My Wine Room and Thoughts About Wine Cellar Management
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2021
- As promised, to celebrate the milestone of my 500 subscribers, here is a short tour of my wine room. Very underwhelming but I wanted to show that you really don't need a huge cellar. You just need a manageable amount of bottles and that is fine.
I do have offsite storage for wine that I need to keep for a more long term basis (like 10+ years). I feel there is no point that have these wines in my working cellar if I am not going to touch them for 10 years.
Would be interested in other's people views. Cheers!
I recently invested in a 120 bottle wine refrigerator. It has 2 zones for white and red wine. I am inspired by your video to share more of my higher priced bottles with friends an family. You are right: wine is meant to be enjoyed!
Brock: thank you for viewing my video and your comment. Wine is for drinking (unless you bought it specifically for investment, which I will go over in a future video). Most collectors die with a ton of wine in the cellar, which is typically sold by their heirs (even they cannot drink it all). So it is just converted to cash. So my point is if you are not going to drink it and it is just going to be converted to money eventually, why would you spend your lifetime collecting and taking meticulous care of the wine and get no pleasure from this. Most people save great wines for a special occasion but how special does the occasion have to be? Anytime I can get together with great friends or family, it is a special occasion as you never know what tomorrow will bring. So most people wait so long that the wine is over the hill or they are over the hill to drink.
I just wanted to get people out of the mental block of opening fine wines. There are so many excuses for not opening a great wine. I open great wines at times some people say is too young and wasteful. But my point is if I don't taste a wine young, how will I know what a "ready" wine tastes like? You have to taste wines at all ends of the spectrum...young...ready..in decline...it is all good as it is all experience and experience is entirely what wine is about.
Sorry for the long message but I do hope you get tremendous pleasure in drinking your wines. I think you will get much more pleasure than just staring at them. I never worry about opening a bottle and not being able to replace it. With the world of wine, there is always other great wines you can buy & try. But you will never another opportunity at the here and now so live in the moment. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
One of my good wine friends always says the point of having good wine is to share it, and I have really come to agree. That's part of the joy of having a collection/special wines, for me at least. And I have learned that generosity is contagious - if you share with others, they want to share with you. Its great for everyone. Cheers.
joey: totally how I feel about wine. I do think it is contagious and when you are generous, generous people also gravitate to your circles. Cheers!
Just saw this video. I started subscribing to your channel a few months ago and really enjoy your videos. Specifically, for an easily pretentious topic, I really appreciate your philosophy, approach, and personality. It's practical and genuine and a refreshing perspective. Thank you!
Marshall: thank you for viewing my video, subscribing and your comment. Glad you enjoy my videos and not too turned off by my lack of production value and my "ums" and "ahs". As you can see, I don't take myself too seriously. Please continue to view my other videos and keep watching. Cheers!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Very valuable content and comments. I appreciate your advice with the average bottle serving price. Looking forward to more videos.
Dirk: thank you for your kind comments. I do a new video almost every week so please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Congrats on more than 500 subscribers! I agree that the cellar doesn't need to be a fancy showroom. A working cellar is great. I really like your fridge. Nice video!
Eric: thanks for viewing my site and your kind comments. I wanted to just highlight to people you really don't have to have a lavish cellar to enjoy wine. Just because you have lots of wine or drink expensive bottles doesn't make you any better or worse person than any other wine drinker. Wine is meant to an equalizer..that is any person of any race, gender, religion or social economic status should be able to enjoy a glass with anyone else irrespective of your viewpoint of any subject. Even if you have a huge amount of wine knowledge, a person with no wine knowledge at all can have the same or even more joy from a wine. I want to break down all the barriers and I do want people to realize all the wine rules or norms are just created by people. At its true essence, wine appreciation is about appreciating the wine, the skill of the winemaker, the enjoyment of the terroir and sharing that experience with good friends and family. If you can achieve this, everyone wine is a wonderful experience. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Yay! I was one of the ones that requested this. So excited to watch when I get a chance later
Cam: hope it won't be too disappointing as I spend most of the time talking about wine management. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter very cool and that would be the perfect future full blown cellar room
@@saleen12 That was the original plan. If my wine fridge died, then I would put in a cooling system. But then I realized if I did this, I would need to buy 1000 bottles just to make it look decent because it is such a big space! This is the trap that every wine enthusiasts falls into!
Love this whole approach
Jake: thanks so much! Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Wow, really impressed by your view on collecting. Have never thought about the downsides that way but your explanations made sense to me personally
Othmar: thank you for viewing my video and glad it was useful to you. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
I totally agree with your opinions with regards to having respect for your friends. I don't care much whether they know much of wine or not, because if they don't know I'd gladly educate them (in a respectful manner, that is). Yes, wine should be shared. 😊
Rick: thank you for viewing my video and your kind words. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter already did ^_^
@@rickwezenaar thx....cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter Cheers you'll see me around some more. have a great day!
@@rickwezenaar great! Cheers!
There’s no need to be diffident about your cellar my man, it’s very homey! I love your display with the bookcase and the “junk” around it is character. I hope to have something akin to this one day. 👍
thanks for your kind words!
Having a descent wine cellar does make you one better, you've leveled up!
Cheers!
I see your points. I agree with many of them. I liked your cellar.
My wine cellar for red and dessert wines was made for 40 bottles only. My fridge for white, rosé and sparkling wine was produced to accommodate 30 bottles. And I’m satisfied with those quantities, mainly because I am an anxious person… I think the wine is made for our pleasure in taste them, not for our egos, as you well said. And I don’t want to die with many bottles in my cellar and fridge… They supposed to be into my blood and memory.
grigorhaig: that is the right approach! Cheers!
love the video and the ppb calculation
Ando Bobani: thank you for viewing my channel and your comments. Please like, subscribe and keep the watching! Cheers!
Thanks for these “philosophy” videos as I enjoy these than straight forward wine reviews. Also enjoy the educational videos on explaining the 1855 Bordeaux classifications. Overall appreciate sharing your views /opinions. The avg price per bottle formula is a good pt especially when deciding what to serve your guests. I will stop telling people what bottles I have from now on so they don’t get mad at me for serving them cheaper wine lol :) plus what you say also can be applied to my whiskey collection as well.
Charles: glad you are enjoying my videos. It is really gratifying and means a lot to me. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Fantastic video.
First Last: thank you for watching my channel and kind comment. Please like, subscribe and keep watching! Cheers!
Another practical video from my favourite wine channel. Looking forward to a chance to consume my next bottle of trophy wine with you, one day.
The Great North: thx so much for the support and that would be my ideal scenario...travelling around the world consuming trophy wines with my subscribers! Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter You don't have to travel too far to lunch with me.
@@thegreatnorth2716 So disappointed! Here I was thinking a beautiful young woman was my subscriber! Guess not my demographic!
