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![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
A lot of great advice here, particularly on tasting as much as possible and restraining yourself from loading up on what you like today.
You are in luck if you’re interested in Rioja. There are several old Rioja houses that still hang onto wine until they feel it’s ready to drink. It benefits from more age but you’ll get some idea of what age can do before you can start cellaring. Lopez de Heredia and La Rioja Alta are releasing reservas from great vintages right now with 7-10 years on them and gran reservas with 15-30+.
There is some great info on Rioja here as well. Search for posts by our Rioja guru, Noel (LMD Ermitaño), and you’ll find a lot of it.
I’ve been looking casually for off-site storage in the northern-central Virginia area for some time without success - does anyone here know if a reliable location here or in MD? It seems like you’d want specialized wine lockers; simple ‘temperature-controlled storage’ sounds iffy. What does such storage typically cost?
I will be checking that out for sure. Thanks! I actually realized that I have a couple slightly older bottles of Rioja (2001 Almagre and 2004 Castillo Rocio Reserva). These were NOT expensive wines so who knows. But I am going to check out the ones you mentioned today.
I’ve kept my cellarable wines at the following place for over a decade. It’s relatively expensive however.
The Wine Rack: http://www.dcwinestorage.com/
10 case $483, 18 case $ 832, 26 case $ $1112, 52 case $1812, 70 case $2100
An alternative place in DC I was at for a year or so stored wine without lockable personal lockers; caveat emptor…
A relatively new facility in MD came to my attention recently:
http://www.safeharbourwinestorage.com/
My impression is that it may not offer lockable lockers though. The contact I was given is Bill Holder 410-703-0466. He was highly recommended by a fellow at the nicest wine shop in Balto.
Thanks, Mitch, I’ll check these places out. The rates you cite are annual? Funny that wine would be stored without the means to lock it up - conveys all kinds of potential liability issues, you’d think.
That’s not relatively expensive…that’s super duper crazy who would pay those prices expensive. I pay way less for my 130 case walk in locker than what that place charges for a 52 case locker.
Yeah, those prices are silly.
Keep in mind, when looking, that for smaller collections an at-home wine cabinet might be the better route. 120 bottles is storable in a pretty small space and that’s 10 cases. Given that you’ll want some at home anyway probably, you might not need offsite storage until you exceed that. Offsite, at least in Seattle, seems to be about $2/month/case or about $24 per case per year.
Hi Ian,
Yeah. Rates are annual. If you prepay you can avoid the yearly increases…
Another hidden benefit of that DC facility is that the storage rooms are a floor or two below ground level so if its neighborhood loses power for an extended period you can still sleep well and not activate emergency countermeasures. Something most wine strorage facilities would benefit from having, No? Irene knocked out power in my Balto neighborhood for about a week this summmer and that was nothing to write home about re local weather happenings. As they say, one pays to play !
Cheers.
"Synthetic Cork:
Pros: There is no need to worry about TCA contamination in the wine. Another benefit is that aesthetically it looks very similar to the traditional cork and you can still use your corkscrew to open and get that lovely “pop” affect.
Cons: The seal is not as good as a true cork and can lead to oxidization in the bottle.
Screw Caps:
Pros: These wines are easy to open and a perfect seal.
Cons: People like to pop corks, and for those traditionalists, unscrewing a bottle of wine can make the experience a little less special."
Hi Ally,
I shall assume that you are new to wines and write off the following as simplifying assumptions. The cork issue is considerably more complex than what you describe here. Wines sealed in screw-caps can in fact be suffering from tri-halogen anisole-like taints. Be careful what you consume. Best, Mitch
Oh hopefully it was clear in my blog that you checked out that I am new to wine. That is sort of the schtick I’m going for with it. The beginning of my blog post I mention that many other factors can contribute to a ‘tainted’ wine as well. “wine can be spoiled for many reasons unrelated to cork or TCA.” There are a variety of reasons a wine could be spoiled: contamination of wine processing equipment, oxidization, airborn molds, etc."
In no way am I attempting to put myself out as an expert. I’m not sure most people on this forum would get much benefit from reading my blog about “my wine journey” and learning experience. But I do appreciate you taking a look anyhow!
There’s a school of thought that some temperature variation (say 50s into lower 60s F) with aging wine allows it develop more naturally rather than at one constant temp. True? I don’t know but I’ve stored my wine for 17 years in a passive crawl space beneath my house in MD with no ill effects. I keep a small chiller at the beach casa which works well. If you start buying lots of wine to age, do yourself a favor and log bottles into Cellartracker. My insurance agent told me I would be fully covered with my regular homeowners policy if I could provide him CT info. Of course, YMMV, so check with your broker. I don’t have a huge cellar but its total worth (according to the CT valuation) was quite a surprise. No affiliation in any way with CT.
I was checking out CT the other day. I can’t say I have enough wine of much worth now, but it couldn’t hurt to start logging what I do have so when it increases, its not such a chore.
There’s other specialized wine cellar software, but CT’s a versatile, useful tool.
Seems like you and I are in similar places in this hobby. I may have either picked it up a little earlier, am more obsessive about it or both, though. All things people have said are true about collecting. Don’t start before you have a place. It really snowballs. I had a few bottles that I kept in the basement in the early summer of 2010. We went to Napa in July and returned to New Jersey with 18 bottles and “the fever.” I had to keep my “collection” in an upstairs bedroom with ridiculous AC because my basement (in the summer) gets up to around 71 in parts. Bought a ~30 bottle wine cooler. All was right in the world. . .until I started buying more. This summer I’m back to that bedroom upstairs and I really have no idea how many cases I have in there. I’m a little scared to look. A lot of the stuff is stuff that I’m planning on cellaring for at least a few years.
Now I’m “building a wine closet in the basement.” I put that in quotes because it’s moved absolutely nowhere. I’ve got an existing shower/closet that i’m going to knock down walls, expand and insulate, but the time never seems available to either do that OR clean up the basement. In about a week i’m going to need to move everything back to the basement as the temps are settling to the proper levels. All of that wine will be IN THE WAY of my construction. So you see how this goes? If you’re going to get a cooler, get something big. If you’re going to buy to cellar, listen to these guys and be sure it’s a particular wine you want to cellar.
Finally, start using cellar tracker NOW. Don’t wait until you have 3+ cases to enter. Seriously, it’s a chore that you don’t want. Get used to the process and start cataloging! 
-James
Cellartracker is awesome. Eric Levine is active on the board. It’s also free (although I donate cuz I find great value in the software and Eric’s communication has always been prompt). No affiliation with CT, blah blah blah.
I was thinking about flogging CT for Ally in the earlier thread on tasting notes, but you folks beat me to it. 
One of the most useful datapoints you can get when starting out is actual data showing how many bottles you open per year etc. With that number in mind you can start to dial in to how large a cellar you really want/need based on the ages of the wines you like to drink.
And if you make tasting notes with scores for what you consume, you can make a list of last years consumption ranked by your scores. Good for identifying wines and wineries you want to pursue further and those you want to avoid in the future.
So I got a project now. Though not too bad for me as I’m just starting out. I like the idea of keeping organized and narrowing down on my interests/tastes.