'07 Rhys Alpine PN

originally posted by Keith Levenberg:

That's a decision everyone has to make for themselves. Personally, I prefer 3 bottles each of more things over case quantities of fewer things.

i guess that's why i find your thought about "wine" interesting, as opposed to your thoughts on any particular wine.

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originally posted by MarkS:
Who needs a case except a paahty?

indeed. given the natural variation across any kind of agriculturally fermented beverage, why bother thinking about what you guzzle at all?

one might get to check teh "had that" box, but what has one had? and when?

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originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:


That having been said, there is no doubt that this habit has reduced the range of wines I drink. And when I benefit from the range of wine in the cellars of 3 bottle a lot people, I'm aware of the cost of the choice. So it doesn't seem to me a clear cut choice to make.

yip. though my honest reaction to a totally 3 bottle cellar above a certain size would be to infer that its keeper preferred novelty to wine itself.

and, fwiw, i find that i'm wont to pay far more attention to the opinions of deep drinkers when they discuss their own vice. perhaps in the future disorderly dystopia teh politburo will distribute vices from a centralised register. that way, if i have a fancy for a bottle of x, rather than rummaging for one of my three bottles, i could ply my neighbour with pork products, and he could pull an example appropriate for teh occasion from his stash.

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Why so many absolutes? I usually buy 3 or 4, except when I buy 12, or, on a very rare occasion, when I buy more, like the second time Cazin Renaissance came around.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
Why so many absolutes? I usually buy 3 or 4, except when I buy 12, or, on a very rare occasion, when I buy more, like the second time Cazin Renaissance came around.

absolutely.

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originally posted by Cliff:
Why so many absolutes? I usually buy 3 or 4, except when I buy 12, or, on a very rare occasion, when I buy more, like the second time Cazin Renaissance came around.

My buying habits are knee-jerk reactions, not principles. Thus, of course, they are much more absolute. As Oscar Wilde said, the only difference between a caprice and a lasting passion is that a caprice lasts a little longer.
 
I'll cop to almost never buying a full case of any wine due to storage, cost, availability and consumption issues. The last one I did was the 2002 Huet Petillant where I got to watch it slowly develop and then randomly start falling apart due to premox issues.
 
originally posted by fatboy:

i guess i'm trying to at least raise the idea that we might look at it in a slightly different way.

jays's post promoted me to jot these thoughts down, but they are not a response to same. as far as i'm concerned it totally sucks when teh hype machine turns its capricious attention towards ones own particular corner of the wine-universe, and the practically unlimited supply of a hooch x that one has invested time, energy and not a little love getting to know suddenly dwindles to a couple of overpriced bottles. i can fully understand why jay continues to buy, and while i've found that my interest in a wine or a grower is slowly strangled when similar shit happens to me, i claim no virtue for that -- i admire jay's consistency, and feel a little bummed for him.

the story he recounts above is salutary. what changed? well, really, just the points changed. teh burghype decided to pad his sales with a little cali coverage, and jay got caught in teh hypefire.

Well, I purchase wine exactly as you do; thus, the top 5 producers in my cellar account for 47% of it. The top 10, 62%.

I'm very happy with those producers, but I sometimes wish for a bit more breadth and maybe fewer fucking bottles to store. Period.

For the first time in a while, I've been held to a mixed case of 4 wines from a producer where I usually buy 6-12 bottles of each wine. Do I stop buying? Or, since I've been buying them and drinking them for a long time, do I pretty much know what I'm getting and settle in? In fact, this has happened to almost every producer that I follow. I'm sure Baudry is next and then (hopefully for him) Marc. Do I really want to go out and find replacements for those wines, or do I just make do and keep going?

I'm also at a crossroads where a couple hundred cases of wine is starting to seem like a ridiculous thing. For a long time I've had essentially unlimited storage. That time is ending and now I've got to find a palatable ("or palletible?" -CC) solution. This, for lack of a better word, is a motherfucker.

All of this is to say that I thought I had the philosophically correct answer, but it turns out to be impractical. So now what? If I had bought in pairs, I'd have an easily manageable amount of the same wines. If I can't sort this out soon, I'll be driving a truck up to Jamie.

Anyway...

You've kind of got the story a bit wrong with Rhys. There was a groundswell long before the wines were reviewed and some wines, due to the farming and extreme soils of the vineyard, have never been available to anyone (AFAIK) in more than a few bottle quantities. I'm one of the people that helps with Jay's allocation so that we can both be happy. He gets what he wants and I get to build up a reasonable number of bottles of wine.

There are plenty of other examples of your above narrative, but Rhys really is a special case.
 
originally posted by VLM:


Well, I purchase wine exactly as you do; thus, the top 5 producers in my cellar account for 47% of it. The top 10, 62%.

