How much do you spend on a bottle?

I have no set price cap, having spent up to $300 for a special bottle ('61 Lynch Bages purchased 9 years ago). What I'd suspect is that my per bottle spending follows a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:


(Just imagine replacing the word molecules with bottles on the y-axis label and energy with price on the x-axis)

In mathematical form, that means that the probability of my buying a given bottle of wine (p) that sells for price $ can be expressed as:

p($) = e^(-4$/B) where B is my wine budget.

Mark Lipton

I have no set price cap, having spent up to $300 for a special bottle ('61 Lynch Bages purchased 9 years ago). What I'd suspect is that my per bottle spending follows a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:

But what's the dollar value at the top of the curve.

My curve looks a lot like Mark's, maybe weighed more towards low end. I mostly purchase for $10-25, but with some $40-75 bottles for cellaring, with a big dropoff at $80-100. I've spent $200 a handful of times, and $325 once. All of those were for bottles I intended for a specific purpose (a '83 Cheval to highlight a CF tasting, '59s for my wive's birthday, etc).

When purchasing for personal use (as opposed to buying those wines I need for tasting), and regardless of whether I buy a single bottle or a case, my only rule is to be guided by how much I want the wine and how wide-awake the little devil living in my head is.

When he's asleep, I think of such things as overall budget, how much I can afford at the moment, etc. When he's awake and telling me how absolutely necessary it is that I have the wine in question the logic and the limits fly out the window. Alas, damned little devil (his name is Murgatroyd) seems to always wake up full of piss and vinegar when I walk into a fine wine shop or find myself at one of the better auction houses.

Best
Rogov

Yes, Daniel, Murgatroyd, has been the downfall of more than one of us!!

I just looked at Cellar Tracker and it tells me that the lowest price I paid for any wine was $2.50 (a sangiovese) and the highest $218.93 (champagne). My average cost for all purchases is $29.22.

The average cost of what is in my cellar right now is $34.25 and the average value of what I now have is $42.46.

I have 267 bottles currently in my cellar for which I paid > $50 (roughly 20% of my cellar).

How much do you spend on a bottle?

Nothing more than I have to, if I can help it.

Money is always an issue. At one time my cap was $30 for domestic wine and $50 for imports. Now most of my wines fall into the $25-$35 range. I will sometimes pay around $70-$85 for a Burgundy. The highest I've ever paid was slightly over $100 for a first growth Bordeaux from a so-so vintage. For me there is a definite hesitation when the price approaches $100. Another factor--I live alone and usually have two glasses of wine a day, so a bottle usually lasts me for three evenings. Looking at it that way a $30 bottle costs me $10 per day unless I have paid shipping charges on it.

Tom's method makes a great deal of sense to me--stick to a monthly budget and decide whether to get 6-8 less expensive bottles or 1, 2 or 3 more expensive bottles--but I don't do well at sticking to a monthly wine budget.

Several people have inquired by IM or by email as to the most I have ever paid for a wine. I will gladly reveal my age but only to those women with whom I sleep, but when it comes to the most I have ever spent for a single bottle of wine, that will remain between me and my maker and is most assuredly none of the business of the income tax authorities.

Best
Rogov

Several people have inquired by IM or by email as to the most I have ever paid for a wine. I will gladly reveal my age but only to those women with whom I sleep, but when it comes to the most I have ever spent for a single bottle of wine, that will remain between me and my maker and is most assuredly none of the business of the income tax authorities.

Best
Rogov

You are a bad man, Mr. Rogov.. but I like your style.. I think we would have a good time drinking.. and if you threw Jenise Stone into the mix, I know we would....

thanks for the good laugh!!!

In 2009, I drank 62 bottles of wine (down from 75 in 2008, must reverse this trend). The average cost is probably under $20/bottle. The most I spent was $55 for a Provenance Cab (which is still on my rack) and the least is about $5 for Concha y Toro Chardonnay (which wasn't bad for the price). The latter part of 2009, I filled my rack with wine probably averaging over $30 bottle. I told my wife I would drink it down before I bought anymore wine since no matter how hard I try, no matter what I tell myself, I can't go into a wine store without leaving with over $100 worth of wine.

[David M. Bueker]

'59s for my wive's birthday

Told Betsy about the rest?