| Most
of today's wines are ready for drinking immediately
upon purchase. Yet, a high percentage of them will benefit
from aging (sitting around un-opened) from 1-3 years
-- sometimes more. The number of bottles you want keep
on hand, and how long you intend to keep them, will
probably determine the storage location. I suppose every
wine "collector" would opt for his or her own wine cellar
if the circumstances were right (money, space). But,
short of that, your choices will likely come down to
two choices: either keeping your wine at home, or renting
a temperature-controlled space to store the bottles
as they age, or a combination of the two. The rationale
for keeping any wine at home is primarily a matter
of convenience. Secondarily (sometimes primarily), you're
able to look at it and handle it anytime -- immediate
gratification -- a big deal among wine fans/fiends/geeks.
Assuming
you've decided to keep some wines around the
house, the next issue will be ...where? Wine doesn't
like high temperatures or glaring light, so the kitchen
is probably out. And, in most cases, the garage is also
a poor choice. So, unless you construct your own cellar
in a basement or garage, you'll be looking to take-over
some of your living space. Usually by default, a coat
closet or extra room in the house gets the nod. So,
here's how I proceeded...
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Racks
and bins -
This
was my original "cellar." I just took out the
shelf, the supports, and the clothes hanging bar
from the hall closet, and put in a pine modular
rack (I'd seen an ad in the Wine Spectator back
in '84 -- some fellow was making these in his
garage). Each section consists of two racks --
6 sections in all, so they can stack up as shown
here, or 3-each side-by-side as in my current
cellar. Then, I bought some 1x12s and set up the
bins right next to it. The bin section had to
be assembled in place, or there'd have been no
way to get it in the door. After leveling both
units with about a 1/2" elevation in the front,
I secured everything to the back and/or side walls.
Starting
the collection -
There's
just no way around it -- you're going to have
to make a large initial investment in wine that
you will not drink right away. It's the only way
to "build" a collection. Buy a few bottles at
a time, or buy a lot at a time, but plan to spend
at least $1,500 on wine that you won't be touching
for a couple of years.
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What wine to buy? Whatever you like! But,
buy smart -- research everything that's available,
then pick and choose. Attend tastings, ato broaden
your own palate. As needed, seek advice from those
more knowledgeable (merchants, other collectors).
This is your only hope to keep from buying either
too much or buying the wrong wines, or even worse,
ending up with both! In compiling my collection,
I read everything I could get my hands on, the Advocate,
the Spectator, Hugh Johnson and other authors...anybody
who had an opinion. Another thing I did was decide
that I wanted a collection with breadth, even more
than depth. That is, I preferred to buy 3 bottles
each of 4 different wines, rather than 6 bottles
of 2 different wines or a case of 1 wine. This was/is
just my preference, but doing it this way will give
you a more rounded collection, and will allow you
to try many more wines. |
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