And now my math brain is all riled up- but you’re right. If you treated my advice as a perfect mathematic formula, you would jump from 160 bottles in the cellar to 304 in year 2 to 432 in year three. Oops. I was really more of an art person in school. The 16 case in the first year is a good model for modest consumption of wines that you expect to peak in 5-10 years. After that, you would purchase essentially to top up for your consumption. I would argue you would want to go over the 160 bottle level, as you never know when the magic year happens when a number of wines are at peak and too delicious for you to leave in the basement any longer. Or, maybe you have a year where you do a lot more entertaining than normal and deplete things then.

I have seen formulas where you multiply the number of bottles you drink in a year by the age you like to drink them as the magic number for deciding how many bottles to buy. For my example of 5 year (ish) old bottles and 96 per year, you would want to invest to keep 480 bottles in the cellar. So, yes, you would bring down your wine buying accordingly. But this isn’t math, it’s wine. And I really could use a glass now. Whew.

I was following everything in your math until the 3rd last paragraph when you said:
“In year 5, you’ll need to have saved 8 bottles per month of your category B wines, to hit your estimate or 96 bottles. That means a purchase of 16 cases of 12 in year one, or about $560 given our $35 shopping limit.”

It took me a few minutes but I think where I got confused is that in order to purchase 16 cases (192 bottles) in year one, I need to spend $560 every month, or $6720 a year. And then the yearly number starts decreasing (Ex. Year 2 would be 192-16, or 176 bottles). Is that right?

IMHO, those numbers would appear a significant investment for the average person.

Don\’t be concerned if you find yourself inhaling deeply from your glass, over and over… it is just your nose\’s way of telling you that it wants more!…