Howell Mountain tastings in Texas

Planning on attending the Houston one. Anyone else?

I received that email from Black Sears. Only one I can make is the DFW tasting. Being in SA that's a trek mid week, not sure if I can go but would love to. Please send us a review.

such a pretty sight!

htxag09 said:

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Howell Mountain tastings in Texas

Planning on attending the Houston one. Anyone else?

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I did this in 2012. It was the night that we beat Bama. I had to stop by the hotel bar on the way in and have two glasses of Scotch to calm my nerves. and by glasses, I effectively mean shots. It was a fun night, football aside. The wines were fun and people were great. The Lamborn family remembered us so we chatted with them for a while. They are always a blast.

Don't know if you've got a drinking problem or a buying problem.

I know: both.

Hey, that's 8 months worth of online orders. Well not counting the ones that haven't shipped yet...

Oh, that's ok then.

Thought it was 8 DAYS worth.

Please forgive my insinuation.

Well, just to be clear, I don't think I actually disputed your assertions...

Minor milestone passed today - surpassed 100 bottles with one shipment yesterday and two more today. There's also a Rivers-Marie shipment floating around on a truck somewhere.

200 will be here before you know it, then 300, then a new larger cellar, so on and so forth...

100 since our first Napa trip in March. At this rate I'll be leaving wine to my kids when I die. I guess I need to up my consumption issue to a consumption problem.

I think I was on approximately 50 bottles from about 2000-2007, then bought a 120 bottle cooler. Here are my Cellartracker stats since that purchase.

Purchases
2008 - 85 bottles
2009 - 167 bottles
2010 - 403 bottles (500 bottle cooler delivered in February 2010)
2011 - 283 bottles
2012 - 191 bottles
2013 - 111 bottles (serious health issue in June of this year)
2014 - 89 bottles
2015 - 171 bottles (loaded up on 2013 Napa cabs and 2009 Bdx and Burgs for my son)
2016 - 99 bottles

Those numbers post heart disease are actually a bit misleading because I typically pass off a bottle or two from each purchase to a buddy in Austin who isn't on the mailing lists but I log them as purchases to keep tabs on inventory levels. the whole point is that as you buy more space, you quickly fill up that space!

Was just reading page 1 of this thread when I accidentally pressed it...not too much has changed as far as my preferences!

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Rivers Marie, Myriad, Lancaster, and Realm are a few of my favorites...

I also tend to buy wines made by a particular winemaker with Mike Smith, Thomas Brown, and Aaron Pott being three I really respect.

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Interesting conversation between my wife and I last night. She's really liking the analytical portion of CellarTracker and we discovered that the most expensive bottle in our small collection arrived as a new delivery yesterday. She was talking about collecting vs. drinking because this one has a window of 2021-204x. What is the most "expensive" per CT bottle in your cellar? You don't have to be specific, I'm just curious.

For us - it's the 2013 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon Backus Vineyard at $223.00

I told her I imagine that if it's really good it may only go up in value, but I'm novice enough to not know how the valuation of wine ebbs and flows.

I have a very small collection of burgs that cost me an arm and a leg, and possibly a left ventricle.

I also love the analytics on Cellartracker. Interestingly, my 10 most expensive wines (just 3% of bottles in my cellar) make up over 24% of the dollar value.

I don't know how y'all figured out all the analytics on CellarTracker. I will play with it more and am curious how my bottle count has grown. If I figure this out I'll post it.

Bottle value is hard to determine; it's only worth what a real buyer is willing to pay. Wine is rarely an investment and is nearly always a hobby. I have bottles that are not worth a lot but carry great sentimental value. I'll pass on what exact bottles and values I have as it's not important; I enjoy wine in the time and place and with the company I'm in, not because it's an expensive bottle.

aggiejumper said:

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I don't know how y'all figured out all the analytics on CellarTracker. I will play with it more and am curious how my bottle count has grown. If I figure this out I'll post it.

Bottle value is hard to determine; it's only worth what a real buyer is willing to pay. Wine is rarely an investment and is nearly always a hobby. I have bottles that are not worth a lot but carry great sentimental value. I'll pass on what exact bottles and values I have as it's not important; I enjoy wine in the time and place and with the company I'm in, not because it's an expensive bottle.

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And that's the way I tend to think about it. I'm not necessarily buying them to sit in the dark somewhere. I want to enjoy them with good friends.

aggiejumper said:

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I don't know how y'all figured out all the analytics on CellarTracker.

