Where do the wines you drink come from?

[Jenise]

In David's thread about palate changes, Tim York commented "Nowadays, my top five regions in terms of bottles consumed are Loire valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône Valley and Tuscany."

Funny enough, just yesterday I was playing hookey from my yard work by fooling around with the report function on CellarTracker, and I had it sort my consumption history based on tasting notes. Although, categorically, my tasting notes also include wines others pour for me at group functions and the like vs. just bottles I own, it does include all or most of the bottles that never get into inventory, including a huge number of white wines--only issue is, I may buy and consume six of this and six of that, but only report on one each (where I may never enter any of those 12 into inventory at all). But nonetheless, it represents what I experience.

The result, based on about 1350 tasting notes posted on CellarTracker (somewhere between 2 and 3 years' worth), I drink:

43% USA (Cal 26, Wa 13, Ore 3)
35% French (Bordeaux 15, Burgundy 9, Rhone 7, Champagne 3)
8% Italian (half Tuscan, half everything else)
3% Spain (surprised this is so low)
3% Portugal (doesn't seem right, I rarely ever drink Portugese wines--they're good but they're just not around)
2% Canada
2% Germany and Austria
2% South Africa
2% New Zealand
2% Australian

I am quite surprised that California is that much higher than France--would have expected about even). I definitely own more French--but perhaps I hoard them. It's also true that this report would not reflect all the unreported French whites and rose we drink.

Not surprised that I drink more California than Washington and Oregon put together, though, as I love pinot so much and I generally favor California pinots over Oregon. And I'm surprised about Portugal over Canada--I know we're only talking miniscule percentages here but I only own five bottles of Portugese wine that aren't Port, and I seem to regularly sample Canadian wines.

You?

CT doesn't really provide a guide for me, as I use more for inventory management, so only enter wines that I buy intending to cellar. Shorter term wines don't get entered.

I went back through my notes for last 6 weeks on so. I didn't count wines from wine dinners etc (big Ridge tasting and an old Cali tasting would have tilted things more US), just wines we served at home. I expected to be Franco-philic, but not to extent that this sample showed:
35 French
8 German
6 US (5 CA, 1 NY)
5 Italian
3 Austrian
2 Spanish
1 South Africa

My CT says 66% French, 13% German, 8% US, 8% Italy, 2% Austrian, 1% Spain and less than 1% Portugal, Australia, Lebanon, Argentina.

I haven't taken the time to use Cellar Tracker but I would guesstimate my preferences are as follows:

1. California (65%+)
a. Sonoma County (35%)
b. Napa Valley (25%)
c. Other regions (5%)

2. France (20%)

3. Italy (10%)

4. Other regions 5%

This includes wine bar sampling.
Note that although California is so dominant, I tend to seek out IPOB/Old Worldish California wines.

[David M. Bueker]

Rough consumption history since 2004 when I started using CellarTracker:

France: 35%
USA: 29%
Germany: 28% (FYI, I have consumed more Donnhoff than Italy, Austria and Spain combined)
Italy: 4%
Austria: 3%
Spain: 1%

These are rounded numbers for each country where I have gone above 1%. There are lower levels for Portugal (Port), Australia, etc.

[Robin Garr]

I don't keep that kind of records, but I'd say of the wine I buy - virtually all locally - the lion's share comes about equally from Italy and France, with much smaller proportions from all other parts of the world; we also have a running supply of California wines through our connection with The California Wine Club, most of those coming from smaller, less-familiar California producers. But - tying in with my response on David's thread - I find that my tastes seem to have gravitated back to where they started: Italy (Tuscany, mostly) and France (Southern Rhone, Loire, Languedoc and Provence, mostly).

I can refine my numbers a bit further. Since June 2014, when I started using CT, my consumption split of 766 bottles (which includes c.50 bottles gifted) by country is as follows -


Argentina 0.1%
Austria 0.1%
Chile 0.3%
England 0.1%
France 81.5% (of which Bordeaux 8.5%, Burgundy 12.5%, Loire 18.5%, Rhône 13.3%.............)
Germany 3.4%
Italy 10.4% (of which Tuscany 5.1%............)
Portugal 1.0%
South Africa 0.1%
Spain 2.0%
Switzerland 0.4%
USA 0.5%

I guess that, before I moved to France, the non-French proportion was a bit higher due to better availability in Belgium.