You Sir are awesome! New Sub here and I loved all of your advise as well as the philosophy points you shared. I am guilty of over extending my wine cellar, but in my case it was trying to take advantage of 2015 & 2016 vintage years and I won't be touching them for another 10 - 15 yrs. So thanks to this video, that means I'll have to investigate an offsite storage as that makes perfect sense to me.
Since discovering your channel, I have been really impressed with the knowledge and wisdom you share with us. I also appreciate your philosophy and your aim at remaining unpretentious. With all that said, I browsed through your video thumbnails and I didn't notice any Spanish or Red Portuguese wines yet, so I'd love to recommend a tasting of a few inexpensive wines to see how they fair against your refined palate.
I have a few acquaintances who are self proclaimed "Wine Snobs" that were stunned and in disbelief when I revealed the following were in a blind tasting mixed in wines in much higher price points. Many of the tasters simply assumed all the wines were of the same price point and even picked some of these over their higher priced ($60-$80) favorites. I'm aware you are in BC, so my apologies for sharing the prices in USD. For your consideration:
Cartuxa Evora Colheita Tinto 2016 or 2017 - Evora, Portugal - $19
Borsao Bodegas Tres Picos Garnacha 2017 or 2018 - Campo de Borja, Spain - $15
Care Tinto Sobre Lias 2018 - Carinena, Spain - $12
El Enemigo Chardonnay 2017 - Mendoza, Argentina - $19
@@tiredoffools8929 wow..what a wonderful message and I so appreciative of your kind words! I hope I am giving a pretty fresh take on things and I try to talk from personal experience, not others experiences. As for Spanish and Portuguese red wine, I should do more of them. But I do want to build my channel and when I do these type of reviews, it seems like there is not a lot of interest. But happy to do some in the future as I think Portugal is really up and coming and I love Spanish.
From your list, I have had the Borsao, which I liked. I think it is double the price here (in Canadian dollars) and we don't have a huge selection of Spanish here. I just bought Finca Allende 2010 so I will do a review of that shortly and I have a good distributor of Portuguese wine...love Touriga Nacional as a grape variety but problem is all my bottles are still pretty young and need some aging.
Please see my video on my Portuguese wine lunch, CUNE 2017 Crianza, Adegamae 2017 Lisboa white and Hacienda Lopez 2001 Gran Riserva...that should hold you over until I can get the Finca Allende. Also, next week, I am coming out with a video on a Luis Seabra white wine from Portugal....this is a winemaker and winery you have to watch and buy!
Keep watching and keep the comments coming. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter Thank you so much for the reply. I will definitely watch those videos you have recommended, as I plan to go through all of your back videos, so plenty to hold me over. ha ha. You make perfect sense in needing to consider what videos you put out in terms of growing your channel, so I completely understand. I appreciate the work you are putting into this, and look forward to whatever videos you put out as I want to expand my knowledge of wines of all regions/types.
I am fairly new to Spanish/Portuguese wines myself, so I am really enjoying the journey of discovery. Those video recommendations you gave along with that future video of Luis Seabra white wine sounds very interesting to me.
I'm excited that I found this channel and I look forward to watching your channel grow. Thanks, again and happy hunting! :)
Very thought provoking on the type of bottles that friends are prepared to share. I’m lucky if I get offered a bottle of 19 Crimes.
M M: just my personal views. Hey, if 19 Crimes is above their APPB, you are still better off than a person who has a 1000 bottle cellar with lots of Trophy Wines and serves you a $40 wine. I would rather drink with the person who serves me 19 Crimes because that is what they can afford, assuming they are a nice person. Cheers!
My APPB is: €1.068 but I only have 3 bottles in my wine cellar 😅 I just started recently to get in to Bordeaux wines and bought a 28 bottle wine fridge to store them. I don't expect to go through more than 2 bottles per month. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and passion!
Pat: thanks for viewing my video. Your APPB has nowhere to go but up!
With 28 bottle wine fridge, you only have space for only around 10 bottles max for long term storage. But you can't use up all that allocation at once in case there is a stellar vintage or really good discount on a certain wine. If you are thinking to store wines for 10 years, that take one space out of commission for that time period so if you devote too much to long term storage, your wine fridge become a fridge of 10-15 bottles which doesn't give you much selection or does not allow you to buy multiple bottles of something. Cheers!
I usually try to cover the entire cave with a dark thick cloth to protect the wines from light, and if its artificial light like the ceiling bulbs its even more important to cover the wines up to protect them. Nice videos btw I have been watching a lot lately and are very informative.
jabadsbs: thanks for your continued support. Cheers!
Great insights and points!👏👏
I'm a relative novice in the world of wine and approaching the 40 bottles you recommended for purchasing a wine fridge. 😄
Mickey: thank you for viewing my video and I hope you find my videos useful. Please see my wine basics playlist for some other entry level videos. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Will do, @@TrophyWineHunter ! I'm a bit of an oddity because I have been an experienced gourmand from the culinary side while relatively new from the wine and spirits side. Happy to utilize my food background to help me progress from the wine side!
@@mickeylee2624 that is useful. Food and wine are a natural pairing. Cheers!
I recently got a wine fridge for about 80 bottles and it's pretty full now.
I took a number of measurements with a full bottle of wine (with a screw cap) and came to the conclusion that the temperature of the wine fluctuates somewhat.
The wine refrigerator is set at 13 degrees, when it becomes 14 degrees the compressor switches on and it cools the wine refrigerator back to about 12 degrees.
After a few minutes the temperature sensor indicates that it is 13 degrees again and the wine fridge maintains this temperature for about 5 to 6 hours before it is 14 degrees again.
The wine refrigerator is equipped with an inverter compressor, so it can work at a very low speed, so that little energy is needed and the cooling process is gradual.
The complete cooling cycle takes about 2 hours, so this happens very gradually and quietly (14 back to 12).
This prevents large fluctuations in temperature in contrast to a conventional (standard) compressor that lowers the temperature as quickly as possible.
I measured the temperature just AFTER the cooling cycle and the temperature of the wine at that time was 11.7 gr. C. Then for 5 to 6 hours the wine fridge continues to circulate the air and finally when the temperature limit is exceeded (14 deg. C.) the compressor switches on again. I measured again just before switching on and the temperature of the wine in the bottle had risen to 13.5 gr. c.
The temperature of the wine therefore fluctuates from about 11.7 gr. to 13.5 gr. (= 1.8 gr.) for/in 5 to 6 hours.
I don't know if other wine fridge owners check the operation in the same way but what is your opinion on this 1.8 degree swing?
Do you find this acceptable? The supplier states that a fluctuation in temperature can never be completely prevented due to switching the compressor on and off.
There is still some space left for another 22 bottles, that will make the wine fridge even more temperature consistent, so it will take even longer before 14 gr. C. will be noticed but still the 1.8 gr. C. fluctuation will excist but even slower.
