Starting a Home Wine Collection: Part 1

The Back Label

Starting a wine collection at the house can be a daunting task, especially if you are just getting into wine.  I can say from my experience that it is much easier for me to buy for my personal cellar than for the restaurants because I know what I like and I don’t like. At the restaurants I try to have something for everyone’s tastes but at my house there are only two customers (my wife and I) that really matter.   So for those of you who have been considering starting your own wine collection these next few blogs should give you a few simple guidelines.

Step 1

Identify the wine styles and wine regions that you enjoy the most.  What have you been drinking lately that really made an impression?  Have you noticed that lighter style reds don’t pack that oomph factor that you seek in wine?  If you aren’t sure what you like then it’s time to get out there and start tasting and keeping track in a notebook your thoughts on the different wines that you have enjoyed.  Find a wine shop and ask for assistance.  Tell them you are interested in a mixed case and give them a budget for the case.  Keep track of your thoughts and the wines that you enjoyed the most.  Learning your palate for wine is an important step and as you taste more and learn more you will watch as your tastes change as you experience more and different styles of wine.

Step 2
Decide what you really want out of this collection.  Do you want a collection of wines that you can pull from without guilt any day of the week?  Are you looking to hold some wines for a few years to experience them when they are closer to maturity?  Do you just want an impressive looking shelf of wines to show off when company is over?  Personally, my cellar has a large percentage of wines that I am aging for enjoyment in the years to come.  I have been adding every vintage from my favorite wine regions and eventually will get to a point where the bulk of the wines that I’ll be enjoying from my cellar will have a number of years of bottle age on them.   This is easier said than done because along with the patience that aging wines requires I still have to have something to drink today and tomorrow.  I also have the added benefit of getting to try most of the higher end wines as a result of my job and am not blindly guessing on how good they are going to be.  Visiting wine shops and going to tasting is the only way for the typical consumer to get to try wines before they buy.  If you are serious about building a wine collection you need to find out when tastings are taking place and try to attend as many as possible.  You’ll be surprised how often they occur each week.

Step 3
Whether you’ve decided you are a California Cab junkie of you appreciate the reds of Burgundy or the Rhone there are always going to be less expensive everyday wines from those regions.  Make these entry level wines your Tuesday supper wines and drink them regularly.  When a great vintage like 2007 in the Rhone comes along set aside a budget for the higher end wines but make sure to by plenty of the everyday (think Cotes du Rhone instead of Chateauneuf) for enjoying young.  Tasting these everyday wines will also give you a clearer picture of how long you want to let the more expensive ones age for.

Step 4
“It’s only wine.”  You can’t take ‘em with you and drinking a great wine too young has never hurt anyone.  Having a good bunch of house wines is great but sometimes you just got pull a cork on a special bottle from time to time.  I’ll never know what my pre Katrina cellar’s gems tasted like because I never got the chance.  I have made the mistake of putting too much of an emphasis on hard to get expensive (for my budget) wines that need to lay down for years to reach their peak.   Lately I’ve started going more to the middle on my selections so that even if we open something too young we can just laugh about it move on to the next wine.  Bottom line: Don’t turn your wine cellar into a museum of look but don’t touch wines.  I’ve been guilty of that and it’s no fun for me or my favorite customers.

Next time I’ll highlight some regions that I think produce great value wines that are perfect for the guilt free portion of your wine cellar.  Until then…Back Label Out!

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