Wot no Aussies and no Kiwis ?

4148 wines since 2007

39% South Africa
22% France
10% Italy
8% New Zealand
6% USA (4% CA, 2% from 14 other States)
4% Australia
3% Spain
1% Canada
1% England
1% Greece
0.6% Chile
0.6% Austria
0.5% Germany

and 21 countries with <5%

Figures are skewed by amount of time I've spent in South Africa, I go every year (5 weeks this year) where I drink only local wines, often at lunch and dinner.

CellarTracker throws out some surprising info. Turns out the one wine I drink more of than any other is The Wine Society's own label Montepulciano d Abruzzo (Italy), it's our 'go-to' wine with pasta and that's what we're having tonight.

80% from my basement - all locally grown grapes.
10% from local (Niagara County, NY or Niagara Peninsula ONT) wineries.
10% the rest of the world.

Based on CT since 2005, and only for wines purchased.

France 38.8% (mostly Champagne, then Bordeaux and Burgundy tied, then Rhone and Alsace, and the rest of France)
Australia 13% (overwhelmingly South Australia)
Germany 11.4% (overwhelmingly Mosel)
Spain 11.3% (split roughly evenly between sherry, Ribera del Duero, Rioja and Catalunya with a small amount from everywhere else)
Italy 10.5% (Half from Piedmont, a quarter from Tuscany)
US 7.8% (Almost all from California)
Hungary 1.8% (Tokaji)
Portugal 1.7% (Port and Madeira)
Chile 1.1%
New Zealand .9%
Austria .8%
Japan (!) .3%
South Africa .3%
Argentina .2%
Lebanon .2% (Musar)
Canada .1%

I generally favor California's pinots over Oregon's

Say more.

Much like Robin, I don't maintain a file of what I drink by percentages.

I would say that since I left a professional executive position in the wine world, my consumption changed because I no longer felt obligated to constantly renew and expand my knowledge base. No longer was I primarily focused on tasting/drinking for knowledge while enjoying the hell out of it (nice work if you can get it), now I was drinking primarily for personal and social enjoyment.

At that point, what I was drinking shifted to

--lots of local wines (Oregon and Washington; some Idaho)
--old California favorites
--Italian (northern, all the way from Val d'Aoste through the Piedmont, Lombardy, Trento-Alto Adige and Friuli. Also Campania.)
--French ( Bordeaux---mostly the new style; Burgundy when I can; Alsace; Rhone and Provence). I quite like the Loire, but for some reason don't drink very much of it. Haut-Savoie and Isere. Roussillon.
--Portuguese---finding some pretty awesome wines there.
--Austria---nervy, green, edgy, acidic and bright whites.

I still dabble and love to find something new, but not as often as before.

The new areas that have given me tremendous pleasure are Sicily (primarily the Etna, and primarily the Nerello), Corsica and Sardinia, and the rather amazing Val d'Aosta, but please don't tell anyone because there's not much and I don't want the prices to go up.

Stylistically, I prefer the lean and nervy, high acid/moderate tannin/modest oak. And lots and lots of rose'.

[Jenise]

I generally favor California's pinots over Oregon's

Say more.

A generalization, but: red fruit/spice/tomato (skin and leaf) vs. plum/violets/forest floor. Not that I haven't had excellent Oregon pinots, and not that I don't own them (I do, old favorites like St. Innocent and Cristom, and new fascinations like Kelley Fox and Teutonic). But the Oregon rarely offers the kind of aromatics that make me swoon like a Wind Gap did earlier this week.

Looking over my records, here's what I come up with:

France -- 50 percent (almost half of which are from the Loire @ 23 percent)
Italy -- 19 percent (Piedmont @ 9 percent)
USA -- 12 percent (Washington @ 7 percent)
Spain -- 9 percent
Portugal -- 4 percent
Austria -- 2 percent
Everything else at 1 percent or less...

