My cellar exists for one laser focused reason only: To age Red Burgundy and German Riesling for the long term. This cellar is offsite and I usually only go to it to make deposits. Most of the wine is 5 to 20 years from likely drinking windows. There are some exceptions but this has largely held true for a few years now.
For daily and short term drinking I buy with a bit more variety and usually drink soon after purchasing. I mostly keep these wines at home. This includes some wine that I bought that is already mature.
Matt T - Im not sure how long you have been traveling the wine geek path but if you are relatively new to this affliction I would strongly recommend holding off building a cellar. Almost eveyone ends up having a 180 degree shift in palate preferences at some point and gets stuck with wine that they no longer like and bought too compusively. Its really worth exploring widely for a few years before starting to buy wines for cellaring. Especially for guys the collecting impulse is strong, but to collect before you have really narrowed down your true taste preferences is a mistake many (most) of us regret making. The wines one likes at the beginning of the wine geek journey are very rarely our true natural preferences.
Also, don’t start a massive cellar for its own sake. Do it for some well recognized and well thought out goal. It may turn out you don’t like aged wine better than younger wine. If thats the case you dont need space for hundreds or thousands of bottles. A wine cooler that can hold 200 bottles will likely suffice. In this case you arent cellaring to mature the wines but rather you are just protecting them from heat.
Ive posted this before as a half joke but it hold true for many if us:
A true wine geek goes through the following spiritual stages:
Stage 1 “Genesis” - Have an epiphany wine that makes you want to get more serious about wine
Stage 2 “Confusion” - Realize that there are so many bewildering choices that its difficult to decide what to buy
Stage 3 “Discipleship” - Start following the ratings of a respected wine critic as a guide to what to buy
Stage 4 “Cognitive Dissonance” - Do your best to tell yourself that you are actually enjoying all the highly rated wines you are drinking
Stage 5 “Awakening” - Realize that taste in wine is subjective and you need to determine for yourself what you like
Stage 6 “Rage” - What the f*ck am I going to do with all this wine I bought that i don’t actually like?
Stage 7 “Dinner Parties” - Unload the wine on friends at non-wine-geek dinner parties. They will likely be impressed as the wines are highly rated.
Stage 8 “The Quest” - Taste, taste and taste some more to see what regions, producers and vintages you like
Stage 9 “Enlightenment” - OMFG! Burgundy!
Stage 10 “Dark Night of the Soul” - OMFG these things are expensive!
Stage 11 “Inner Peace” - German Riesling! And cheap too!
I don’t think I ever walked into the cellar and said to myself “I have nothing I want to drink”. I would be pretty depressed if I ever ran into that situation and there’s always something in there that fits what I’m looking for.
I’m not sure how to interpret “balanced”. We have in there a good mix of what we like to drink and that’s good enough for us.
That’s just cruel. There are many wines I would have given up on, dismissing them in some fashion only to see them become interesting later. Sometimes having a wine collection is like putting up with the spouse who snores or practices synchronized swimming: put up with both the good and the bad.
As a number of folks have already responded, I think it’s somewhat pointless to try and plan this out too much because your tastes will in all likelihood change (and maybe multiple times) over the course of your drinking lifetime. As long as your enjoying what you’re drinking, I say go with the flow.
My cellar is about 70 percent burg. and I’m wondering what the hell am I doing with all this other stuff. A lot of good points here. This thing of ours is really about the journey though and not the destination.
It’s impossible to disagree with the idea that balance is personal and should reflect what people like and can afford. I am a little surprised, however, by people’s focus. I have concentrations of particular producers and regions I love, but I prefer a more varied diet. Red Burgundy and Beaujolais combined outstrip other areas for me and are still, together, only about 1/4.
I have a lot of stuff stored in several locations, and I never worry about the balance there, although it is probably more than 80% Burgundy.
My home cellar though is a totally different matter.
I have a walk in cellar that holds a bit over 1,000 bottles.
A bit under half is Burgundy, red and white, with a good selection of Chablis. Whites go back to '96, Reds go back to the 50’s, so a lot of stuff there that is ready to drink, along with year verticals, so I can grab things to compare if I want.
Other half has approx:
30 bottles of Bordeaux, mostly back to the 80’s with a few older wines, again mostly stuff that can be drunk now.
50 bottles of Champagne, back to the '80’s
20 bottles of Barolo, back to '89
50 bottles of assorted German Riesling
20 Bottles of Sauternes back to the '50’s
50 Bottles of Vintage Port, back to the '30’s
100 Bottles of assorted CNDP and Rhone, back to '89
50 Bottles of Beaujolais
200 Bottles of other mixed stuff (mostly Aussie, and some other imported interesting stuff like SQN, Trimbach, some White Bdx and Rhones).
