Kind of a silly question

but one I've wondered about since I joined this board.

How in the world do you find the time to drink all this wine?

As a relatively new "enthusiast", it seems that I'm barely scratching the surface when it comes to trying different styles of wine, let alone different producers of the same style of wine, let alone different vintages of the same producers of the same style wines, etc.

I'm keeping a running list of "wines I like", and I may have picked up a second or possibly a third bottle of something that I really enjoyed (and even bought a 1/2 case once of Chateau Cheval Noir St. Emillion) , but I find that there are just sooooo many recommendations floating around and different wines to try that I can't comprehend ever having the time to try/collect as many as some of the people on this forum, not to mention finding a "standard, everyday favorite".

Have you just been doing it for a long, long time?
Are you in the industry?
Do you attend a lot of tastings?
How much time would you say you devote to drinking/tasting wine per week on average?

I realize this is a rather broad question...

but one I've wondered about since I joined this board.

How in the world do you find the time to drink all this wine?

As a relatively new "enthusiast", it seems that I'm barely scratching the surface when it comes to trying different styles of wine, let alone different producers of the same style of wine, let alone different vintages of the same producers of the same style wines, etc.

I'm keeping a running list of "wines I like", and I may have picked up a second or possibly a third bottle of something that I really enjoyed (and even bought a 1/2 case once of Chateau Cheval Noir St. Emillion) , but I find that there are just sooooo many recommendations floating around and different wines to try that I can't comprehend ever having the time to try/collect as many as some of the people on this forum, not to mention finding a "standard, everyday favorite".

Have you just been doing it for a long, long time?
Are you in the industry?
Do you attend a lot of tastings?
How much time would you say you devote to drinking/tasting wine per week on average?

I realize this is a rather broad question...

1. I became interested in wine about 20 years ago.... that doesn't seem like that long ago to me. When I began I drank mostly popular California wines.... mostly reds. I have slowly tried more things over time.

2. Nope... just a consumer.

3. Seldom... most of the tastings I get to are just the sampling at stores and the occaisional winery tour.

4. I drink, on average 2-3 bottles a week, mostly shared with my sig other. On most nights that means a glass at dinner and perhaps a half bottle on the weekends. I devote exactly no time to taking notes. What actually happens is that I mostly drink wines I am familiar with and when buying a mixed case, I often buy a bottle or two of something new. The new ones could be recommendations of the merchant or perhaps something I've read about, here or in print elsewhere. Most of the new ones don't stick but every once in awhile I find one that I add to my regulars.

When my wine drinking ever became too organized I would probably retreat. I don't want another job or even an organized hobby. I am doing this strictly for pleasure. I'm just an amateur who likes wine, and want to remain that way.

Glenn

I am not in the trade. I love wine (obviously) but it is not even #1 in my hobbies and certainly not #1 in what consumes my free-time.

I've not been into wine for long - 6 years or so. I do go to many tastings. Frankly I don't know how I've managed it, but despite my age and despite not being in the trade and despite knowing very, very little about wines, I get the occasional invitation to trade events - and these big, walkabout tastings are very informative for a developing taste like mine, even though it is not the best way to enjoy wines.

Time / week tasting? No idea. Depending on how social I feel and how much time I have to think about making a decent dinner - 5-10 hours a week would be a rough estimate. A typical week for me is sharing 2-3 bottles with friends and/or my gf plus attending one formal tasting. If the trade tasting takes 2 hours, and it takes 3 hours to finish a bottle over dinner (Finns drink fast, lol!!), I suppose 5-10 hours is a rough estimate of what a typical week would be like - though of course at dinners, the talk is rarely specificially about wines.

-O-

but one I've wondered about since I joined this board.

How in the world do you find the time to drink all this wine?

I'm keeping a running list of "wines I like", and I may have picked up a second or possibly a third bottle of something that I really enjoyed (and even bought a 1/2 case once of Chateau Cheval Noir St. Emillion) , but I find that there are just sooooo many recommendations floating around and different wines to try that I can't comprehend ever having the time to try/collect as many as some of the people on this forum, not to mention finding a "standard, everyday favorite".

Have you just been doing it for a long, long time?
Are you in the industry?
Do you attend a lot of tastings?
How much time would you say you devote to drinking/tasting wine per week on average?

I realize this is a rather broad question...

How do I find time to drink all this wine? As a rule I have wine with every evening meal. So that's two or three bottles a week.

Yes, I've been doing this for a long time (20 years or so ).

No, I'm not in the industry.

When I started out, I tried to attend all the tastings I could. Now that I know what I like, and I've accumulated more than I'd care to admit in my cellar, I haven't attended a tasting in years.

How much do I drink a week? 3 bottles or so, a glass or two with evening meals, and occasional dessert wines.

-Paul W.

As is often said - there are no silly questions if you’re serious about the answer.
I had a mentor who introduced me to wine in the mid 1980s. My first bottle was the 1984 Estancia. Since then, 25+ years, I've read and bought and tasted. Wine with every diner is not unusual (we all eat together every night) although my wife Liz and I do take breaks once in a while just to prove to the kids we're not wine dependant.
I am not in the industry (but may be as a second career). I go to every tasting I can, wine shop, friends house or formal, organized tastings. I've also conducted tastings for local MD wineries.