I'm very happy with those producers, but I sometimes wish for a bit more breadth

yeah and no. sometimes i go through phases of buying a bunch of teh coolest and latest, and i'm reaching for an old friend even before i've popped, poured and swirled.

other times, some variety helps.

the bottom line is that most if the old friends are old friends because i've learned that teh alternatives kind of bug me...

and maybe fewer fucking bottles to store. Period.

#42 in the fatsink's compendium of 1000 unhelpful suggestions: why not move to a region where you can whizz on up teh road and refill on demand?

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originally posted by Jay Miller:
I'll cop to almost never buying a full case of any wine due to storage, cost, availability and consumption issues. The last one I did was the 2002 Huet Petillant where I got to watch it slowly develop and then randomly start falling apart due to premox issues.

so, we agree we're different, but even acknowledging that, i have to ask, where's teh love?

to extrapolate a point of prof l's above, don't you ever want fall hook line and sinker into caprice? have you really never gotten so besotted with a wine that you have lain waste to a six pack in a week? (ahem, or even a few days?)

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originally posted by fatboy:


the bottom line is that most if the old friends are old friends because i've learned that teh alternatives kind of bug me.

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Ahem.

We come to the crux of the matter.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by VLM:


Well, I purchase wine exactly as you do; thus, the top 5 producers in my cellar account for 47% of it. The top 10, 62%.

I'm very happy with those producers, but I sometimes wish for a bit more breadth

yeah and no. sometimes i go through phases of buying a bunch of teh coolest and latest, and i'm reaching for an old friend even before i've popped, poured and swirled.

other times, some variety helps.

the bottom line is that most if the old friends are old friends because i've learned that teh alternatives kind of bug me...

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

Mostly new things don't displace the old. But sometimes new things are, well, new. Texier's Pergaud wines are one new thing. The Rhys wines have been another. I've bet on both, let's hope that works out.

There isn't really a plan B for Rougeard, Baudry, Barthod, Mugneret or Allemand.

I'll just buy, or not.

and maybe fewer fucking bottles to store. Period.

#42 in the fatsink's compendium of 1000 unhelpful suggestions: why not move to a region where you can whizz on up teh road and refill on demand?

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If only. Have tried that a couple of times, not happening. My retirement plan involved this, but we'll see if there is even currency by the time I can retire.
 
originally posted by VLM:

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

so far, my tastes have migrated away from the herd fortuitously. shit i like has gotten popular for pretty much the same reasons i lost interest. donnhoff is a case in point.

but thats only so far. i have little faith in teh trend.

i'm gonna say no more, cuz it will only tempt teh fatgods.

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originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by VLM:

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

so far, my tastes have migrated away from the herd fortuitously. shit i like has gotten popular for pretty much the same reasons i lost interest. donnhoff is a case in point.

but thats only so far. i have little faith in teh trend.

i'm gonna say no more, cuz it will only tempt teh fatgods.

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I'm certainly fat now, but not quite a god.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
I'll cop to almost never buying a full case of any wine due to storage, cost, availability and consumption issues. The last one I did was the 2002 Huet Petillant where I got to watch it slowly develop and then randomly start falling apart due to premox issues.

so, we agree we're different, but even acknowledging that, i have to ask, where's teh love?

to extrapolate a point of prof l's above, don't you ever want fall hook line and sinker into caprice? have you really never gotten so besotted with a wine that you have lain waste to a six pack in a week? (ahem, or even a few days?)

fb.

I don't drink in those quantities. Drinking at home it's generally one bottle over the course of a week and these days that bottle is almost always Spatlese.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by VLM:

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

so far, my tastes have migrated away from the herd fortuitously. shit i like has gotten popular for pretty much the same reasons i lost interest. donnhoff is a case in point.

but thats only so far. i have little faith in teh trend.

i'm gonna say no more, cuz it will only tempt teh fatgods.

fb.

The trend is that not everyone has to enjoy wine in the same way. So of course you aren't in on the trend.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by VLM:

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

so far, my tastes have migrated away from the herd fortuitously. shit i like has gotten popular for pretty much the same reasons i lost interest. donnhoff is a case in point.

but thats only so far. i have little faith in teh trend.

i'm gonna say no more, cuz it will only tempt teh fatgods.

fb.

The trend is that not everyone has to enjoy wine in the same wine. So of course you aren't in on the trend.

did you tell your therapist you were going to start posting again?

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originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by VLM:

Right, so when you can only get 3-4 bottles of wine from an old friend, you take it and smile.

so far, my tastes have migrated away from the herd fortuitously. shit i like has gotten popular for pretty much the same reasons i lost interest. donnhoff is a case in point.

but thats only so far. i have little faith in teh trend.

i'm gonna say no more, cuz it will only tempt teh fatgods.

fb.

The trend is that not everyone has to enjoy wine in the same wine. So of course you aren't in on the trend.

did you tell your therapist you were going to start posting again?

fb.

Right back at you, tenure track.
 
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