Changing your buying habits?

[Roy Hersh]

Are you buying more producers or consolidating to just your favorites these days?

What about Vintages, are you open to experimenting or do you just stick to the classics?

[Moses Botbol]

I'll buy any brand if I know that it is suppose to be good. There is no brand I would not consider buying. Osborne would be the closest. Never had good luck with any of their products. As for vintages, I try to cut it off at 1995 and rarely buy anything older than 1970.

[Glenn E.]

I'm trying to buy nearly mature Port now because I feel like I have a good selection of the younger stuff. So I'm looking for good values in the 1963-1987 range at the moment.

Though I did just get 2 bottles of 1997 Noval... hmm... maybe I need to buy some older Port now to make up for it...

I like buying lesser-known brands because they're cheaper and I don't feel like I need to save them and treasure them (my preciouses). I also don't buy in case quantities, so having a variety is easy for me. I do tend to stick to the bigger names, though, just out of habit.

[Eric Menchen]

My buying is all over the map. I think my buying strategy at the moment has two driving factors:
1. Fill in holes, be they vintages or producers.
2. Look for deals where a price is significantly below the market average.
When these two converge, I pull the trigger. Sometimes I'll buy just for #2 if the price is really good. #1 alone happens when finances allow, just a few times a year.

I'm certainly not consolidating on any producers, and have been buying a few more SQVPs lately. For years, I know the classics are good and have picked up quite a few lately, but with my most recent purchases I've been experimenting a little as well, in particular when it is something others around here recommend, e.g. the 1991 Croft; and of course the SQVPs come from many years.

[David Spriggs]

Tasting a lot of things and then going after my favorites. I'm not committing a lot in advance of tasting. And vintages? Yes, in general sticking with great years.
-Dave-

[Andy Velebil]

I love experimenting and still buy a bottle here and there of something I have never tried before, if the price is right. I've found some lovely gems in the process that are generally off the radar of most people.

Dry Wines:
With dry wines from Portugal I tend to buy what I feel will be long term agers from the top houses, simply because I love old wines and I want to age them. But I still get good QPR's when I find them. Sometimes those are ones I've not tried before, like the Niepoort Twisted. For about $15-16 it was a good value and worth it for a daily drinker. Though the mainstay of my buying in quantity is still those top bottles.

As far as consolidation, it's hard to say. Sure I have those I love and have proven to be top quality and which I buy more from. But with every trip to Portugal and every tasting I attend I find more and more bottles that I like. The problem being it is often hard to later find those same bottles to buy at retail. So by default of availability my cellar does lean toward a small handful of producers.

Port:
I am all over the map here and have a diverse cellar producer wise. Far more producers than the dry wine side. But in the past year or so I've been concentrating on getting older stuff and those I feel are top wines of their respective vintage. That includes "non-general" declared years, which I've found some great Ports that are never talked about yet are IMO top scoring bottles.