(Let's get as many WLDGers as we can for a DC offline sometime.)

[Jenise]

About 20 years, not in the biz, go to about three group events per month, spend an hour a day writing about/thinking about/reading about wine, and we have wine with weekend meals and during the week if we entertain or are being entertained as all our friends love wine, too. We have guests in about twice a week and eat at someone else's house once per week on average.

The best thing for a newbie to wine is to join a wine tasting group. In that way you can taste a wide variety of wines at minimum cost and taste wines that you'd never dream buying.

The next best thing is to keep trying different wines, don't get into a rut of keep having the same thing. And don't buy large quantities of any one wine because everytime you repeat a wine it means you aren't tryingsomething different and also as a new drinker you'll find yourtastes in wine change quite quickly and a wine you love today youmay detest in a year.

For many years I have belonged to two wine tasting groups which meet regularly and taste 8 or nine wines each time. I also attend othertastings and always take the opportunity to taste in shops and supermarkets.

We also share a bottle of wine every night, and when friends come over open a few more.

Cheers

[David M. Bueker]

I've been at this crazy hobby for 13 or so years now, and in that time managed to get into two permanent tasting groups (one that started-without me- in 1974!) and been part of any number of temporary groups.

I go through about three bottles per week if not entertaining. The problems is that I average buying 4-6 bottles per week, so it's going to be hard to shrink the inventory without a serious effort to reduce buying. with both my wife and I gainfully employed (knock on wood) and no kids there does not seem to be anything that will create a forced reduction. I keep trying. I keep failing, but I keep trying.

I do think, talk, write about wine much more than I likely should. I can't count the meetings where I have spent most of the time doodling wine stuff in my folio. Ah well, they're just meetings.

Drinking wine for 25 years, "serious" about it for maybe 15.

Not in industry (though I occasionally crash industry tastings)

Am a member of 2 regular monthly tasting groups, plus a less informal email based one (no set group, but the organizers start with more or less the same core list). Go to 1 or 2 store tastings per month. Occasional bigger events.

Other than my groups and tastings, I don't think of myself as devoting myself to tasting/drinking. We have wine with dinner as a matter of course. Like David, I spend some time thinking/reading/writing about wine when I'm not actually drinking.

[Jenise]

eat at someone else's house once per week on average.

So the question is, if you have any friends that don't drink wine, do you groan when you have to go eat dinner there? I suppose real friends will know of your interest (nay, passion) and have wine (Yellowtail recommended at the market?) just for you. We don't have that problem here. It would be inconceivable to have people over for dinner and not have wine to offer even if one didn't drink.

I have one friend that doesn't drink wine herself, but stocks 2 Buck Chuck for wine drinking guests. And I know one couple who don't drink or serve wine--they're not teetotalers for any specific reason, they're just not into it. At their house, we drink water, and that's just fine. Wouldn't expect them to do something for us they wouldn't do for themselves, and it would feel wrong to accept if it were offered only out of politeness so we'd politely decline. I can appreciate how that would be different in France, but here there's a stigma involved. Outwardly, the conversation would consist of Would you care for wine? and No thank you. But here, where wine regularly with evening meals is not a societal tradition, the underlying question could actually be "Can go without a drink?" to which you must reply "of course I can".

(Let's get as many WLDGers as we can for a DC offline sometime.)

I'm game, Jon. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help get something going.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

Outside of a passion for travel, I haven't had something grab me, shake me and reel me in to the point that I wanted to pursue it in earnest as a hobby in a long time. Wine seems to have done that, so now I'm just in the process of figuring out how involved I want to be, how structured an experience I want out of it, etc. I'm currently on the email list for all the local wine stores, I have my monthly wine tasting group that a friend and I started, I'm taking WSET courses, and attending events on average of 1-2 per month, as well as having a glass of wine w/ dinner most nights. Sounds pretty similar to a lot of you!

[James Roscoe]

So where were you guys when Hoke came into DC in December? We had a great offline at Dinos up on Connecticut Ave. with some of the Therapy people. There is a lot of cross-pollination between the two boards/forums. I am always game to get together for some wine. If I'm available, I will be there (assuming you want me).

I'm an absolute sucker for buying wine. It's probably not healthy

I like visiting wineries, wine shops, etc-especially the ones that offer tastings.

I also generally bring wine to most dinners with friends, and many of us have monthly potlucks. Sometimes the food is amazing at said potlucks (and many of the dinners), and sometimes I get "comped" at restaurant dinners. It makes no financial sense, but I am not complaining about many of the meals we've had as a group of friends.

Generally a couple bottles per week. It will take awhile to get through it.

Have you just been doing it for a long, long time? About four years.

Are you in the industry? No.

Do you attend a lot of tastings? We attend them when we can, but it only amounts to a few formal tastings a year. We just buy lots of different stuff from the wine shop to see what we like.

How much time would you say you devote to drinking/tasting wine per week on average? We average two bottles of wine a week. When friends come over we may taste eight, or more wines at a sitting. My wife calculated that, if we quit buying wine today, we have enough to last us more than three years.