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"How To" with Tips on Creating Your Own Wine Cellar!A wine cellar can be as grand as an entire room devoted to your collection or as simple as a cardboard box in the back of the closet… check out these tips to help ensure you help cellar your wine correctly! Starting and maintaining a cellar is easy, and the best part is that you DO NOT need to be a true wine connoisseur to reap the benefits. I will be the first to admit that there is nothing like the first smell and sip of a fine wine that has been matured gracefully for years, but cellaring wines is about more than just a great moment, there is also the simple fun of discovery that comes with the process: trying the same wine over time you will understand the differences and the stages a wine goes through, how it evolves over time and most IMPORTANTLY, how you like it best.
LET’S TALK LOCATION – When you open up a business the first thing your property agent will ask is what location are you looking for? Location, location, location matters, but the best part of this exercise is that closets, cubbies, basements and corners count as prime real estate for your wine cellar! A few ideas to get you started:
To the mailbag we go with another question we hear frequently… Do I need to store my wine horizontally? The answer to the question is Yes and No… Yes, if the wine has a cork, but no if it has a screw cap or synthetic cork closure. Natural cork must be kept moist to maintain a proper seal to the bottle and keep out wine’s arch enemy… AIR! Screwcaps, used more and more for fine wines, don’t need to be kept moist, so these wines can be cellared standing up if the space is an issue. PURCHASING NOTE – When buying wines at RETAIL from the shelf, especially aged wines with Natural cork, take note if they have been kept standing up or on their side. If you see a 6 year old bottle in a wine shop standing up (2005 Vintage or earlier) be wary of the cork, it is worth checking out to see if it is dry and crumbling! TRICKS OF THE TRADE – FLIP THE BOTTLE UPSIDE DOWN If you do have a simple two or three box cellar that is growing and have all of your bottles standing up, one insider trick is to turn the bottles upside down so that the wine is coming in contact with the cork on your natural cork wines! This is not the “BEST” solution for long term storage (ideally you would have those bottles on their side), but it does work and solves the issue of corks drying prematurely! At the end of the day you want to use this simple checklist to ensure you have thought of the basics:
One last grab into the Mailbox for the day… How long should I cellar my wine? The beauty of this question is the same as its usual answer, IT DEPENDS… It depends upon your style and type, it depends upon what you buy, it depends upon what you can afford , it depends upon you. The best ideas I have found are to read the critics whose tastes align with your own; possibly Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate or the writers at Wine Spectator for example; many top critics give aging windows on the wines they review and those details are now just a few clicks away. Another great technique mentioned earlier, THE RULE OF THREE is to try buying multiple bottles of the same wine, and open one right away to see where the wine “starts” then revisit this same wine over a few years. The ultimate reality is to TRUST YOUR OWN PALATE, keep track of what you have in inventory, record when you taste your wines in a cellar book, mobile app, or website to keep notes on when you think you will want to go pull your next bottles. Creating your own cellar can be great fun, I don't have a picture to show, but for those that think the task is daunting, I understand, less than 10 years ago I began with a few bottles and now becides being andorned with my baby daughters pink tutu's while we do laundry, it does make for a nice looking “man cave”! |
THE RULE OF THREE A rule of three that I like to follow, nothing beats the first time you buy three bottles of a big robust red wine, one to drink in the first few weeks you have it (it’s a little tight, but oh well), one to drink down the road a bit (2 years / maybe 3) where you have that first epiphany that the wine “is changing “ and has evolved, & the third bottle to taste 7-10 years later when the wine is at its optimum peak, (the tannins have softened, the body and acid are balanced and the term elegant comes to mind). As a young collector that is buying interesting wines for my cellar this approach works well with many mid-priced wines that the winemakers expect to be consumed very early, simple idea of many $25.00 to $50.00 wines would fit this model!
A BENEFIT Back to the benefits, what else is exciting about starting your own wine cellar… its very practical because you always have a few bottles at your fingertips for impromptu gatherings, casual cocktail parties, or more formal dinners that you need to bring a bottle to. Planning ahead with a small cellar can mean… no need to be frantic and rush a quick stop to the local wine shop in when you don’t have the time before the dinner party! Just a visit to your own cellar and the best part, these are bottles you bought for a reason and you will be proud to share them with friends!
Avoid regular refrigerators for LONG-TERM wine storage, they are too cold, too dry and have too much vibration to store wine LONG-TERM. If you need to keep a bottle chilled or to keep an open bottle from oxidizing after being opened, the regular fridge works great, just take it out after a week!