The Serious Collector

Appears in

Published 2010

About

If you like to drink mature wine on a regular basis, it may be more cost-effective to collect wine seriously.

The size of your collection will of course depend on how much you tend to drink, the amount of space you can allocate to storage, and how much you can afford to spend. But whether you have a collection of 50 or 5000 wines, you will need to strike a balance between wines that are ready to drink straight away, and those that are still maturing. Here are some tips to get you started:

Buy your favourite wines en primeur (if prices are attractive) or as soon as possible after release to obtain the best price.
Check the wine lists from the best independent merchants, as they regularly launch new wines and release new vintages.
Consult magazines and websites devoted to wine for tips on outstanding releases.
Just like investing on the stock market, diversity is the key to success. Wines can be temperamental, and you will minimise the risk of disappointment if you buy a range. Concentrate on a favourite region or wine by all means, but try not to do so exclusively.
If you are interested in buying a particularly expensive wine, or a dealer sells the wine in cases only, you can reduce the cost by splitting a case with a friend who shares your interest.
Try to stagger your purchases so that your cellar will always contain wines that are ready to drink as well as bottles that need to be aged for many years.
Avoid purchasing more wine than you can possibly drink, unless you are buying partly as a form of investment - there are too many sad tales of wine that was kept too long and only uncorked when long past its best.
Consider buying through a “cellar plan”, which is offered by some of the larger wine merchants.