't think I have the data to do this kind of analysis. But I'm basically with Michael: as a rule, I buy from West Coast what is made on West Coast; most of the rest I buy in town (...a few come from Europe directly).
 
Right, as I said, I haven't done an analysis of the carbon footprint to see what's equal to what, but it is something I think about.

The more interesting thing to me is that people from different places with similar tastes can end up with different cellars due to what is more available in their local market. This is something I find kind of interesting, but maybe I'm the only one.
 
originally posted by Michael Lewis:
I have not done such a precise analysis, but being on the East coast, I have made a concerted effort to buy less than I used to from the West coast. One of the reasons for that is environmental. It's not clear to me whether buying from NYC or elsewhere on the East coast and shipping down to DC is all that different from buying locally in DC (to Rahsaan's point). But I imagine that most wine I would source from the West coast either would come in originally on the East coast and make its way West before being sent back East to me (an unnecessary cross-country trip), or at least would have a much longer container journey getting to the West coast from Europe (which is where 95%+ of the wine I buy is produced) before being sent East to me.
Click to expand...

And all the grey market wine from SoCal is cooked...
 
originally posted by VLM:
Right, as I said, I haven't done an analysis of the carbon footprint to see what's equal to what, but it is something I think about.

The more interesting thing to me is that people from different places with similar tastes can end up with different cellars due to what is more available in their local market. This is something I find kind of interesting, but maybe I'm the only one.
Click to expand...

As a Californian, I'm not willing to go hard core, like BJ is hinting, and stop buying Old World wine. But my personal barrier to entry for chasing a bottle has definitely gone up over the years. There are a few places where I buy 95% or more of my wine. If I'm interested in a bottle and it's not at one of those, the circumstances where I'll "special order" elsewhere are pretty rare. There aren't any "must have" wines. And there's a hell of a lot more interesting, worthwhile wine than I'll ever get to drink.
 
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:

There are a few places where I buy 95% or more of my wine. If I'm interested in a bottle and it's not at one of those, the circumstances where I'll "special order" elsewhere are pretty rare. There aren't any "must have" wines. And there's a hell of a lot more interesting, worthwhile wine than I'll ever get to drink.
Click to expand...

Exactly. This has always been my approach. And I've never been excited by the idea of 'chasing' wines, although apparently it is part of the fun for some folks.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Michael Lewis:
I have not done such a precise analysis, but being on the East coast, I have made a concerted effort to buy less than I used to from the West coast. One of the reasons for that is environmental. It's not clear to me whether buying from NYC or elsewhere on the East coast and shipping down to DC is all that different from buying locally in DC (to Rahsaan's point). But I imagine that most wine I would source from the West coast either would come in originally on the East coast and make its way West before being sent back East to me (an unnecessary cross-country trip), or at least would have a much longer container journey getting to the West coast from Europe (which is where 95%+ of the wine I buy is produced) before being sent East to me.
Click to expand...

And all the grey market wine from SoCal is cooked...
Click to expand...

I said "one of the reasons..." for a reason.
 
I very rarely purchase wine that requires shipping. Maybe once a year, if even that. I'm lucky that living in the Bay Area means not having to. I have plenty of choices at local shops.

I have friends who love the chase and occasionally, I'll piggyback on their orders.

The last order I made that required shipping was when Dan Kravitz offered 2017 Duplessis Chablis AOC and four premier crus for great prices. 10% off on a mixed case plus free ground shipping. The 1er crus were $43 and change. Couldn't pass that up.
 
As a resident of flyover country with no decent local (or even local-ish) stores, I have a Hobson’s choice: order from the coasts with attendant shipping or drive to Chicago where there are several shops worth visiting. Fortunately, I’ve also reached an age where I’m no longer buying vins de garde, so my purchasing has been greatly curtailed of late, but that’s another thread.

Mark Lipton
 
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