Wine.

tokyomb

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263
Does anyone here collect wine ?
Define “collect”... I’ve probably got 300-400 bottles in my cellar and another couple of hundred in bond - but most of that is for drinking rather than investment. I don’t tend to buy at collectible / investment level for the most part - but there may be a few cases that will appreciate and cover my storage charges.
 

Felonious Crud

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Define “collect”... I’ve probably got 300-400 bottles in my cellar and another couple of hundred in bond - but most of that is for drinking rather than investment. I don’t tend to buy at collectible / investment level for the most part - but there may be a few cases that will appreciate and cover my storage charges.

I'm amazed you ever make it out of your cellar.
 

whereskeith

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821
Define “collect”... I’ve probably got 300-400 bottles in my cellar and another couple of hundred in bond - but most of that is for drinking rather than investment. I don’t tend to buy at collectible / investment level for the most part - but there may be a few cases that will appreciate and cover my storage charges.

I mean as in a serious wine investor.... sounds like you are you have loads! :D
I have 3 bottles I am willing to part with but they are investable as such so maybe not what your interested in.
 

D Walker

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One of my oldest friends works for a wine storage company. Their insurance policy is mahoosive. They set up cameras so investors can see their wines.
 

GeoffCapes

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14,000
One of my oldest friends works for a wine storage company. Their insurance policy is mahoosive. They set up cameras so investors can see their wines.

Saw a similar set up in the Faustino vineyard I mentioned above.
Some of the wine is worth thousands and thousands per bottle. Ironically they wouldn't let us in that bit! :lol2:
 

Wanderer

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5,791
Define “collect”... I’ve probably got 300-400 bottles in my cellar and another couple of hundred in bond - but most of that is for drinking rather than investment. I don’t tend to buy at collectible / investment level for the most part - but there may be a few cases that will appreciate and cover my storage charges.
I’ve got a bag of cement in mine. Gone hard.
 

JonW

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3,259
Does anyone here collect wine ?

No - but I’ve occasionally considered it as an interesting place to stash some money and as a means of enjoying some special wines.

When my father in law died he left me some very nice French wines that he had collected over time, including some Premier Grand Cru Paulliacs. Problem was I’m not a huge fan of that type of wine, and I suspect some of it is now firmly past it’s best before date... as a result they are sat in the bottom of my wine cabinet!
 

tokyomb

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Messages
263
I'm amazed you ever make it out of your cellar.
Working away in London in the week means the temptation of raiding the cellar isn't there the whole time. My other half, however, does get tempted from time to time - so at my annual stocktake against Cellartracker there has to be a caption for "missing, presumed drunk". (Which I believe I'm only 'rarely' responsible for...)

I first got into wine when I started working in London as a graduate and since then did a couple of the WSET courses (while we were in Tokyo), and started adding bottles to a collection then (though limited by the size of the Eurocave wine fridge I had there - up to 100 bottles). Since we've been back in the UK, I've had more space for wine and the cellar has grown. I'd recommend the WSET courses to anyone interested in wine or who wants to be able to more clearly articulate why they prefer one wine to another and get better value out of sommeliers (though I would skip the Level 1 course which is really simple and start with Level 2).

Probably what cemented our interest was doing wine tastings with the Tokyo Wine Society - a very casual group of people interested in eating and drinking, who met monthly at a restaurant to blind-taste nine or so wines with a common theme (wine region, grape variety, etc.), ranking them by personal preference and then comparing the results, before then sharing quite a bit more wine over dinner. What was interesting was that the most expensive wines rarely won, big names similarly. The majority's favourite wine was almost invariably somebody's least favourite, and vice-versa. Just goes to show that personal preference has a big part to play, regardless of perceived value or reputation.
 

whereskeith

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Messages
821
Working away in London in the week means the temptation of raiding the cellar isn't there the whole time. My other half, however, does get tempted from time to time - so at my annual stocktake against Cellartracker there has to be a caption for "missing, presumed drunk". (Which I believe I'm only 'rarely' responsible for...)

I first got into wine when I started working in London as a graduate and since then did a couple of the WSET courses (while we were in Tokyo), and started adding bottles to a collection then (though limited by the size of the Eurocave wine fridge I had there - up to 100 bottles). Since we've been back in the UK, I've had more space for wine and the cellar has grown. I'd recommend the WSET courses to anyone interested in wine or who wants to be able to more clearly articulate why they prefer one wine to another and get better value out of sommeliers (though I would skip the Level 1 course which is really simple and start with Level 2).

