A wine collection is an impressive thing. You might have seen huge wine collections on TV, or cellars filled with expensive bottles of wine in the movies and wondered if you could have the same kind of thing. Well, a wine collection is something that takes time. Few of us can afford to rush out and buy hundreds of bottles of expensive wine on a whim. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get there. Here are some tips and pieces of advice we’ve taken from the experts at Underground Cellar on building a wine collection.
Give Your Collection Purpose
Why do you want a wine collection? Do you want a range of bottles in the cellar for personal consumption? Or do you want to have a bottle ready for every occasion, and something to show off to your friends? Alternatively, you may be collecting as an investment. You may still drink some of the bottles, but others will be investment pieces, growing in value for the future.
Wine can be an excellent investment, but there’s nothing wrong with a collection for consumption (or a bit of both) either. Just know why you are buying wine before purchasing as this will influence what you buy (taking personal taste out of the equation can free you up) and how much you spend.
Learn About Wine
You might know what you like, but are you an expert? If your collection is going to be drunk, enjoyed, and shared, you might be happy to know the basics, or at least to be able to fake it. If you want to be able to sound like you know your stuff, and especially how to pair wine with food, you can learn some simple tips and tricks from an article we found to be very helpful, which included keeping your meal simple so that the wine remains the star of the show.
But, if you want to turn your collection into something special that’s worth a lot of money, you need to learn more. Spend time studying wine, learning about provenance and pedigree, as well as researching vintage reports, tasting notes, and details of the wineries you’d like to buy from.
Understand Your Budget
A wine collection is a long-term investment, and so your collection, like your budget, will be fluid. When you were younger, spending $10 on a bottle of wine might have been an extravagance, and the idea of spending more on something you weren’t even going to drink would have seemed nothing short of crazy. But, if you’ve got more disposable income, and you are looking for something that will grow in value, things might have changed. Understand your budget and how much you want to spend, but let it be fluid. Appreciate that your budget will change over time and that sometimes the bottles you don’t drink will cost a lot more than the ones that you do.
Check the Cellar Period
Some wines will last in your cellar for years and years. Others need to be drunk far faster. Whether you are consuming or investing, you need to look at these ranges. For example, a sauvignon blanc can only be drunk for up to three years, whereas a cabernet sauvignon might last for over fifty.
Often, the best place to start with any collection is with things that you already like and know a little about. Wine is no different. Invest in a few bottles that you are comfortable with, and then learn as your collection grows. It’s a long-term investment, not something that is going to grow overnight.
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