Wait? Sour Grapes makes you WANT to collect?

If anything, the D-bags in that movie were a turnoff to the hobby...for me, of course. "Buy '96 Champagne. All day. If you can't afford that, buy '02. If you can't afford that, drink ****ing beer." Yeah, '96 is awesome but don't try to impress me by putting down other people, you chop. and the Jef Levy guy? Well, no comment and that nutless *******.


But back to your topic...wine collecting isn't about having very fine, very expensive wine. Don't get me wrong, they are nice to have and taste out of this world, but how many $1000-10,000 bottles can you have? Many of us on here like the $50 and below bottles. Some of the new producers are making wines that go great with food at $30-50/btl. I guaranty you that if I didn't have a health issue that prevented me from drinking on a regular basis, I wouldn't be collecting as many higher price bottles that I do. I'd be buying Scholium, Bedrock, Dirty and Rowdy, and those types of new world producers. Hell, I'd probably have to buy two more wine fridges by now if I was buying at the same rate. But instead, I choose to drink higher priced bottles because I can only drink on special occasions...so I want special wines.

To me, wine collecting is about buying/drinking what you like, and also having the right wine on hand for the occasion that fits. If I have friends coming over who drink boxed wine, I may open a $25 pinot from Rivers Marie. If friends that enjoy nice wines join us for a bottle, I may open a $100 cab from the same winery, or a Scarecrow for some other guests who like similar wine. If we are having dinner, I try to pair the wine to the food (obvious I know...but I want the right vintage too).

Whenever I open a wine, I have a story to tell. I know about the vineyard(s) it comes from, the winemaker, the vintage year itself, and whatever else I can find out about it. I don't try to give tasting notes, as I will leave that to the guests who are drinking the wine, because it's their experience with it that matters to them, not mine. Sometimes I geek out, but my friends know that coming in and always at least pretend to be interested! But seriously, I try to make it fun for them and let them not only drink the wine, but experience it.

So to your question, how to get into collecting:
1. Contrary to what wine collecting actually is, don't collect...yet. Go to wine bars. Go to wine dinners at restaurants. go to tastings (I miss the Pappas Bros Steakhouse tastings). Figure out what you like. Do you like old world or new world? do you like newer wines or those with some age on them. Your tastes will evolve over time so get a good feel for what you like before you dump a small fortune into something that you my pass on later once you find a new style. Drink all you can now to learn about it...and get wasted in the process.
2. Once you have an idea of what you like, go visit the regions if possible. We've been to Italy, Priorat Spain, and California. It's a fun trip. You learn quite a bit, plus you get to drink and hang out with locals. I love Cali cabs so we go to CA quite often.
3. Drink more.
4. Read about wine. My first book was a Wine Spectator Book about California Cabernet from ~1999 (I'll see if I can take some pics of the prices in there and post them on the wine thread). I have books on specific old world producers as well as books about wine specific events (tasting of Paris, WWII, etc).
5. Drink.
6. Slowly start buying, and set a limit for yourself. Then plan for storage for twice your limit...trust me on this. YOU WILL BUY MORE THAN YOU PLAN TO!!!
7. Get a good collection going and then call me over for dinner
8. Enjoy life.

That's it. Easy and fun.

Cheers.