Probably what cemented our interest was doing wine tastings with the Tokyo Wine Society - a very casual group of people interested in eating and drinking, who met monthly at a restaurant to blind-taste nine or so wines with a common theme (wine region, grape variety, etc.), ranking them by personal preference and then comparing the results, before then sharing quite a bit more wine over dinner. What was interesting was that the most expensive wines rarely won, big names similarly. The majority's favourite wine was almost invariably somebody's least favourite, and vice-versa. Just goes to show that personal preference has a big part to play, regardless of perceived value or reputation.
I have recently finished WSET 2 course but decided that I didn’t want to do level 3 .

Here in Gibraltar there is a new natural wine storage facility opening inside the rock .
 

tokyomb

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263
I have recently finished WSET 2 course but decided that I didn’t want to do level 3 .
I'm interested in what put you off Level 3. I found it more interesting than Level 2 as we really got to look at wines from around the world. 16 weeks of Monday evenings was quite a big commitment, but we found the knowledge gained made it worthwhile.
At some point we will probably tackle Level 4 - but that's an even bigger commitment and the £3.5k course fees cause you to stop and pause about whether that money (particularly when x 2) could be better deployed elsewhere.
 

whereskeith

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821
I'm interested in what put you off Level 3. I found it more interesting than Level 2 as we really got to look at wines from around the world. 16 weeks of Monday evenings was quite a big commitment, but we found the knowledge gained made it worthwhile.
At some point we will probably tackle Level 4 - but that's an even bigger commitment and the £3.5k course fees cause you to stop and pause about whether that money (particularly when x 2) could be better deployed elsewhere.

I really enjoyed the course and would reccomend it, the knowledge you pick up is well worth the time and effort ( as you have said).
Level 2 seems to be good for a hobby/passion side and level 3 seems to be more like a career move. There isnt much chance of a career here in Gibraltar for me in wine so sidelined it for a while.
Personally I think I struggled with the different tastes that everyone else could get... sometimes different people could taste different things in the same wine, which I found perplexing.
Did you do the blind taste test in level 3 ? Did you have to do a dissertation ?
 

MrPea

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3,012
I have a couple of hundred bottles, but they're not for investment - more so that I can have nice wine that I'll end up drinking. That said, if I had more time and space I may start doing the thing of buying twice the amount of the "collectable" wines I like, keep them in bond and use the second case to pay for the first by selling it later. A good friend manages to keep things ticking over quite well that way.

On the other hand, my friend Chris has an excellent wine investment policy:
"I always intend to make a 100% loss on all wine I buy." That means it gets drunk!
 

tokyomb

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Messages
263
Personally I think I struggled with the different tastes that everyone else could get... sometimes different people could taste different things in the same wine, which I found perplexing.
It's interesting - what you associate smells and tastes with in wine is to some degree individual and is partly cultural. We did our Level 3 in Japan, and, for example, where people of European origin would identify "hay" as a smell (and it would be considered a positive attribute) the Japanese would taste the same wine and might smell rotten tatami (the rice straw mats that are a common floor covering there, and consider this to be a negative attribute).

Some people find it easier than others to associate tastes / smells with descriptors than other (my wife is clearly a better taster than me in that regard) and some people just have better imaginations - and identify things that may or may not be there! You can certainly pass Level 3 at a good level without being a "super-taster".

Did you do the blind taste test in level 3 ? Did you have to do a dissertation ?
Yes, the blind tasting is a key component of the Level 3 exam. It's just two wines and you have to work through the systematic approach to tasting, with most of the marks being for your descriptions/thought process rather than getting the identity of the wine right. The Level 3 Specifcation from the WSET site provides more details.

There's no dissertation for Level 3 - it's just a written exam, with a mix of multi-choice and short-answer narrative questions, and the blind tasting exam. The dissertation only comes in at Level 4, I believe.
 

JonW

Member
Messages
3,259
No - but I’ve occasionally considered it as an interesting place to stash some money and as a means of enjoying some special wines.

When my father in law died he left me some very nice French wines that he had collected over time, including some Premier Grand Cru Paulliacs. Problem was I’m not a huge fan of that type of wine, and I suspect some of it is now firmly past it’s best before date... as a result they are sat in the bottom of my wine cabinet!

I’ve decided to start drinking some of the older stuff in my cabinet, as it seems ridiculous to just let it go to waste...

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