Private clients · family vintages
The family cellar: the years that matter, in bottles
Everyone's birth year, the wedding year: for each date, the tool tells you whether the vintage is drinking now, whether it should be kept until a child turns eighteen, how many bottles to plan and at what price. When the year is weak, it suggests the nearest one that holds up. No château named: the quote does that, from the stock.
Your dates
Up to six dates. Leave empty whatever you don't need. Nothing is sent until you click on the quote.
Why a case of twelve for a child
A birth-year bottle gets opened once. A case of twelve goes with a lifetime: one opened at eighteen, one at twenty-one, one at twenty-five, one at graduation, two at the wedding, and some left for the next children. Bought young, in a good year, it costs far less than a twenty-year-old vintage bought later.
- The child is under eighteen: a wine for laying down from their year, to be left to sleep. The page birth wine to keep for 18 years tells you which ones will last.
- The year is already some way back: the wine is drinking, and you are more likely to find it in a wine merchant's stock than in a shop. The page birth-year vintage tells you, year by year, what still holds up.
- The wedding year: a case for the wedding anniversaries, one bottle per milestone. See wine for wedding anniversaries.
What if the birth year was a poor one?
Take the nearest good year, or the year of another family event. A weak thirty-year-old vintage has often lost its fruit; a great neighbouring vintage tells the story of the same time and still drinks well. The tool suggests the nearest year that holds up.
How much does a birth-year case for a child cost?
€300–1,200 for twelve bottles for laying down in a good recent year, depending on the appellation: a Saint-Émilion grand cru or a classified growth's second wine at the low end, a Médoc classified growth at the top. An older vintage costs more, because it has been kept for you.
Where do you keep the case for eighteen years?
In a cellar holding steady between 12 and 14 °C, in the dark, lying down. Without a cellar, an electric wine cabinet will do; the kitchen and the garage will not. Storage conditions are set out on the page building your cellar.
Can the whole family go on a single order?
Yes, and it is the simplest way: one selection, one delivery, one invoice. For a large cellar to fill all at once, see having your cellar filled.