Wine Collecting in the Military

I was curious if anyone on here is/was AD military and has experience managing a collection while in the military. I’m about to graduate from college and am working towards joining the military. At the same time, I’ve been brought into the world of wine by a close family member, and I would like to continue to collect if I do end up joining (especially to maintain my place on some of the harder to get lists).

I realize that moving a collection around every 2-3 years and trying to order/receive wine while on deployment would be impossible as an unmarried guy whose family lives in PA, so I would love to hear any advice you have. I thought about signing up to have my collection managed at a facility, but I wasn’t sure if there were other options or how expensive that would be.

I think that having an offsite storage unit would be a good idea but trying to move them with you will be close to impossible. I served four years and in tgat time i spent six months in cali, 12 months in okinawa, 5 months in cali, 6 months deployed in desert storm/shield, 5 months in cali, 6 months on float on the USS fort fisher and then back to california. So…

Yeah I’m going for wings so my commitment would be much longer (closer to 10). I’m less concerned about having good stuff to drink day-to-day but instead to 1) keep my place on the hard to get lists and 2) put down stuff that needs more time (especially cabs and chards with aging ability like Aubert and KB).

Interesting question, probably the first time I’ve seen that asked here. I think you’ll have a tough time of it, if judging the movements of previous military personnel that I’ve known. Good luck!

Col Bob?? He used to be a frequent poster on the old WS boards and WCWN. He was in the military for 20-30 years and has been stationed everywhere.

I was in the Air Force for 28 years and lived overseas for 11 years. I started collecting wine even before then. I was fortunate in that I picked up my wine habit from my father who also collected wine. I was thus able to store my wines in his large cellar until I got back to the states. Every time I moved, I would add more and more to the stash. I think having a central storage place while you move about is important. Then you can move with only a smallish cabinet to store the day to day drinkers. If you get a chance to be stationed in Europe, you’ll bring home a lot of wine. I was stationed both in Germany and Italy. When I came home from Italy, I brought 1200 bottles with me. Now that put a strain on my father’s cellar!

How did you transport 1200 bottles??

Back then, you could just carry it on the plane with you [wow.gif]

some facilities will unpack your stuff, some will put your boxes in your locker. Just find the area you want to be in and look around. But there are definitely these services all over in major cities.

Chris, thank you for your willingness to serve our great nation. We are all in your debt.

I’m thinking that maybe where your family lives could be sort of your base, and you could store wines there, figuring you’ll be back there at least intermittently over the years as your assignments bounce around. So you could hopefully find a place at your family’s house, or an offsite storage nearby, for your shipments to go.

The other thing I would encourage you to do is to talk to those wineries that you want to keep buying from and explain your situation. Particularly given what it is you’re doing, maybe they’re willing to work with you in some ways that make it easier. Maybe they would let you take a few years off without losing your spot, maybe they would be willing to hold your wines for you for some period, or something else.

Lastly, I’d encourage you not to worry too much about keeping up your buying and holding your spot lots of places. Even if wineries weren’t willing to work with you given that you are going to be serving the country (and I’d hope all or many would), you won’t have that much trouble getting onto lists you want, buying at retail and auction, and getting your hands on plenty of good wine at a later time when you’re ready to ramp up. You may also find that your tastes have changed by then, as well, and/or that there are a bunch of new (or new to you) producers you like as much as or more than the ones you like right now, and a cellar full of the wines you like today might not really be what you even want in a decade.

Best wishes to you.

I suspect the best answer, since I understand that shipping to PA is verboten, is to make arrangements for offsite storage in California (based upon your reference to Kosta Brown and Aubert) and have the wineries ship directly there. You might even be able to arrange for a sympathetic offsite storage company to give a man in uniform a discount. When you need something shipped to you, either you would have to get them to pull it and ship it, or find a friend nearby who you can trust to do the same. Sorry I can’t offer to hold it for you. My cellar already has a waiting list of cases that are sitting on the floor.

