Oh, in my case, it is not snootiness! Believe me, my glasses are not top-tier. It's more of a clutter issue for me.
What's new in your cellar?
- Thread starter Johnd
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All mine are from wineries I visit. Probably bottom of the barrel for quality but free.
Just delivered a few minutes ago. Before you jump all over me, this was ordered as futures back in early ‘18, way before I committed to stop ordering wine. The Beast is purportedly a blend of the best of the best barrels from all of the different Del Dotto vineyards each year. Though it’s pricey, I’ve indulged in a bottle each year and have one from 12, 13, 14, and 15, and intend to hang on to them. At least one of these three will remain cellared, looking forward to opening one of the others in a few years.
Tasting room glasses are perfect for certain situations and what gets brought out for informal "happy hour" get together with friends or larger get togethers. If they get broken its no big deal. The Riedel glasses only get brought out for dinner parties. That way they have less chance of being broke accidentally.
I dunno, I recently turned down a set of free glasses from a winetasting at a local winery. I am looking to GET RID of stuff, not accumulate it!
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Grocery store - Wegmans.
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Not sure if you are attempting to correct me, but I have NO PROBLEM with the quality of the glasses Jim presented. It is just that I have no desire to own more things at this point in my life!
FWIW, my glass "strategy" is the following: I have about 15 or 20 semi-decent glasses from several partial sets purchased at a local consignment shop. When I or my friends break enough glasses to fall below about 15 glasses, I go to the consignment shop and buy a "set" of 5 or 6 or 7 semi-decent glasses for small money. Rinse, lather, and repeat. Breakage is not a concern for me.
Heavens no! LOL
I learnt that was an exercise in futility years ago!
Now that is funny!
Costco run over the weekend and found some steals.
I am seeing more and more WS ratings stickers on the bottles in the warehouse. The 2016 H3 (90pts WS) and only $8.99 will make you think twice about this hobby. The Matua NZ Sauv Blanc (90pts WS) and only $7.99. The 2016 Seghesio Zin (93pts WS) and only $19.99 always a favorite. The steal/deal of the day seems to be the 2015 GORU Monastrell-Cab Sauv blend (91pts WS) and only $15.99. The WS review has a very different MSRP that what I paid for it!
I am seeing more and more WS ratings stickers on the bottles in the warehouse. The 2016 H3 (90pts WS) and only $8.99 will make you think twice about this hobby. The Matua NZ Sauv Blanc (90pts WS) and only $7.99. The 2016 Seghesio Zin (93pts WS) and only $19.99 always a favorite. The steal/deal of the day seems to be the 2015 GORU Monastrell-Cab Sauv blend (91pts WS) and only $15.99. The WS review has a very different MSRP that what I paid for it!
I may be way out of line or premature when I say this but here goes. I'm just over 2 years into this with the first 10 months learning the ropes and making the rookie mistakes with kits as would be expected. The fall of 2017 I made my first batch from grapes as well as a few juice buckets. Spring and fall of 2018 with the exception of 3 juice buckets in the spring was grapes only with 12 total varietals. Of these 12 five or six were from premium fruit. Understanding the oldest 2018 is only 10 months old and the newest 3 months I have to say the grape wines are holding their own, especially the premiums. My barrels are all new so time in the barrels to date is limited and a few possibly over oaked. Now things may go south, I may continue to make mistakes or maybe my palate just doesn't know what it's talking about but as of now I can't see any of the premiums not holding up to $20 to $25 bottles of wine.
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Not out of line in any way. I have never bought any premium fruit be in lugs or frozen pails. Even my worst wines made from fresh grapes turned out better than my best kit wines IMHO. I think my wines would sell for $15-25 depending on the wine. My cost was ~$5 but that was never adding in the cost of my expenses to go get the grapes and haul them back. For me that included a trip to Denver, a night in a hotel and a trip back home, 700 miles RT. Doesn't include your cost of equipment to process the grapes into wine. Doesn't include cost of chems. So that $5 cost of fruit in reality is more like $10 after you factor in your amortized expenses. Then you have to wait two years for the "fruits" of your labor to be realized. So some wines make you scratch your head as far as cost and time involved. It is a LOT of work to do this hobby by yourself from start to finish. I don't have a large family and or a lot of help with this hobby. It's mostly just me. So factor your time and effort into the equation and more head scratching. Labor of love gets kind of old after a while if you are the only laborer.....
In keeping this fun and friendly, my amortized expenses: C/D and Press $650.00, lab equipment including SC 300, argon set up, DO tester, chemicals $850.00, Carboys and barrels $1,000.00 and $300.00 for misc for a total of $2,800.00. I have just over 110 gallons bulk aging right now with about 40 already bottled so call it 590 bottles divided by $2,800.00 gives you $4.75/bottle plus the fruit matches your $10.00 number. Now if I write all this off this year my cost next (this) year will be the fruit cost plus bottles, corks, MLB and misc additives. So just over $6.00. It appears I'm a lot luckier than you as far as travel for fruit, heck I bet my average distance is 30 miles each way. And if it's OK with you since I'm only 2 years into this and still having to much fun I can't put my time into it.
Even when you get further away and costs go up a bit, it's immaterial if you're enjoying what you're doing. In the beginning with grapes for me, most everything I did surely cost well over $10 per bottle, some closer to $15, but it was no matter, even though I could buy a commercially made 92 for 12 bucks. Now that I've got a solid, well priced source, my own C/D, the numbers would probably look a lot better, so what did I do? Bought an expensive barrel to age in. Go figure, or do like me, don't figure out the cost, do it because you love it and don't have to justify it, because you can't put a price on the enjoyment and satisfaction.............
jswordy
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I have had Del Dotto wine but not The Beast. Mmmm...
Dennis Hugg
Denny
The Queen of the Prom (in 1962) wanted a cup of red for spaghetti sauce, so I opened a bottle of cab from a gifted kit from Christmas a year ago, It is so good that I'm drinking the rest of the bottle. I'm going to request homemade spaghetti at least every two weeks for the rest of the year, and buy and brew a new cab kit next month. She's no dummy by a long shot, so I don't know if i'll get by with it. But since amarone is molto italiana and she is everything Italian, I can switch to amarone from the two kits brewing now.
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