A wine cellar
serves a few purposes. We’re not talking about wine as a financial
investment here—for us, wine is for drinking, not selling. Having a cellar
means that you have on hand what you want to drink, without having to go
shopping. It also means you can secure the wines that might not be
available at your local wine shop the next time you look—maybe they're
bottles you can only buy straight from the winemaker or from a mailing
list, maybe they're something that's made in small quantity or rarely
available. Maybe you have the space to purchase a case so you have stock
for the future.
Most importantly, a cellar is about aging wine. If you
haven't spent much time drinking wines that have aged in the bottle,
gather some friends together and seek out some wines that have aged.
Explore a little, and take your time. If you get excited to taste old
wines, then cellaring might be for you. Wine is a living thing—which makes
it both fascinating and unpredictable. Aging wine is discovering how the
fruit from a single year can continue to evolve for years and possibly
decades to come.
If you have the chance to explore, do it! Your
boutique wine shop, online shops from wineries in well-known regions and
some wine-travel will help you get a taste. Some aged wines are easier to
find than others. One reason to have a cellar is to own wines you feel
grow markedly better with age, but which can rarely be bought with the age
they need—so you do it yourself.
We have designed My Wine Cellar with the user in mind. Record your wines in the system to keep track of stock, record tasting notes,
enter details of the wineries where you purchased the wine.
Our My Wine Cellar is available to use, simply purchase 12 bottles of
wine with us per year and stay as
a registered VIP.
Your wine information will remain secure.
Please
have a look at My Wine Cellar - enter some of your wine information - get
a feel for the system.
My Wine Cellar is a great incentive
to build your collection. We want to help you create a very
impressive Wine Cellar for your enjoyment and investment!
If you are lucky
enough to have a cool, dark basement or chilly area under your stairs,
figuring out where to put your wine collection might be easy.
But many
wine pros argue that temperature-controlled offsite storage is a better
idea. One of the "cons" of a home wine cellar is that it is too easy to
raid it on those
spur of the moment dinner parties or unexpected
guests – but in saying that – that is also a "pro" of having your cellar
at home. It is recommended that you try a bottle early on to determine
what you think and how long you'd like to age any other bottles you have,
then hide the rest! For this purpose, offsite storage might be the option
for you. The temptation to pull a cork can be too great for wine lovers
like us. Sometimes, "Out of sight, out of mind" is key for accomplishing
this goal.
Most wine enthusiasts
recommend buying at least three bottles of anything you want to cellar.
If
you have a few bottles, you can get to know the wine over the years as it
develops, and have a replacement on hand if a bottle is flawed.
If you
are a little stuck on which wines to purchase a little trick is to pick a
focus for your purchases: Pick one or two things you love and buy those
regularly. It’s great knowledge to understand a few regions or producers
in depth. Pick a wine region that you fancy and buy three different
producers' wines from the same vintage. Then if you are feeling
comfortable with your purchases and are getting a feeling for choosing the
correct wines, you may wish to venture to another region or wine maker.
There are plenty around – so it’s time to check them out.
Many wine
lovers regret buying too much at the start, and then finding that their
tastes changed over time. Follow what you like in the beginning but never
stop challenging your notions of what's 'good' and what's 'bad'.
Another aspect to consider is if the wines you are purchasing will actually fit in with your life. It might be time to do a little self-reflection. Think about how and what you actually eat at home. Buy for your actual life, not for some ideas you've formed about the wines you admire, or that your friends admire. There is no point buying the best "Red" in the store to go with that chef inspired meaty steak dish if you are not a fan of red meat – just saying!!
What wines
are worth storing for years before you drink? To over-simplify, it comes
down to acid and structure. A cellarable wine doesn't need to be a
super-expensive bottle: in fact, a producer's simple entry-level wine
might be a haunting bombshell after a decade. Perhaps the tannin was a
little intense and the wine seemed tightly laced at first—ten years later
it can be soft and fine, as layers of earthy flavours have developed and
the fruit has softened. For some, it comes down to just one quality.
People try to say it's about a lot of things, but really, if there's acid,
then the wine will at least survive, if not get better.
Wines with
residual sugar as well as that all-important acid are a particularly
popular category for collectors. Over time they begin to appear drier than
they once were, and that trajectory is a magical one.
This
is why we have created "My Wine Cellar". It’s your one stop place for all
the wine in your cellar. It lists all the details you need to know about
your wines. If you already have a large cellar, then the setting up
process might be a little time consuming but so worth while when you can
easily identify the perfect wine for the perfect occasion. If you are just
starting out, just update all the required fields (that interest you) as
you go along. My Wine Cellar is a comprehensive database to keep all your
wines information in the one place. And the best part is you can fill in
as much or as little data as YOU require. Not interested in the region –
don’t put it in. Want to remember where, when and how many you purchased?
Fill in the required fields so you are not second guessing this aging
bottle in your cellar. You will know exactly when it will be ready – which
makes you look pretty good to your friends – doesn’t it??
Let’s get
going – It’s time to start stocking that wine cellar you have always
dreamed of.
Cheers!!