So, do you think that this is just the best you can get from a wine fridge or is the fridge not doing its job?
Greetz from the Netherlands, Robin
Robin: I think minor variations in a wine fridge will occur. Every time I open my wine fridge, temperature goes up. But I think you want to try to keep the temperature as constant as possible and not move the bottle very much. I don't think these minor fluctuations will have any effect on the wines so I wouldn't be concerned. You would have to have the bottles at like 40 Celsius to really ruin them. Anything like room temperature just speeds up oxidation and affects shelf life. Hope this helps. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Agreed; wine is for sharing 👍🏻 13:19
Jian: Cheers!
I generally agree with your points how wine cellars can too often be more to show off someone's wealth and status and not necessarily show someone's wine knowledge, palate or anything else good about a person. I also agree that wines are meant to be drunk and shared with people. Thus putting away special wines in the cellar to open for special occasions with select friends and family, is a great compliment to them, because you're saying you plan on having them in your life for many years. However, choosing a wine for a guest is more complicated than price. Sometimes, guests have palates for less expensive wines or just styles or types of wines that aren't really my cup of tea. However, I always try to have diverse a cellar to match different types of food and different palates of the guests I might have. In addition, it's still more about quality than price, so I try to share something of higher quality than I normally drink but not necessarily more expensive. Moreover, with other wine geeks, sometimes exploring more obscure grapes, styles, winemaking techniques, terroirs, histories, producers, regions, etc. is what makes them happy more than a more expensive wine. Many wine geeks would prefer a $20 natural Beaujolais or Orange wine to a $150 Blockbuster Napa Cab. Sometimes I just want to share something different to expand the palates of my guests. But overall I agree with the spirit of what you're trying to say, which is don't hoard all the best stuff just for you or just to lay in a cellar and get sold to other millionaires when you die. That's sort of a lesson for all millionaires in other aspects of life/the economy.
Aaron: I agree with your comments also. I am glad you took it more in the spirit of what I was getting at and noting there will be exceptions. I think in the instances you point out, you are respecting your guests as your intent is not to be cheap but to provide interesting wines to people or to pair with food. So in the instance of where I am serving an interesting (not as expensive wine), I might open 2 or 3 different bottles to compare with the total cost up to my APPB. There are instances where you really want to try something that is not expensive, like my reviews of Cali Rose but I think you understand my point that if you are doing that constantly just to hoard stuff for yourself, that is not cool.
I like the APPB as it gives you some type of guideline...doesn't have to be followed absolutely but it does give you food for thought. So for instance, if you APPB is $100 but you always drink wines in the $40 range, maybe you need to get your APPB down? Just try this system for a month and you will get so much insight into your current inventory, what you should buy and whether what you think your APPB is realistic. So for example, with your current wines, take a guess of what your APPB is? Then calculate it and see if you are close. If you are, you have a pretty realistic idea of your cellar. If not, then perhaps you have to either change your APPB or change your cellar composition to meet this. Hope this gave some food for thought although I know not everyone will like or buy into this system. Cheers!
really enjoyed this video. I agree 100%. Even investment wines, at some point (though it maybe 30 years to 50 years later) must be drunk by someone. it is pointless to buy any wine without the expectation of it to be eventually drunk by someone some day.
Eadric: thanks for your support. It is sad to hear that over 90% of all DRC is never drank and that jumps to over 95+% if you are talking about DRC Romanee Conti. That is great if you are using as investment tool but most people confuse DRC with common wines. Common wines (like $100) are meant for drinking. You are probably not going to strike it rich by investing in $100 wines so keeping a huge cellar (if you are just interested in consuming wines) is for ego. I just want people to know that a person like me, who is supposed to be really into wines, doesn't have a ridiculous cellar or number of bottle of wines. So really, there is no pressure to have a huge cellar. If you have the means, go ahead. But I find too many people get caught up in building cellars when it is really about having a sufficient amount of wine so that you don't have to run out to the liquor store everytime you want a wine or you don't have the correct wine to pair with a certain meal at home. I find most people who get into wines have way too much wine for their needs and this video is a reality check to give you a way (by using APPB) to check if you have a balanced cellar or give you some guidelines as to how much wine you need. Cheers!
Great video. Would you mind sharing the brand of your wine fridge?
losfont: it is a vintagekeeper...I bought it quite awhile ago. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Great content. Thank you! What type of inventory system do you use to keep track of your cellar? I.e., an app or a spreadsheet of sorts?
Ashkan: thx for viewing my video. I have an excel spreadsheet. Maybe I will cover this in another video All the wine that I can drink are in bold and the wines I need to age are in regular font. I look at the list every quarter as I may have forgotten to add/remove a wine. Please like, subscribe and continue for watch! Cheers!
Your opinions are well taken. There are certainly golden rules and etiquette with wine. We all learn this early on, although some choose to ignore it. Usually with my wine crowd, my bottom price for something I’m going to serve is $70 on a Cab and $100 on a Bordeaux. With my non-educated wine friends, it’s usually $25 on an Italian red or $30 on a Chateauneuf du Pape or Morgon Cote du Py.
rjo8500: my only point was if you are blessed with a large wine cellar, please share and don't just treat the wines like museum pieces.
I also think you should still serve high end wines to beginners. I know there is a risk you will "waste" the wine but by serving a really nice wine to a beginner, that may actually get them more excited about wines. I have drank with many people, who after they have drank with me, have gotten into wines in a much bigger way. It is hard to tell the difference with value wines but if you have a great wine and with the proper guidance, it can really turn someone onto the hobby of wine appreciation. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter I agree and I’m very generous. Even novices if they show a general interest in learning, pursuing wine I don’t hesitate at the opportunity to pull out something special. Any excuse to drink a great bottle of wine is fine with me!
@@rjo8500 cheers!
Also, agree 100%. I completely cooked a bottle of Chateau Clinet by just keeping it in my office (2018 vintage, I drank it way to young when I was first getting into wine and wanted to compare an "expensive" bottle to a "cheap" bottle). After basically "losing" $100 on the cooked Clinet that tasted worse than two-buck chuck I said to myself that even $250 on a 20 bottle fridge is a worthwile investment.
😀😀
Great video. Everything you said was spot on. I like to keep around 250 bottles in my cellar at all times, and drink around 50-60 per year and maybe purchase that amount annually.
I just have a passive cellar (like you discussed), but I have never found any issues with bottles I have aged. It isn't 100% ideal, but it is good enough for me! Again, great content...cheers!
SC 34: you need to have great self control to not over buy or not drink bottles you should age, which I do not have. It takes great discipline to curb buying when you hit a ceiling for your cellar and I find most people can't control themselves, whether it is because they love wine or peer pressure. My major point is if you are going to continue to get a bigger and bigger cellar, what is the end game? I just want people to think of what they are going to do with the 1000 bottles they have collected over the years when they hit 75 and their doctor tells them they can't drink anymore. Cheers!