Ah, I overlooked the “family living in PA” part of the post.

But all the more reason to consider the rest of what I wrote above.

What about picking an offsite in a major city like Chicago or Washington. I know that East Bank in Chicago would charge about $480 a year for a 36 case locker and that for $40 a year they will receive your shipments and put them in your locker, whenever your home you could visit and remove bottles or check up on things. For a higher amount you can go with Domaine who will go a step further and unpack, inspect and catalog your wines not sure of the cost but i think it was about $4 per case per month for full service so say 20 cases would be about a $1000 a year but double check these numbers

Remember if you buying big Cali wines like cabs and syrahs even 10 years is only going to get you to what some people here consider the start of the drinking window. Shit if you listen to Neil Mollen you can Bordeaux now, serve for twenty years, retire and drink it legally with your grandkids !!!

And just adding to Eric’s post. My nephew was stationed in Naples years ago. He was able to move up to 300 bottles back (no duty) as part of his personal belongings. My wife and I flew over and spent 3 weeks traveling with my nephew and his wife, cherry picking wines through Piedmont and Tuscany (and a little southern Italy).
If you do get stationed overseas, keep that in mind as an option to pick up bottles you may not find on this side of the pond!

Morgan Manhattan in NY will manage all the unpacking and inventory for you and are pretty reasonable. I’ve been happy with them.

Building on what Jay and Alan said:

If most of the wine in which you are interested in is CA wine, I would find a wine storage facility, like a Domaine or similar, that is located in a state (not CA) where you can have your wine shipped with no sales tax. I’m pretty sure that if you did this, that the sales tax savings alone would probably cover most of the cost of maintain the locker.

That way you’re not paying sales tax and storage costs, and the wine will be ready for you when you’re ready. As long as you keep buying the locker would continue to pay for itself.

-Alex

That way you’re not paying sales tax and storage costs, and the wine will be ready for you when you get out in 10 years.

-Alex[/quote]

get out !!

Hes serving Alex, not going to Rikers island !!

Only kidding my friend, did you find the surprise bottles yet ?

I haven’t read the other responses but I would look for a storage facility that can ship and manage yuor collection. I use Domaine Wine Storage and recommend them very much.

Chris, feel free to PM me on specifics of military life. I’m at year 10. The advice above is very good. You’ll need to decide what you want from your collection which may vary depending on what kind of wine you like and how long you want to hold them before drinking.
Keep in mind a few things:

  1. You’ll almost always move in the summer. It may not be possible to move the wine without refrigeration because of the temps
  2. The military will not pay to move your wine
  3. You will likely move on short notice or go overseas on short notice at least once every 3-4yrs. From a logistical perspective keep things simple so you aren’t worried about the wine. Gearing up in 14-30days is stressful enough.
  4. If you get storage make sure you can ship to that address
  5. You may be out of the country 12-15mos (or longer with PCS) depending on the branch of service. Storage that can place your boxes into your locker may have an advantage. As an aside, most retail/wineries I purchase from were surprisingly flexible holding orders until I came back from deployment.

I’ve been pretty serious about wine for ~10yrs. I’m amassed 1300 bottles which is WAY too many and I’m trying to cut it down before the next move. The last one was pretty tricky with ~900 bottles

My advice to you if possible:

  1. Keep the collection as small as possible but a size you are happy with. It may be best to purchase bottles with age at retail as needed and keep the collection <100 bottles. Makes moving easier. Don’t worry about the price premium as you are gaining it back without paying storage and getting flexibility
  2. As others have said, keeping the collection in 1 place while you move around the world has an advantage. This would be a very useful strategy if you held a lot of bottles for >10yrs. Domaine comes to mind as a provider that would work here but you pay for that service.
    Most guys in the military drink beer/scotch. Maybe because it goes better with cigars…

That will change when I am president. Support the troops!

Thank you to all the military folks on this thread for your service.