Via CellarTracker, my consumption of only my bottles over about 10 years has been:

France 36.8% (a bit of everything)
Australia 18.6% (mainly Coonawarra cabs and Hunter Vy Semillon)
Germany 9.7% (mainly Mosel)
USA 7.5% (WA, CA and OR in that order)
Italy 6.7% (mainly Tuscan)
Spain 5.0%
NZ 4.3%
South Africa 2.7%
Canada 1.6
Portugal/Chile/Austria 1% each

[Jenise]

I asked my husband to guess what we drink--simplistically, I had him divide 100 four ways: France, U.S., Italy and 'other'. Without hesitation he said, "Oh, at least 50% France, probably 30% U.S., 10% Italy and whatever's left is the rest." That's just about exactly what I'd have thought without CT to make it clearer.

So I went back to CT and re-ran the numbers based on bottles consumed from my cellar. Hardly made a dent in change, mostly upping Burgundy and Oregon a few points each presumably on the basis of our white wine consumption. These I inventory but only post a TN on one out of multiple bottles unless I held them a long time.

I don't keep records, but I've got a very good feel of what we drink:

Italian - Probably most of all. A lot of Tuscany and Piedmont, but am appreciating southern Italy more and more.

French - Southern Rhone, Loire, Bordeaux and Burgundy in that order. Burgundy would be higher if it were less expensive.

USA - California, Oregon, Washington, New York (Long Island and Finger Lakes).

Spain - all regions

Argentina

When I lived in New York it was 80% red, 20% white. Since I moved to Florida it's probably 60 - 40.

70% Finger Lakes

20% West Coast USA

10% Europe mostly Italy

My spreadsheet tells me the breakdown of bottles in the cellar is roughly 50% USA (mainly California with a bit of Oregon and Washington), 30% France (Burgundy, Loire, Bordeaux, Rhône, and Alsace, in that order, with a handful of other regions too, of course), and 20% everything else (mostly Italy, a bit of Germany and Austria, and handfuls of Spain, NZ, and Australia).

But that's not genuinely representative of what we drink, for two reasons: because it doesn't include a lot of everyday "weeknight" wine, which over the last 7 or 8 years in particular has been probably a majority Italian, and because the USA is problematically overrepresented in the cellar thanks in part to nearly 15 years' membership in Ridge's ATP club (recently ended). In fact, you can look forward to some reports on verticals of Buchignani, Mazzoni, Nervo, etc. as we try to catch up and clear space.

Since I don't use CT to record notes, I can't say for sure, but my impressionistic guess is that overall consumption is more like 40% Italy, 25% USA, 25% France, 10% everything else -- and the diversity of producers is much higher for the rest of the world than for the US.

[Jenise]

70% Finger Lakes

20% West Coast USA

10% Europe mostly Italy

Carl, it's really rather interesting that you drink, in the majority, what are arguably the leanest wines produced in America and yet you contrast those with the wines of Tobin James which are just about the least-lean wines made in California. Quite a juxtaposition!

I don't have an exact calculation, but usually it's about 50-60% French, 15-20% German and the remainder split in dribs and drabs between the US and Italy.

(Of course at the moment I'm in Germany for 7 months and it's about 99% German, but that's a different story!)

Using the numbers in my storage:
69% France
13% Italy (mostly Piedmont)
12% US (almost even CA/OR)
...and single digits the rest.

This is about aging, not drinking, of course. I think my daily-drinker purchases are more heavily Italian.

[Jenise]

Using the numbers in my storage:
69% France
13% Italy (mostly Piedmont)
12% US (almost even CA/OR)
...and single digits the rest.

This is about aging, not drinking, of course. I think my daily-drinker purchases are more heavily Italian.

For me, and maybe for most, cellared bottles tell a different story. Almost backwards to our consumption history, I've got 48% French and 32% U.S., which is why the different data was so surprising. Italy's in third place again with about 8%.

I do not use Cellar Tracker but my best guess would be:

60% Napa Cab.
10% Napa Chard.
8% Rhone
10% Champagne
2% Sauternes
8% Bordeaux
2% Italian/Wash. Reds

a very few German Riesling and Wash./F.L. Rieslings in the mix

70% Finger Lakes

20% West Coast USA

10% Europe mostly Italy

Carl, it's really rather interesting that you drink, in the majority, what are arguably the leanest wines produced in America and yet you contrast those with the wines of Tobin James which are just about the least-lean wines made in California. Quite a juxtaposition!

Jenise, I don't know were you get the "leanest wines produced in America" from. Not at all in my experience. The whites go from dry to cloying, and the reds though not consistent; the ones we drinks are just as full bodied as those from anywhere else!