Thank you for your in depth vide. As a collector and taster how do you make sure to keep your health/liver healthy?
Simon: very good question. Very hard with all the wine and food I consumer. But I don't drink the entire bottle myself. I normally share with friends and will just a little bit home to do the tasting/review. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
OMG this video made me start adding up around how many wine we drink in my house a year, and OMG is has to be closer to 400 than 300 lol. Trying to convince myself that it isnt too many. now
Donald: Thank you for viewing my video and your comment. So do you have too much wine or too little wine based on my formula?
If you are doing a lot of entertaining, that is not really that much as many times, you might open 8-10 bottles easily with a big function. But if it is just you drinking, wow that would be a lot.
Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter we have enough. Luckily we also make around 20 cases a year. Normally open around a bottle a day and then family dinners happen twice a month and that day can easily we can open 6-12 bottles
@@prccap if you are drinking a bottle a day and having family dinners twice a month, you are probably enjoying a blessed life! Sounds like you got it right and you just enjoy wines unpretentiously. Cheers!
expecting!
by the way i'm a wine lover but not a cellector, in your opinion how many bottles i shall keep at home?
min tian: thanks for your continued support. I would love to answer your question but that is the exact question I answer in my video so you will have to wait until it is released! Cheers!
Can you talk more about the off-site storage? Is it something like a self-storage rental with a larger collection of fridges?
Steven: typically off site storage is a bunch of large cupboards where you can put cartons or OWC. Then the entire facility is cooled to the correct temperature. Cheers!
I have many 1st growth but here a $10 dollar bottle! This reminds me of someone! I try to share my best n try to not mention what I have
SH S: thank you for viewing my video. I know a lot of those people as well. My views may be a bit controversial but again, they are my personal views. If you find them useful, great. If you disagree, just discard them like bath water! But I think it is great that you share your wealth in wines. Please like, subscribe and keep watching! Cheers!
Thank you for your videoes. I recently bought a 265 bottle fridge. But I am not sure where to put it. I have two options. In the livingroom or in the bedroom. I had a 120 bottle one in the bedroom before and the sound was bothering me a bit, so I guess the livingroom. The dilemma about it is that room is facing the east and gets the morning sun, specialy in the spring. I measured it 25 degrees celcisus a few days ago (early march). Anyway we don't get to much sun where I live. The room is yeararound min. 23 degrees. My bedroom is this time of the the year 18 degrees, and is probably better. But I still have to sleep there. I am not sure. I guess I will buy a ZigBee thermostate and keep an eye on it when I travel. My fear is the fridge will crash and my wine will go bad in that warm room. Would have felt better with them in the bedroom when I travel. My goto price is about $ 50. I think that is a good weekday price for me. But I do like them $100 + bottles so I will keep them for storage "as long as I can". $ 200 + bottles are just me going a bit out of my mind. Have done that a bit lately. I only have around $ 1000 spending money a month. My aim is for 1.5 bottle per week. But I will probably add up to around 100 a year. My last fridge filled up to fast, thats why I go for a bigger one this time. I think one year is to small a storage. I wish i could have 5 years. Giftwise I usualy gets $15 bottles, but then I give away $30-50 bottles. Most of my bottles are for myself anyway. Hope it goes better for me this time. Last time I bought a fridge I drank to much, but a bit more exerienced now. The Coravin is great also. Where I come from we have a wine monopoly so it is easier to go for beer, you can buy that in the store. I wanted to get back to wine again. It was easlier to go to the store and buy beer, but super to have a fridge (I haven't gotten it yet then). The wine monopoly have a good selection. Prices have gone up a lot the last few years. And our currecny have dropped about 30% the last few years also :-( I guess I no longer go for burgundy, but will buy as much Bordeaux as I can this year. Will try New Zealand Pinot noir, if that can substitute. I haven't tried it yet. I also go for Cianti classico, Barolo and Brunello, so the usual. Last time I bought a little bit Portoguese and Spanish. Some good, and some not. I am from Norway btw. Many will probably shake their head about my wine fridge placement, but what to do =? Will countinue watching your videos.
MA: I know...first world problem! I look at the same issue as my basement somehow heats up a lot whereas other places in my house are colder.
Can't worry too much about things. You try to do your best and if you are just buying for your own consumption, you just have to be careful to get ahead of yourself.
The other thing is to consider a smaller fridge (like 40 bottles) where you would put your top shelf wines. Realistically, you probably are not going to be too upset if your under $50 bottles are too hot and if it is a real problem, you just hold a part and drink it all. I think once you get to $500+ dollars or like 100 x $100 bottles, then you have to be more careful.
But the fall back is always just to drink it if you are worried about ageability or temperature control. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter Thank you for your answer. The delivery date is closing in and I have been thinking about this a bit the last week. The morning sun would have hit the fridge in my livingroom. Heat was almost 27 degrees a few days ago, and the metal would have probably heated up more. Not often we get this sun, but it is a problem. I am leaning against my bedroom now. This new fridge is rated 35 dB ( some places 38dB). My previous fridge was rated 45dB. I think I can keep it at 14 degrees (keeping it quieter), the supplier recommends 12, but I don't think that is much of a problem. I hope this will be OK. It is a nice and cool room. Been also thinking about the weight. It will be 332 kg with 200 bottles. This worried me a bit so I called around. "No problem" is was told. I found out laminate floor would hold 300-500 pounds pr. square inch. If the feet are 0,6 square inch the floor will hold min. 81 kg at 300 pounds square inch. The weight per foot will be 83 kg. That is if I only hold 200 bottles. I guess I am keeping it close. I have over 80 bottles waiting for it now. Excited. Trying to learn more about wine, found out kindle books are great. Then I can search for producers keeping it easier. My new fridge will be a Climadiff Reserve 275.
@@MA-up4gr Good luck! Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter Now I have found my solution. I found a spot on a wall that don't have sun in my kitchen. The feet on my fridge was larger than I feared so I don't think weight will be a problem. I have bought a Zigbee thermostate that will give me warnings on the phone if the temperature in my fridge is to high. I am also aware of a Wifi remote for my aircon. I will buy that later. Then I can run the aircon if the fridge goes out and I am away. I have 95 bottles now. I am using the Vinotag app for my fridge to keep track of my bottles, and when drinkingwindow is. Only problem is I am now approx $ 9000 in on my credit card. I can only afford $ 500 in wine each month, the rest of this year, having to pay of my creditcard. So this will probably keep me steady at around 100 bottles. I will share a good bottle of 2008 champagne with my parents at 17 of may (independence day i Norway). Cheers...
Great wine is always best enjoyed with great food and company that’s what wine is all about. Creating your history and enjoying the wines.