25 Assorted Magnums
Probably 90% are wines that can be drunk now…so here I have tried to create balance so I have an interesting range of wines for all occasions, mostly that can be drunk now…
A true wine geek goes through the following spiritual stages:
Stage 1 “Genesis” - Have an epiphany wine that makes you want to get more serious about wine
Stage 2 “Confusion” - Realize that there are so many bewildering choices that its difficult to decide what to buy
Stage 3 “Discipleship” - Start following the ratings of a respected wine critic as a guide to what to buy
Stage 4 “Cognitive Dissonance” - Do your best to tell yourself that you are actually enjoying all the highly rated wines you are drinking
Stage 5 “Awakening” - Realize that taste in wine is subjective and you need to determine for yourself what you like
Stage 6 “Rage” - What the f*ck am I going to do with all this wine I bought that i don’t actually like?
Stage 7 “Dinner Parties” - Unload the wine on friends at non-wine-geek dinner parties. They will likely be impressed as the wines are highly rated.
Stage 8 “The Quest” - Taste, taste and taste some more to see what regions, producers and vintages you like
Stage 9 “Enlightenment” - OMFG! Burgundy!
Stage 10 “Dark Night of the Soul” - OMFG these things are expensive!
Stage 11 “Inner Peace” - German Riesling! And cheap too![/quote]
This should be scripture read by the unwary souls that venture into the abyss!
I hate when people tell me I’m missing out when all I want is a certain region. I’m not missing out cause I know what I like! That’s balanced in my mind
The only balance that I care about is in food match categories. Every spring, I fill in 6-12 bottles of still rose and that or more of fresh Italian whites to go with seafood. Sometimes I’m running low on cheap barbera or valpolicella to go with hearty red sauce, so I buy some of that. When the 2009 Brun Ancien Beaujolais came out, I uncharacteristically shied away – because I have a bunch of older vintages of beaujolais that need to be drunk up.
So there’s definitely a balance of sorts that I try to maintain in my cellar. But it’s not about specific appellations.
A double rainbow! I’m going to ditch my cellar and collect whatever that guy takes.
I like the cellar distribution by foods frequently consumed idea. I’m not too far off, but need some riesling for all the Indian food I make.
I love what I have in my collection, but since it’s relatively young (only a handful of bottles before 2000 and most 2005 and later), I frequently feel like there’s nothing to drink. My wife thinks I’m nuts when she sees all the bottles piled into the Eurocaves.
Since I’m not made of money, I’m skipping Burgundy entirely, but may follow a previous posters advice and explore German Riesling. I’ve been drinking a few Italians as of late and ask why I don’t have any in my collection. These along with Bordeaux, Cali pinot, syrah, chard, and cab, and a smattering of N. Rhone and Champagne, I think I’ll be set.
I’d guess that 80% of what I have are from producers or regions that I like or love (there isn’t much balance of types of wines there). 10% is there for additional food matching. 10% is oddball stuff that has accumulated and I rarely open.
My biggest concern in terms of ‘balance’ is the comparatively small percentage of everyday priced wine. Though somebody made the great point that those are the wines that you can run out and grab fairly easily. But it is annoying to walk downstairs on a week night and think “I can’t find anything I want to drink with leftovers.”
Whoa! It must be a brand new year…I totally agree with Jeff ! Our cellar is relatively balanced in that we do enjoy many styles/types of wine yet the majority of the wines come from our favorite regions such as Napa, Bordeaux and the Rhone. In addition, we have many wines which we feel are perfect with certain cuisines so we have wines from Italy, Spain, Germany and various other regions of France ( Loire, Alsace, Burgundy). In addition, I am finally taking my age into account as I no longer purchase wines that need 20 years to come around.
I think there’s a couple of things being mixed together here - one is what we cellar for aging, the other is what we might want around as everyday drinks or for variety to match dishes. My cellar - things I’m aging - is mostly Burgundy and Barolo/Barbaresco/Brunello. I use everyday drinking, short term aging and the need to match other dishes to explore other varieties and regions. The stuff in my cellar matches what I normally cook. If I cook something different I don’t feel the need to have a high end, aged example of, say, Alsatian Riesling around to match it - I’m OK with a good current release from that area (if that’s what matches).
The thing is, I don’t feel the need to have in my possession a lot of wines that I’m not intending to age. That’s what stores are for. So, when I think of balance it’s a combination of what I have in my house and what I can easily get at stores in the area.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
Our cellar is relatively balanced in that we do enjoy many styles/types of wine yet the majority of the wines come from our favorite regions such as Napa, Bordeaux and the Rhone. In addition, we have many wines which we feel are perfect with certain cuisines so we have wines from Italy, Spain, Germany and various other regions of France ( Loire, Alsace, Burgundy). In addition, I am finally taking my age into account as I no longer purchase wines that need 20 years to come around.