First and foremost, you have two cellars; one for near term and one for extended aging. If you do not have the first you will invariable end up raiding the second and consuming wines well before they are optimal. When selecting wines for each think about what type of wine works best for each ‘cellar’. A Cotes-du-Rhone from a strong vintage might be nice for the next year or two while you are waiting on that great Chateaunuef-du-Pape to mature.
When thinking about what to put into your cellar remember how wine ages. We all expect the slow integration of flavors, the mellowing of tannins, harmonizing of the effects of wood aging and the development of secondary flavors and aromas. Classic wines like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo are exceptional candidates for this. Bigger fruit-forward wines like Aussie shiraz and many New World offerings are more variable. If you like the characteristics of a particular wine at the moment it may be time to drink it. There are many stories of people who believed a wine would get better with age only to find the characteristics they enjoyed faded or were replaced with others less agreeable to their palate.
Baseline your wines. One client always buys in sevens and thirteens this is so he can drink one bottle immediately and create a baseline. In this way when he checks in on it years later he knows how little or much it has developed.
Think about food. What do you like to prepare and consume? As wine is an integral part of any meal, you should have wines at the ready which will match well with your meals.
Personalize of Glamorize? Is your cellar to be a personal expression of you own relationship with wine (your evolution as a collector), your travels and your culinary interests? Some people prefer to have famous wines, many of which will increase in value over time. If this is your strategy you should identify what these wines are and make your interest known to your source(s). Perhaps your strategy is some of each.
Remember you are going to drink it. Seems obvious but if you buy two cases of that x cabernet you’ve got to have that experience twenty-four times over the coming years. Perhaps you would prefer four different experiences six times each.
Consider mature wine from ‘off’ vintages. At the moment 2001 Bordeaux is available, fairly priced and drinking well. Of course wines of the vintage are not close to the 2000s but you can drink them and ponder with excitement why you built a cellar!
Chris Minervino
Lower Falls Wine Co.