Our overall philosophy is pretty similar.
What I do is pretty interesting….
since I like older wines I have two cellars that hold 200btls each.
The one cellar is my normal drinking wine and the other is rarer stuff that I only pull out on a special occasion.
If I drink 1 special wine a month (and replace).
that’s 12btls a year.
So in 10 years that’s 120btls that have cycled and I can always drink a wine that’s at least 10 years old once a month and the rest of the space is for very special bottles that I may want to hold even longer if they are duplicates for example.
Wyatt: nice to hear how you do things. I think this works for you but you have to be very disciplined (which I am not) as you can only purchase 12 special bottles a year or else your cellar grows. Sounds like you also have a manageable size as if one day you should pass away, you would only have 400 bottles overage. I think if you can comfortably keep your collection under 500 bottles, that is fairly reasonable but the problem most people have is they can't stop buying. They visit their local stores or wineries and are almost obligated to continue buying to keep their status as a wine enthusiast. You are also probably younger than me so I do note that strategies change depending your age.
My other point is most people don't need any larger than 200-300 bottles at home. All the rest is for ego. You can put your special bottles offsite or separate but I think people feel an inherent pressure to build up big cellars that often they will never use. I am just trying to highlight that people should have an exit/end game because wine enthusiasts are always so worried they don't have enough wine when in reality, that is rarely the case. I don't think I have ever heard of a wine enthusiast say that they should have bought more wine because in their older years, they ran out of good wine. More often, I heard people say they have all this great wine that they either can't drink because of health issues, or they won't sell because they can't part with it or can't bear to sell it at a price that is not what they expect. So they hold on to it until they die and most often it is sold off or wasted because half of the bottles are not marketable and their family just keeps the bottle for some day that never comes. Sorry to be so negative but I see and hear this all the time and I have not seen anyone talk about this issue and take a stab at addressing it.
I really enjoy engaging and discussing ideas with subscibers like you.
I will only do these little reality checks once in a while and promise my upcoming videos will be much more upbeat. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter
I still do have some rare wines in the other seller that I do like to enjoy nobody is that disciplined ! Haha. which is why I have two sellers because I want to be able to have some old wines that I can pull out when I’m older because yes I am younger and it is awesome to be able to have that now. I concur, Time would probably change that for me.
I do agree that collections can get quite out of hand and I think they lose sight of what the purpose truly would be. I have quite an extensive bourbon collection for example.Now while I do drink most of my bourbon I have a special collection that I will not drink purely for the sake of preserving history and it is quite large because whiskey will never be the same as it was now come 50 years. I know because the trees won’t be as old the wood will not impart the same amount of flavor the climate will change and affect how these barrels treat the whiskey. I want my lineage to know what good whiskey used to taste like. I have a large collection to preserve history and if I were to die I would give that collection away to somebody else who is younger who can learn from that history.
This is the same perspective I have if I were to collect wine it would never be for status…. I think what happens is for most people it becomes status they lose sight of what it really is all about enjoying and drinking and for me preserving history so other people can learn and have the same opportunities that I was so graciously given. Essentially I don’t think it always has to be pretentious but often is.
Always great conversation truly appreciate the perspectives and think this was a good topic negative or not!
@@wyattalexander4041 man, you are the zen master of wine! Yes, I agree that we should share with others but giving away your collection to someone...wow, that is some lucky person! I always try not to get too attached to a particular wine because then you can never open it and it becomes larger than life so I always try to remember wine is just wine...not worth losing friendships or even sleep over whether I should open a wine or not or whether I opened it too early or whether I wasted it.
I have a smaller Japanese whisky and bourbon collection. Easy for me not to touch this as I don't drink whiskey or bourbon much but I know it is valuable and sought after. That would be example where I am collecting some purely for purposes other than drinking. Much easier to control your spending on something that is not emotional as compared to wine, which, if I had the money, I would probably buy 80% of the wine I saw since I would find something interesting or unique about these wines.
So little time, so much wine to drink!
Interesting point of view. Is your perspective of drinking approximately 250 bottles of wine per year from you alone or you and a significant other?
250 is the number of bottles I go through including drinking and gifting. My point is that if you only drink or use 50 bottles a year and you buy 200 bottles a year, when you are starting out that is OK...but how about 10 years later? If you have the control to stop buying or your have the opportunity to sell your wine, then that is OK but I find a lot of wine enthusiasts don't have an exit strategy. They keep collecting and thinking it will appreciate in value but that is not necessarily true in a monetary sense. It appreciates in value only if you plan to drink it all (ie. $20 wine bought 10 years ago would cost you $40 to purchase at retail now) but no one will really pay you $40 for the wine if you sell it and even if they will, there is commission, storage costs and you have to account for the wines that are not sellable in your collection in your equation if you are trying to rationalize this as an investment. Like to hear your thoughts, even if they are different than mine. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter - I was thinking much more linearly and if you were drinking & gifting that wine alone or with a spouse/significant other.
As to investment, I generally agree with your view. I have some wine that I store for future consumption, but all of my wine is for eventual consumption. I must have better self control because I do not pay for outside storage and can withstand any temptation to drink a great wine that is aging for future consumption.
@@coryz6880 Surprisingly, my wife is not a big drinker...she puts up with me. She will have a glass with me but I have a lot of friends happy to drink her portion.
I also do a lot of entertaining/networking. My point is I think I go through more bottles than most people and if I don't have a huge cellar, don't feel bad if you don't have a "cellar" or "wine room". It is not necessary to enjoy wine to have a huge amount of bottles.
That is why I think my APPB works...if you have too much wine for future consumption, it will show up in your APPB. Then, depending on your cellar size, you know you have to either buy more less expensive wine or consume more long term wine. The APPB gives you a way to have a balanced cellar objectively.
Don't get me started on the topic of Cellar Defenders! I dislike this word for many reasons. But as wine lovers, our decisions are not always rational, but that is the fun of it! Often I have opened a wine I shouldn't but rarely have I regretted it so here's to no self control! Cheers!
@@pandaman1968 thank you for viewing my video and your comment. Yes, it is very nice to see wines appreciate in value. You are almost never wrong to buy good quality wines as with inflation, prices of wine almost never go down....it is just a matter of how much they go up. Bordeaux prices go up at a pretty consistent pace but it is the Burgundies that have taken everyone by surprise. Their prices have shot up incredibly in the last 10 years to a point it is very, very difficult, even if you start now, to buy and eventually drink high end Burgundy. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
@@pandaman1968 thanks so much! Cheers!
It would be great if you can make a Cantonese version of your videos
Angus: I am not that confident in my Cantonese to do a video. Maybe in the future but it would be a lot of Chinglish. Thanks for the support. Cheers!
I wish I saw this video sooner..
sam c: thank you for viewing my video. Never too late to start again! Cheers!
is that wine fridge or just a wine cabinet/closet?