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I just use the reports and play around with the data to see what I want to see. There's no actual button that says "your x bottles make up y% of your cellar." I just geek out playing with numbers.

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Bottle value is hard to determine

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My bottle values on CT are just the prices I paid for the wine. If there was ever a need to determine replacement cost (or actual market value), I'd get my CT inventory and cross reference wine-searcher.com

Based on everyone's posts here, I think we're all of the same cut of cloth that buys wine to enjoy, not invest. Like yall, I have wines that are worth more than what I paid, but damn, I want to drink them one day, not sell them. Selling/flipping wine defeats the whole reason I got into wine: to enjoy life with friends and family. I'm still torn up that I had to sell more than half my cellar, but at least I get to still enjoy the experience with my original intent from time to time.

Interestingly, I ran into someone at lunch today who I met years ago at a Realm tasting. He walked into the restaurant with three bottles of wine, including a Studio Seven Fifty cab franc from 750 Wines. The funny part was that I noticed the wine label before I noticed him. That's a wine geek for ya...

This talk of celllar size is simpler if we just get the tape measure and drop trou, right?

200 bottles in stock right now. We drink through 240ish per year so over the past four years the math is pretty easy. Most were daily drinkers. Of the 200 about 2/3 is cellared, the rest just to drink.

cecil77 said:

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This talk of celllar size is simpler if we just get the tape measure and drop trou, right?

200 bottles in stock right now. We drink through 240ish per year so over the past four years the math is pretty easy. Most were daily drinkers. Of the 200 about 2/3 is cellared, the rest just to drink.

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Man, I wish! If we drank 240 a year, I'd likely have CPS here. 4 kids from 2-14 tends to limit our drinking a bit.

However....I'm always looking for suggestions of a daily drinker Cab or PN that I can buy in case quantity to protect some of the ones we want to age a little longer.

Finally figured out where to find the yearly bottle count. Not as large as some of ya'll guys but is sure is fun buying and drinking/holding. It is neat to quantify my holdings.

2012- 64 bottles purchased
2013-49 bottles purchased
2014- 85 bottles purchased
2015-107 bottles purchased
2016-161 bottles purchased

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Man, I wish! If we drank 240 a year, I'd likely have CPS here. 4 kids from 2-14 tends to limit our drinking a bit.

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Empty nest and now they're all out of college and on their own. So splitting a bottle most nights per week is the norm. Throw in some special occasions and guest and it adds up.

I'd be scared to know how many bottles the wife and I drank over the past 12 months. Most cheap daily drinkers and I'd have to guess 300 bottles.

Now that it is shipping season in Houston, I'm gonna need to order several cases of "reasonably priced" wine from some favorite producers to stock up for the long months ahead. I hate being reliant on the wine at Spec's and HEB

We've only opened 12 bottles this year, so my wine locker is getting full. Saturday night was a 2010 Quivet Kenefick Ranch.

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I'd have to guess 300 bottles.

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Us as well. I just didn't want to be the first to say so...

Likewise. This was empty on January 1.

HTownAg98 said:

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Likewise. This was empty on January 1.

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Great, now we are all going to spend the next hour analyzing your drinking habits!

What do you guys do with the corks when you start afresh?

Recycle them.

Thriller said:

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aggiejumper said:

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I don't know how y'all figured out all the analytics on CellarTracker. I will play with it more and am curious how my bottle count has grown. If I figure this out I'll post it.

Bottle value is hard to determine; it's only worth what a real buyer is willing to pay. Wine is rarely an investment and is nearly always a hobby. I have bottles that are not worth a lot but carry great sentimental value. I'll pass on what exact bottles and values I have as it's not important; I enjoy wine in the time and place and with the company I'm in, not because it's an expensive bottle.

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And that's the way I tend to think about it. I'm not necessarily buying them to sit in the dark somewhere. I want to enjoy them with good friends.

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Most people will read that website and look at the cost to determine their favourite wine.

Many of the best wines are really pretty inexpensive.

cecil77 said:

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I'd have to guess 300 bottles.

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Us as well. I just didn't want to be the first to say so...

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speaking of cheap daily drinkers, I think we've drank close to a case recently of the 2014 Eve chardonnay. I think it is under $10 at HEB. really nice chard expression, IMO.

Drinking a 2013 Pascal Granger Julienas "Cuve Speciale". Simple easy drinking gamay to go with turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to all.