The Art of the Cellar

The Art of the Cellar

By Codey Foster

One question that I am continually and repeatedly asking myself is “what wines should I be buying right now to drink in the intermediate to long term future?” After much contention and endless contemplation, I still do not have a concrete answer to this question, however, I have surmised some general thought patterns as to how I should be filling my wine cellar and with what.

First of all, I think it’s important to stipulate the obvious and that is, of course, that everyone has different wine cellaring needs, interests, budgets, and preferences--and as a result—there is no single recipe for the perfect wine cellar. I often read and hear from other wine drinkers that a good cellar needs to be well-rounded and sample from all areas of the world. I couldn’t disagree with this more.

Especially within the past year or so I’ve found myself gravitating more to the wines that give me the most pleasure on the palate. And although I’ve continued to taste wines from regions and styles that I don’t necessarily love (that’s part of my job after all) I can only drink a handful of wines on a regular basis and as a result I’ve found myself gravitating even more to the wines that I want to be drinking rather than the wines that I think I should be drinking. I feel like the same thought structure should be applied to the wines you lay down to age, especially because ultimately, those are the wines that you will be drinking. So first and foremost, I’ll encourage you to lay down wines that you love and wines that you want to drink rather than wines that fill out a certain criteria or complete some kind of ‘well-roundedness’ in your wine cellar.

Secondly I wanted to discuss buying strategy in regards to quantity. When purchasing a wine that you think you’d like to hold onto for a particular period of time you are faced with the question of how much to buy. This is one of those factors that heavily relates to your economic/cellar capacity situation, however, I think almost all wine drinkers will agree that there is pleasure, merit, and satisfaction that can be mined from purchasing multiple bottles of a wine and observing how that wine develops in the bottle over a period of time. Sometimes you might choose this type of cellaring in a very structured and laid out pattern, for instance; ‘I’m going to buy a case of this particular Rioja and drink it on my birthday every year for the next 12 years. Other times you might be more inclined to purchase a few bottles of a wine and drink them as you come to them over a shorter, longer, or intermediate period of time. And I agree that both of these pretty widespread strategies can be incredibly rewarding and indulgent—but sometimes I think wine drinkers dismiss the value of purchasing a single bottle of wine to hold and drink.

Single bottles, I believe, have a place in any cellar no matter how large or small—and can offer depth, experimentation, and spectacular drinking without the commitment to six bottles or a case. The other element I love about the nature of single bottles is that I can experiment with a more expensive bottle of wine that I wouldn’t normally stock in my cellar because I am only paying for a single bottle rather than six. Not only am I affording myself the opportunity to drink a mature and developed example of that wines some time from now, but since it is the only bottle I have in my cellar—I’ve created myself an adventure, a new experience.  I’m a firm believer that not only should great bottles of wine be paired with special occasions but even more often, I hope, a great bottle of wine be the special occasion itself. And single bottles offer a spectacular opportunity to be the occasion itself.

I might add that double cellared bottles—wines of which you might put only two bottles away—offer some of the rewards of both single and multi-cellared bottles and should not be overlooked.

Past single, double, and multi-cellared bottles—verticals, and horizontal collections, I think, offer spectacular insight into regions and producers that might not always be gained with individually cellared wines. And while the accumulation of these collections might require more dedication and investment —the satisfaction it delivers may far surpass the investment of effort required. The most insightful and rewarding drinking I have ever done has come in the form of horizontal tastings—usually subsections of a particular region within a particular vintage. Not only does this help you to learn the nuances of individual producers compared to their peers but it also serves to depict the nature of the vintage that they come from. However, don’t limit your horizontals to a particular region or vintage. Just recently a friend of mine suggested that he’d like to collect bottles of Clos Saint-Jacques from all five producers with vineyard holdings. Another friend has declared his intent to collect 2009 white Burgundies from every Grand Cru in the Cote de Beaune. Verticals offer some venues for creativity as well—somewhere in the back of my mind I’ve got the intention to piece together a vertical of every Chateau de Beaucastel produced within my lifetime. A few of the wines are pretty near dead, I know, but one of the greatest pleasures is the thrill of the hunt, you know?