RB: it is a 500 bottle wine fridge. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter wauw very nice, you don’t see that type very often.
Did you set the temperature to 12 gr Celcius?
@@rb1084 I have it between 56-60 Fahrenheit. Cheers!
i had a problem with my wine fridge this week, for some reason the temperature had dropped to 9 degrees for a week... so 48 fahrenheit... normally i have the wine at 55 (13 degrees)..
Is that 9 degrees something to worry about? what happens to the wine at this somewhat cold temperature?
@@rb1084 I don't huge issue it is just for a short period of time. Just slows down the development of wine. So if increasing the temperature increases maturity of wine, then having it too cold slows it down. As long as you are not freezing the wine, which might dilute it, I don't think it is a huge concern. Cheers!
For my guests, I never serve them my good wine unless I know they appreciate good/fine wine. Too many wasted glass of expensive wine from guests who couldn’t tell the difference between cheap and fine wine. Sometimes they take one sip and never touch it again. I usually will now ask my guests if they appreciate wine? If not, I give them something else.
Teng: I know what you are saying but let me put another thought in your mind: how do you know whether it will be a waste or whether you are the spark that gets them hooked on wine? Many of us have our beginnings in wine when someone is generous with us and gives us some amazing wine. So I know it is frustrating but I just think those of us that have the good fortune of having a decent cellar should spread the joy. Yes, many people will not appreciate it but how do you know, many years down the line that their first sip didn't peak their interest in wines. I just feel a responsibility, with my good fortune, to share my passion with people and let them know why I am so into wines. That is why explaining the history and significance of the wine and more background information is so important rather than just telling people a points score or the price. I find these little stories about wineries tend to stick in people's mind far more than a points score or just it was an expensive wines. Cheers!
Im on on your boat, too many friends/family don't care about the taste of wine but only about the cost of wine. It's tough sharing esp if they aren't gracious.
@@TrophyWineHunter Don’t give a Ferrari to someone who cannot drive. In the same way, I don’t give away my camera collection to someone who’s interested only in golfing. It is not that I don’t like to share. I love to share my expensive wines but only for people who have an appreciation for it not for people who could care less. Perhaps some prefer a bottle of beer over wine- I will gladly give them that instead of a $50 glass of wine.
@@dialindsey thank you for viewing my channel and your comment. I agree, if someone doesn't want or appreciate nice wines, then no need to force them. But don't throw out the good with the bad. Give people a chance and being gracious.
Having said that, if people only want to drink labels, then just buy off vintages of Bordeaux or any Burgundy. Anything French or a foreign language seems to impress people. Also, almost anything from the Margaux region is impressive as some people think everything from Margaux is expensive.
Please like, subscribe and keep watching, Cheers!
@@vangstr totally get it. But don't generalize. I have drank with many people who, in a big crowd seem like they don't care but then afterwards will come back to me in private and ask questions. I think a lot of time there is a lot of baggage and pretentiousness about wine.
If some of my friends had taken that attitude with me when I began drinking wine, I would have never had a chance to experience Lafite, DRC, Screaming Eagle. It takes more than one experience to make an impression.
I actually find it pretty refreshing to drink with people who are not into wine. As long as they are appreciative of the experience, I am good. If they just brush aside your wines as snobby or disrespect you or the wine, I agree, they don't deserve another chance.
Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
If you only have enough bottles for a year how do you long term age them?
I also wish you would show us the bottles as I'm still new to wine and it would be helpful to see what others are buying, holding, stocking up on. It's not pretentious at all to me and would be great content
Cam: I put all my long term storage wines offsite. Most of the wines I have at home are meant to be drank within 5 years. You have to remember you are continually buying wines also and many of the wines you buy will be drank even shorter term. Offsite won’t be touched for 10 years so no sense having them at home where you are just going to handle them or be tempted to drink them. . If you follow my monthly recommendations or just what I review, you can build a pretty decent cellar as most of the wine I review, I actually buy for my cellar. What I will do in the future is tell you exactly how many bottles I have bought for myself.
@@TrophyWineHunter the bottle count per wine as you review them would be massively helpful. Off site makes sense for long term, I wish I had off site options where I live, but I also like having everything in one place
@@saleen12 sounds like you are just starting off so you are the building phase. Once you get to a certain size, you need to have wines stashed away. 2 reason: 1/ you will not be tempted to open them before it is time; 2/touching and looking at the bottles is not very good for the wine. I know from experience if I have a great bottle of wine, I always look at it and touch the bottle...not great for the bottle but great for your ego I guess. Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter haha, that does make sense. Especially for impatient people like me. I do like to show off cool bottles also as they are conversation pieces
@@saleen12 exactly the same as me...and probably most of the wine drinking world. But now I try to get away from this is I find it very annoying when someone shows me a great bottle and then puts it back in the cellar. Then it is like, why did you show me if you are not going to open with me ?
I've drunk before, not drank before.
Alastair: thanks for the correction...I believe someone else also corrected me. Please like, subscribe and keep watching. Cheers!
Crazy to think
Some may spend 50k on wine a year.
Jealous haha
Myles: Yup...but I started as a beginner and my passion just grew. I guess everyone has their hobby....for some people it is cars or travel. For me it is wine although I use a lot of wine for business networking and I get served a lot of wine by people.
No need to be jealous. From my experience, the greater the wealth and more bottles of wine does not equate to greater happiness or fulfillment. I know plenty of people who are thrilled to try a $40 of wine and likewise know a lot of people who refuse to drink anything under $100. It really is about the individual and you cannot make any generalizations about people just by their preference or knowledge of wine. That is why I say the most important thing to me when I drink wines with people is that the person I am drinking with is a good person and not a jerk, regardless of their wine knowledge
Cheers!
@@TrophyWineHunter i can appreciate that response you just must make a great living and be very successful at what you do. I say i am only jealous because i love wine and will probably never be able to experience some of these wines
@@myles1428mjc don't count yourself out. I started out like everyone else..from the bottom both in my work life and with wines. Did I ever think I would be drinking the wines I am today? No, not in a million years. I still sometimes find it amazing I am now drinking some ridiculous wines. I didn't even start drinking wine until I was in my 30s so you probably have a head start on me already. But I had some really great people share wines and knowledge with me. So don't give up....your passion for wine will be identified by others and you will find some really generous people who have lots of wine to share. Also, if you keep enjoying wines and learning about them, it will improve your life, improve your status in life and you will get there someday my friend. Never say never and never give up. Look at all these wineries....look at Mouton, who never gave up its hope to become a first growth....it took them over 100 years and they said it could never be done. Look at Mdm Clicquot who was a 21 year old widow with no knowledge of wine...how did she turn her champagne house into one of the most successful houses in the world in a world dominated by males? Just keep plugging along, be honest and a good person with humility and there will be people who still value this. It only takes one break, one person to believe in you or one chance meeting to change your life. Life is a journey and especially in North America, anything is possible. Just remember me when you start popping the Trophy Wines...I expect my props at that time! Cheers!
