Gathering a Wine Collection

With the popularity of wine increasing, more and more people are considering putting together a wine collection. This can be for personal use, for investment, or for many other reasons.

The first lesson of collecting wine is to buy what you like. The market could go south, wine could not appreciate the way you feel it might, but in the end if you have wines you love, you haven't lost everything. Spend some time figuring out what you personally enjoy. Try different wines, and read web reviews and talk to friends for for best buy suggestions. Visit wineries and learn about how wines are made.

When you have a feel for what wines appeal to you, choose a few red that you really enjoy. Whites don't really need aging, so you can just buy those when you are prepared to use them. Reds you need to buy in advance, so they age in your cellar. Buy a few cases of red - it's far cheaper to buy a case than to buy single bottles.

It's always nice to buy aging wines from wineries you visit. Half of what you are enjoying, when you open a bottle many years from now, is the memories of when you found and bought the bottle.

We were lucky, recently, while opening a '78 cabernet. We weren't sure how good it would be - the bottle was a "find" in a purchased house. It was absolutely delicious. The next day we went to the Sharpe Hill Winery and were amazed to found they made an extremely similar wine. It had the "youthful" characteristics of the wine we had tasted. We bought a few bottles, but now we must wait another 20 years to find if it also ages as well. Think of the memories when we go to open those bottles ...

Remember that you are stocking this cellar for "all aged wine" consumption for the next 5-10 years, if not longer. Buy different wines for different types of meals you might eat. It's good to have some of everything - bordeaux, cabernet, shiraz, zinfandel, merlot, and yes, pinot noir.

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All content on the WineIntro website is personally written by author and wine enthusiast Lisa Shea. WineIntro explores the delicious variety and beautiful history which makes up our world of wine! Lisa loves supporting local wineries and encouraging people to drink whatever they like. We all have different taste buds, and that makes our world wonderful. Always drink responsibly.