Hunters & Collectors:
A Case for The Cellar
by John Finocchiaro
dmit it. Running off to a wine shop or the grocery store every
time you need a bottle or two for the weekend is not all that
thrilling. It would be so much easier to have your own supply on
hand and readily available without having to pre-plan your every
sip. And wouldn’t it be nice to accumulate a small arsenal of more
expensive, special wines – ones that can lay down for a few years?
As your enjoyment and appreciation of good wine grows, so does
your desire to have you own private stash. Once you were a mere
consumer. Now you are a hunter and collector.
The ultimate indulgence for the wine aficionado may well be the
wine cellar. Designing your own personal wine cave and filling it
over time with hand-picked selections can be a thrill. And best of
all, it is all yours.
So, exactly which type of hunter and collector are you? Are you
simply one step beyond the buy-on-the-fly consumer you once
were, in need of a simple place to stockpile a few bottles to get you
through the winter months, or do you thirst for a true showpiece?
Most wine lovers lie somewhere in between.
fsmomaha.com
A
“Great wine can improve with age,
but wait too long and you will have
the most expensive salad dressing
imaginable.”
Whichever one you are, there are a few considerations to keep in
mind when planning your cellar. While most people would agree
that a large, well-stocked cellar is truly impressive, herein lies the
“The ultimate indulgence for the
most costly of mistakes. A few hundred bottles of racked wine may
wine aficionado may well be the
look great, but do the math – the dollars add up quick. If money is
no object and you are content to store unlimited quantities of the
wine cellar.”
best juice money can buy, then your problems are over. As for the
For some, a cellar is simply a place to store a few bottles for
rest of us mere mortals, the number of wines we choose to cellar
whatever occasion may arise within the next few weeks. It is easy
should depend directly on how much we consume. A cozy closet
access, convenient, and sometimes it is fun to discover a few bottles space tastefully done is often times more impressive and practical
of something that we forgot we owned. A cellar may be a simple
than a large – and largely empty – wine room. Bigger is not always
rack or a box in a basement closet. For many, a cellar is just a pantry better.
stocked with vino instead of mac and cheese while for others, the
Your ‘everyday’ wines are meant to be consumed within a year –
home wine cellar is a trophy room. It is an opportunity to display
maybe two. Buy those wines liberally, knowing that those corks will
one’s sophistication, success and prized purchases. Your bottles are
be popped freely and often. As for the collectibles, unless you can
show ponies for the golf-clapping invitees who may on occasion
consume the vast majority of these within roughly five years you
grace the premises. A cellar may have more controls on air quality,
will eventually buy yourself into a corner, whereby you may have to
temperature, lighting and security than any other space in your
quit purchasing wine until you have gone through your stockpile.
home. And based on square footage, it may quite possibly be the
Trust me when I say that there are few wine experiences more
most expensive room in the house. It can be idolatry at is finest.
disheartening than popping a bottle of aged wine only to discover
that you have sat on it too long. The quantity of wines you purchase
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