Certainly don’t agree with the comment about the price of wine that a friend serves you. Be grateful. Perhaps it is their favourite, perhaps they thought it would pair well. If you concerned over the price perhaps it isn’t a friendship
Matt: thank you for viewing my video and your comment. Maybe that came off wrong but it is not really the price...it is the intent. I think I have drank with enough people to know what is going on in their minds. I just hope that people are honest with themselves and I think my general rules in my video help with this. So as an example, if I am drinking with someone who is a value drinker and he says a $30 is his favorite wine, I have no issue. But if someone has a huge collection of wines with a price per bottle exceeding $200 and then tells me a $30 wine is his favorite wine, then why buy all the expensive bottles in their cellar?
I have enjoyed wines with many people who saved up a bottle especially for me. Some may not even be regular wine drinkers. No matter what the price or how the wine tastes, I love it because I know the intent and I really feel honored.
I would rather have someone be honest with me and just say they don't really feel like opening an expensive bottle with me or they just collect for show or to resell than to give me an excuse. I find that some (not all) people that talk about their wine collections and knowledge change when they serve wine to you....... all of the sudden they talk about great value wines. They are truly Trophy Wine Collectors..not drinkers or Trophy Wine Hunters. I have no issue with this as long as they are honest. What I have in my personal cellar, I truly intend to drink every bottle and no bottle is untouchable. I do have off site storage of other wines so those are another story but those are not really meant to be seen by anyone.
For your example about pairing, I totally understand your point but for any food, there is always different price levels that can still pair with the food. Again, my general rule is just serve people at least your average cost per bottle in your cellar or close to it. (whether it be 1 bottle or combination of bottles). You can always find a reason not to serve or to justify serving certain wines but I am just sharing my view on wine collecting and drinking with others.
My main take away is to respect people, especially if you have the good fortune to have some great wines or the ability to buy some iconic wines. I have been able to develop my passions because others have shared some wines that were and are still out of my price range. For the highest end wines, there is no substitute for actually tasting the wine yourself but many of us would never get to taste certain wines without others generosity. Share with others and don't wait for that day that may or won't ever come. That is why I hope my general rules will give my viewers some guidance as to where your cellar is going and what are your actual wine consumption needs.
You are also correct that this more applies to people I just met or drink with casually (I drink with a lot of different people). Of course, with friends, I wouldn't care what they bring, if they bring anything at all, if they drink at all. That's why we are friends. But for me, I will drink with anyone, no matter what they know about wine, as long as they are nice people and don't take themselves too seriously.
Please like, subscribe and keep watching! Cheers!
Or it’s the other way around, I have friends that just say, oh, don’t open that expensive bottle because i problaby don’t taste it, just give me a fruity smoothy.
There even is a big change that the fruity lovers don’t like expensive wines with a lot of complexity.
@@rb1084 thank for your viewing my video and your comment. I think it all boils down to respect for your guests. If someone says don't open something expensive because I can't taste it, I would still let them try as I would be really curious if in fact they did not taste the difference.
There are also some great fruity wines that are expensive and still have a lot of complexity. Australia Shiraz comes to mind, like 389, 407 or if you really have the dough Grange.
Whenever someone says, I don't like wines, or I don't like cheap wines or I don't like expensive wines or I don't like Napa, that to me is a challenge that I want to break myths. In my experience, it is just the person hasn't had the right experience with the right wine for them.
Of course, no reason to force someone to drink your most expensive bottle but I don't think expensive wines are ever "wasted" on people who want to try them, even if they are not that knowledgeable about wine.
Ultimately if someone doesn't feel comfortable with you opening an expensive wine for them, then that is their prerogative but I usually find it the other way around.....a wine connoisseur with a big attitude opens up a value wine and extols the virtue of finding value wines....and everyone is too polite to say "why don't you open a nice wine from your 1000 bottle collection". Cheers!
Or maybe the price of the bottle has nothing to do with the quality of the wine, a persons personal preference or how well the wine matches the food being served. Focusing on bottle price is foolish.
Daniel: thank you for viewing my video and your comments. I agree on some levels and disagree on other levels. I think you are correct in saying that personal preference is very important as is wine pairing. But to say that price of the bottle has nothing to do with the quality of wine is an over simplification and basically saying that most people in the wine industry have been incorrect for hundreds of years. I just had a bottle of 2007 of Haut Brion Blanc tonight and to compare that to most other 2007 wines would simply unfair. Whether it is worth the price is a personal debate but to say that it is not better than a $30 bottle of wine is simply untrue. I agree that simply focusing on bottle price is foolish but I also think ignoring why some bottles command a certain price is also foolish. What I expressed is my personal opinion that if you if you brag about a huge cellar, please have the decency to at least serve a bottle that is above your APPB to guests. I understand that there exceptions but if you continually serve bottles below your APPB, are you really a wine enthusiast who wants to share wines with others or a wine collector who is only interested in showing off that you have lots of high priced wine?
I do acknowledge that that everyone has their own comfort level in terms of how much they spend on wine but to say that wines that are expensive are arbitrarily priced is an over simplification. I am always interested in exploring why wines are priced at a certain level and whether I can understand (not always agree) with the justification. I always take the approach that I am the uneducated one so when a wine is priced at a certain level, I try to understand why instead of just dismissing everyone in the wine world as being idiots.
Hope you keep viewing my channel and provide comments. Cheers!
I don’t talk people what’s inside - grammar
Anders: sorry, not sure what you are saying. If you are saying I made a grammatical mistake in my video, that happens a lot. I don't edit my videos extensively and I don't go from a script so normally it is one take unedited. My videos are meant to be just like me talking to my friends and not really flashy. Cheers!
Hi Trophy Wine Hunter, I completely disagree with your collecting philosophy. It doesn't cost a fortune to dig a large root cellar, in fact it is surprisingly cheap if all you care about is building a functional cellar and not an entertainment room. I'm sorry but you are completely wasting your money buying 10 year old $200 bottles every year. Wine is meant to be aged by you, allocate half the money you spend on wine each year to newly released Grand Cru’s in the $500-1000 range and the other half to a variety of international wine regions in the $50-100 price range with high scores. Then leave the new bottles to age and drink the ones that have been in your cellar 10 years or longer. Before you open a bottle read reviews of it, see what other people who drank it recently think, ask them if they think it needs a few more years or not. Make wine ageing your hobby and you will gain so much more enjoyment when you go to drink it.
Why even bother having more than a few bottles at a time if you only ever have one years worth of wine? Just go to the liquor store whenever you need some. My cellar even has a small area for cheeses and cured meats, those are the things you should by consuming within a year, not wine.
