You go to a prestigious wine tasting event. How much do you expect to invest in the wines wowed you?

Question

Per bottle?
Entire immediate purchases based on the tasting?

Answer 1

It really all depends on the event, the wines, and how much money I'm able to blow at that time. Generally, I'll decide how much I'm going to spend before I go to the event.

The best advice is, if it's available to you, read up on the tasting package before you attend the tasting - that should give you an idea about the wines you're going to try, what their prices are, and you can recall past vintages that you may have tried.

Most of the time, after looking through the package, I make a 'wish list' of the wines - those that I'm likely to buy, those that I might buy, and those that I don't think I'll buy. The list, of course, is always subject to change during the actual tasting. Then I look at my budget (which has ranged in the past from about a grand to exactly zero) and set up a provisional game plan. Then I let my palate (and my nose) decide.

I tend to spend the most at tastings when the bottles are in the $70-100 range. Any less, and they're not likely to blow me off my feet; any more and I'm not likely to be able to afford them even if they did.

It is important to note, that one need not be afraid of spending zero, and simply attending a tasting for the chance to taste great wine that one cannot otherwise afford - there's nothing wrong with it, and it's a great way to expand your collection of tasting notes.

Now you're starting to make me recall the Margaux tasting I was at last year ('02, '01, '98 Margaux; '03, '02, 2000 Pavillon Rouge - there was supposed to be a Pavillon Blanc as well, but it never turned up), so I'm going to end it here. Invest what you can afford, based on your finances and the quality of the wine, but don't be afraid of looking cheap or spendy - nobody is really judging you.

Answer 2

If the wine tasting was for a charitable cause then you might want to at least purchse several fairly expensive bottles of the wines that you really liked. Either way you really need to decide how much you really liked the wines and how badly you would like to own some of them. Without knowing which wines you tasted it would be hard to put a dollar figure on the wines. It all depends on you and your disposable income and how much of it you are willing to spend on wine. If you can afford to buy a mixed case of the wines you liked then go for it. Life is short... Enjoy.