wa2.gif (4241 bytes)

abut9.gif (3095 bytes)



abut12.gif (3207 bytes)
abut10.gif (3636 bytes)


abut11.gif (4039 bytes)



Cellaring wine: the lessons of experience

By Nick Alabaster

I'd like to take a look at the whole area of collecting wine, relating this to my own experiences. As with most things in life, in building a cellar each person tends to do their own thing and make their own mistakes. I guess I'm trying to write the piece that I wish I had listened too when I started out collecting wine, and which might have averted one or two problems I've run into that weren't obvious from start.

Only in the last decade did the wine bug bite me, but since the early 1990s I've been saving wine to drink. I still have wines I bought during those early days, and they provide some of my most satisfying wine experiences.

I've never had the intention of buying wine for 'investment'; the closest I've got to this has been buying more of a wine than I might expect to want to drink, with a view to subsidising the wine I held on to. That was when 1995 Bordeaux was rocketing in price and I had a feeling that if I didn't get in now, I would never be able to continue to afford classed growth clarets. Well, almost five years later, a building society would have provided a greater return on my money: I've basically held up with inflation and storage charges. Lesson one: never purchase wine with a view to profits. Stick to using more reliable forms of investment. When I look back at other opportunities for investment in the software and finance industry, where I work, it makes me cringe to think that had I taken the chances I had, I would now easily be able to afford the World's greatest wines!

However, even with storage costs, inflation and large brokerage fees, I've been rewarded by a few rapid price rises and an escape route from unwanted wines. In particular, as a previous Wine Advocate subscriber, I bought highly rated wines early enough that when I came to find I disliked them, the points awarded by Parker meant there was always a willing market for them.

Overall, I've chosen to keep short-haul wines -- those which I expect to drink within three years -- at home in makeshift storage. At the moment, that means under the stairs. For longer-term wines and those I've bought 'en primeur', i.e. pre-release, I've used professional storage. The cost is now around 60p a case per month, so overall it seems pricey. However, the wines are held in ideal conditions and are covered by insurance and free delivery at any time. I've often thought of buying a specialist wine storage cabinet for home, but overall their bulk, running costs and insurance issues have found me favouring external storage. Professional storage is also a guard against my impulsiveness: when the wines are out of reach, there's no temptation in a hot headed moment to uncork a wine you'd intended to keep until maturity! This was a lesson I learnt from a previous neighbour, whose world class wines were often grabbed from the rack at midnight, only to be a vague head thumping memory the morning after!

So onto storage itself. If you don't have a 'real' cellar and have decided against specialist equipment or professional storage, all is not lost. I've stored wines at ambient conditions well beyond my usual three year rule of thumb, and they are seemingly none the worse for it. In fact, sometimes I think the storage card is overplayed. I have come to the following conclusions:

  • Slow long-term major fluctuations in temperature are unlikely to have a major impact on wine. I see my wines vary between 10 ºC and 25 ºC around a 15 degree average over the course of the year and find very few wines having any indication of problems.
  • The humidity is also not likely to play an important part unless the conditions are extremely dry. I don't think that's the case with a modern house and I've drunk wines from bottles left standing for over two years with no difference to those lying down. In fact, recent tests with Champagne and Rioja cast doubt on the 'all wine must be stored horizontally' rule and Barolo has always had upright defenders. More important is to protect against light. I suspect supermarkets damage much of their slower-moving lines this way. Certainly, I know to avoid them, after taking them back a few times, no matter how much the discount to move them is. I think 2 years in the light is pretty much the death of most wines, red and white. Especially avoid faded labels!
  • Rapid daily temperature changes are the most damaging, especially when the peaks are well into the 20s. To avoid these, enclose the wines in a small ground floor room (e.g. under the stairs), preferably on concrete, and tightly enclose as many of the wines as you can in closely packed boxes.
  • Corks are the main weakness of temperature-damaged wines. I truly believe that it's only wines sealed with poor corks that are ineffective against the air pressure gradient that show true signs of moderate temperate fluctuation damage. High temperatures, consistently in the high 20s and 30s ?C will cause the fruit to fade and odd stewed flavours to emerge. But poor corks can lead to oxidation from even the slightest variations. One obvious case I found was putting a white wine in the fridge and taking it back out again. As it warmed up, bubbles appeared from the top of the cork. A further bottle was clearly browning compared to others and I returned the whole batch.

 

How long should wines be cellared for? Many words have been spoken on this subject, and while I find the guidelines reasonably useful, at the end of the day personal preferences make many of these rules arbitrary. Some like wines young, some like them old -- who on earth can say a wine is at its peak when no two people will ever agree with every example? Best is to try the wines young, even when people say you're wasting them, until YOU decide that's not the time for you. Far better to determine yourself when a wine is ready for drinking.

How many bottles of each wine should you buy? My preference is for three to six bottles, only going to twelve if the wine is of special merit or cannot be purchased any other way. Time and time again I regret buying six or twelve untasted. I'd suggest never buying more than three of an untested wine no matter how good the reviews have been. If that leads to a problem, why not try the buy thirteen rule for in-demand wines? You try the single bottle, and then decide whether to cellar the case or sell it on. Or why not go to a tasting before you open your own case? I've certainly saved myself the worry of trying to drink through wines that I've since regarded as overrated or not my taste. The selling-on of wine though relies on it being sought after at auction, such as a New World superstar or classed growth Bordeaux. And it needs to rise 25% over purchase price as the broker takes a hefty cut. Single bottles or wines not held professionally will rarely, if ever, get sold on for as much as you paid.

However, my main reason for avoiding cases lots is for the often neglected area of changing tastes. This is especially true when you first start collecting wine. Time and time again wines bought with great expectation let you down. It might be that you misjudged a wine for its potential to improve. But a simple change of tastes can wipe out any advantages to holding back a wine in a flash. The temptation to make impulsive case purchases on the rationale that you are building up a collection that will provide a steady stream of mature wines may be based on the misplaced notion you'll still like the same wines in 5 or 10 years. In all likelihood you tastes will change and you may end up regretting many of those purchases. I built up a collection of too many wines too quickly. When I should have just been holding back a few bottles a month, I was saving back a few cases. Now I'm in a position where I've barely bought a wine for six months trying to bring my collection back to a manageable size. It's not as if I have thousands of bottles, as some collectors have, but with a gradual cut back on drinking and a shifting of taste my stash of a few hundred still seems unwieldy.

There is one thing I am certain of in this lean period of wine purchases. I know from past experiences that no matter how many 'bargains' and great opportunities arise this year, there'll be at least an equal number available next year too.

In closing, here are my seven tips for successful collecting:

  • For wines you wish to keep for longer than three years, consider a wine fridge or professional storage, if you don't have a real cellar to hand.
  • Don't worry too much about the storage of wine for fewer than 3 years provided you make enough effort to avoid light and extreme/rapid temperature variation.
  • Build up your collection slowly and don't stick to just one wine region. Your tastes will change, I can guarantee it.
  • Avoid case purchases where possible: share amongst friends or buy mixed cases instead.
  • Don't buy for investment purposes.
  • Drink the wines when you feel like it, not when someone else tells you to.
  • Keep your receipts: a corked wine is a corked wine and don't let anyone tell you it's your fault after cellaring it for two years.

Happy collecting!