Mat Ao: thanks for viewing my channel and your comments. I don't actually think we are disagreeing on that much. I appreciate your point of view but to clarify, how do you keep temperature and humidity constant in your cellar? I agree if you are just using that facility for short term storage (ie to drink within 5 years), it doesn't matter that much.
So just to be clear, my view is that I don't think a regular consumer needs more bottles than what they drink in one year. If you have the money and space to have 1000 bottles, then great but my question is what is the end plan? I also think it is unnecessary to have the 1000 bottles with you at your house (unless of course you have the space to do so). But if you are going to have all these bottles at your house, they should be in a facility that has constant temperature and humidity. I don't know of any regular home that can regulate temperature and humidity naturally.
I am not sure I understand the comment about buying 10 year $200 wines. I buy wines on release and store them but I also buy wines at auction because generally, I can get them at a cheaper price/slight markup than retail and I don't have to wait 10 years. I guess you can call that "cheating" but my point is why would I wait 10 years if I can pick something up now that has already been aged and stored correctly for me (as long as I am not paying a huge premium). How about wines from the 60s....do I have to store a wine for 40 years? Again, my point is then it becomes not manageable for most consumers. Part of the problem is most consumers don't have access to anything but newer wines so they have no clue whether they actually like a particular type of wine if they have to wait 10-20 years before it is in its drinking window. That is what I am hopefully assisting in....I open bottles that are aged so that at least I can give you my opinions (as a consumer drinker) what that wine will taste like
I also agree with drinking wines at different stages. That is why you see me opening bottles that are new/just released so we can get sense of the bottle. I also agree with doing research and looking at other people's reviews before opening a bottle...if you look at my other videos, you will see I do try to do extensive research on each bottle I review and I am hoping my reviews will be useful to others before they open an expensive wine. I don't just tell you what I smell and taste (as that very dependent on the person) but go quite in depth into the history of each wine.
Anyways, I do encourage to view my other videos on this channel. Please like, subscribe and keep the comments coming! I actually don't mind people disagreeing with me as long you as you keep it polite (which you have) and love to engage in wine talk. Cheers!
@@TheFutureisSteampunk Love the discussion! Why I made this comment is that most people have no reference points as to how much wine they should have. They just continue buying aimlessly. With these general guidelines, it gives you some indication of how wine you should have in your cellar. My opinion is for people who already have an established cellar and not people just starting out. So for example, if you have 150 bottles in your cellar but each year you only drink 15 bottles, my assumption is that you will not have the self control to buy only 15 bottles a year....more likely, you will buy 50-60 bottles. So your cellar grows to 185. Multiply this by 10 years and now your original cellar of 150 bottles has grown to 500 bottles....and still growing...then you need extra space and extra storage. My point is when does this end? Eventually, you have so many bottles, most of them are "treasures" you don't want to drink unless it is a special occasion and the wines are either wasted because they are past their prime or you don't live long enough to drink them all. So in combination with the APPB, it gives you some goalposts to control your spending. I find many people overspend on wine and then you become a collector, not a wine drinker or enthusiast. In general, I find the bigger the cellar, the more wine someone buys over the year. So this problem gets worse when we are talking about 1000 or 5000 bottle cellars. There are many other things you can collect that are worth $300, have more aesthetic beauty and won't go bad by excessive handling. I think we are on the same page that wine is meant to be drunk so if you are collecting so much wine that you will never drink, what is the point? Of course, if you are planning to sell the wine, that is different story but then storage conditions would be even more important.
So perhaps I should have been more clear. I am also assuming you will continue to buy wine each year to replenish the bottles you drink. If you go by my guidelines, about 50% of your wines are for long term aging. Each year, some of those bottles will be ready to drink to technically about 60% of your cellar is available for drinking each year. So for the example above, if you have a 150 bottle cellar, I am expecting you will probably buy around 150 bottles each year, of which 75 bottles would be for aging. You would drink 75 bottles that you bought in the year + 75 from your storage. Again, these are general guidelines but it gives some direction. Variations each year don't matter too much if we are talking +/- 5-10 bottles but what I am trying to warn against is excessive buying with no aim or just for the sake of collecting (which is just ego).
Also, most people overestimate the amount of wine they go through in a year, so there is a little buffer already built in. Believe me, it is pretty difficult to through 300-400 bottles a year unless you are a major entertainer/socialite. We are talking 300-400 bottles from your personal cellar, not wines you buy to drink at restaurants or for your business. So to be drinking/using 300-400 bottles a year from your personal cellar, you are probably consuming, with dinner events, close to 700 bottles a year, which is a tall order. Just food for thought. Cheers!
Trophy Wine Hunter My collection is in a repurposed root cellar with a dehumidifier in it, this region is classified as a temperate rainforest so I need to empty the water several times a week to keep out the humidity. There are around 450 bottles and there isn't much room to move around so that is about the limit. I would say I go through about 50 bottles a year, mostly drinking local wines and vintage port at home then every month bringing some bottles of finer wine to an artist/art collectors dinner, as well as a few to each holiday get-together with family. That is a good tip you gave about buying wine from auctions for a close to wholesale price, what other methods do you use to add wine to your collection other than getting it from the local liquor store? This is the first video of your that I have seen, I have subscribed and will continue watching your channel. You are a very humble and interesting person, thank you for making such good content. Cheers!
@@TheFutureisSteampunk Mat AO: wow...so glad I turned you from a person who totally disagreed with me to a subscriber!
Your situation is an exception. You obviously go to great pains to keep your cellar at the right temperature and humidity. I am talking about someone who just stores in the basement and figures it is cool enough to store wine.
But you will eventually have an issue as you have said not a lot of room and you are going through 60 bottles a year. So you have to have a lot of self control to make sure you don't buy much more than 60 bottles a year. For me, I am closer to going through 200 bottles a year so that gives me a lot more leeway to pick a case or 2 of wines if I see a real bargain. Example is the 2015 & 2016 Produttori del Barbaresco which I think are really well priced. I picked up a case of assorted single vineyards but for you, that would be almost 20% of your yearly buying allocation.
Some tips for getting great wines: try charity or gala auctions. Sometimes you can get some real steals. Depending on the crowd, sometimes very cheap or really expensive wines are great deals. I also just try to be friendly to brokers/agents I meet at dinners or events. Many times, they know am a buyer and they will slide me some good or exclusive deals. But that is predicated on me being a fairly sizeable buyer so the problem being is that if you are that sizeable a buyer, you have to drink lots to keep your cellar manageable. If you are not a buyer, then agents don't really want to talk to you as much as you won't be in the know. I have benefitted from the generosity of riding the coattails of many big buyers and I am trying to also share that knowledge with others through this channel so you get the "in the know" info without having to be a big buyer. Cheers!