CHAPTER 2

THE NEXT STEPS: BRANCHING OUT AND GROWING YOUR OWN COLLECTION

Having made a start and perhaps spent some serious money on purchasing a few things that will need time to mature, you now need to consider some more robust and large-scale storage solutions. A number of factors should be considered, and some are perhaps a little more unusual than you might think. A common mistake is to only consider a solution for what you already own, as opposed to what you might actually want or need to buy in the short to medium term. Believe me when I say it is much better to look at your space and see that it is only a quarter full, than it is to realise that you haven't got room for the case of Chianti that has just arrived. Eventually you are likely to outgrow whatever space you have chosen and then it will be time to upgrade, or possibly rationalise your collection by selling some of it - but more on that later.

Whilst it may look good, storing wines like this for any period of time can be actively bad for them.

STORAGE SOLUTIONS

It is extremely common for people to overrate the quality of the wines they own (at least in terms of value) and the quality of the storage they need to keep it in, the theory being that if you have expensive wine you therefore need to invest more in your storage solution than if you have more modest buying habits. This, like so many things wine-related, is a myth, but one that is both correct and incorrect at the same time. If you have the right conditions within your house to store low-quality wine, those same conditions will be just as good for storing finer wines. Equally, the more you invest in your wine storage solution, the better the conditions will be for all your wines, not just the better examples. Of course, if you are only buying specific wines for short-term drinking then storage need not be too much of a concern; however, it still needs to go somewhere, and unless you are buying 'on the day' then you may as well make sure it is all kept in the best conditions available.

A classic 'starter' storage solution: the polystyrene inners from wine boxes provide both access and insulation.

The Understairs Cupboard

Leaving aside those living in flats for now, most people will have some sort of understairs cupboard or storage area. Often the home of the household cleaning appliances, this area can make a very good starting point for keeping a growing collection. Careful use of the space by employing a simple wine rack on one side and then perhaps cases on the other can yield a surprising amount of storage. However, this will only work if you have a proper degree of insulation, and there are no hot water pipes running through.

As we have seen, the maintenance of a stable temperature (preferably a relatively low one) is the key to successful maturation of your bottles. The fluctuations in temperature caused by the presence of hot water pipes, or prolonged exposure to heat, will be injurious to the wines, so if the space is subject to either of these then it must be avoided. A simple week-long test of the temperature will tell you all you need to know, and this is best done with the heating on in the house so as to create the worst possible conditions for storing wine.

Even more modest wines benefit from being stored correctly.

These wines have been stored in dry conditions for too long and are all leaking. The cork in the bottle on the right of the photo has in fact shrunk so much it has fallen into the bottle.

Modern materials mean that it is possible to buy insulated plasterboard with a very high insulation value that is also very thin, and as it is easily cut to shape you could consider lining your space with this. It will narrow things a little but it will provide peace of mind. I would not necessarily advocate storing your Romanée Contis in such a space, but for the collector who is early on in their journey, this can provide an adequate and affordable option in the short to medium term.

One issue that is sometimes a problem for truly long-term storage (especially if most of your bottles are under cork) is a lack of humidity. Most homes are well insulated and centrally heated, and this tends to mean a slightly drier atmosphere. In extremis this can lead to corks drying out from the top and causing an imperfect seal, allowing the ingress of oxygen. This is a gradual process, however, and does take some time, so should not be too much of a concern in the medium term.

Larger Spaces: Garage, Outbuilding, Warehouse

For those fortunate enough to have a garage or other outbuilding, this may seem on the face of it to be a far better option for wine storage long term, largely because there is more room. Certainly it can be an excellent choice, but there may be disadvantages that need to be addressed. South- or west-facing walls should be avoided, as outbuildings tend to be only single skin and not insulated. Equally, proximity to the door, especially in garages, can lead to sharp fluctuations in temperature, which may cause damage to your collection. This calls to mind one client who had racks and cases on the entire north wall, but an easterly aspect to the entrance. The result was that the wines closest to the door were severely heat damaged and not suitable for either sale or consumption, but those further back were in a far better state. This phenomenon can be true even for large dedicated wine storage buildings used by the trade, if they are what is known as 'ambient' storage.

Some years ago a major UK wine retailer secured a parcel of mature Riojas that had been lying in a warehouse in Spain. Along with various other wine friends I purchased several cases of various wines. It soon became clear that some of these cases had been stored adjacent to the wall that had received direct sunlight, with the result that the wines had oxidised swiftly and become undrinkable. Other cases from further into the store were insulated from the worst of the heat by those next to them, and turned out to be far better.

Ambient or Passive Storage

'Ambient' storage is effectively where no intervention is made in terms of either temperature or humidity regulation. The theory is that with a very large space with a very high ceiling, the ambient temperature is likely to be lower than a smaller space and it will change far more gradually. This effect can be seen if you walk into a barn or other large building on a hot summer's day, and then go into a shed, for instance. The difference is immediately apparent. Understairs cupboards are therefore ambient, as are garages or indeed any other space where no intervention is made. Another widely used term for this is 'passive' storage, which I suppose is self-explanatory: if you are not actively doing anything to alter the conditions, you are storing passively.

THE WINE FRIDGE

The next port of call for most people is the wine fridge. These can range from an inbuilt kitchen appliance that holds very few bottles, to six-foot tall units that hold several hundred bottles if you cram them in correctly. They also vary in price from the affordable to the astronomical. As there are myriad options, it pays to do your research before making a commitment. As a rule, the larger the appliance the more expensive it will be, as you would expect; however, much as it is worth looking at the 1er-cru price versus the village Chablis on any wine list, the incremental difference between a fridge that holds 200 bottles and one that holds 100 is relatively small. We are not here to advertise specific makes or models, but as an example a quick comparison using a well-known search engine reveals two models from the same well-respected and middle-of-the-pack manufacturer where you can buy double the capacity for only 1.2 times the price. Of course you may have other practical considerations, such as where you might put a six-foot tall appliance that is, after all, a luxury - but this is worth bearing in mind, particularly in the context of what I mentioned earlier about no amount of space ever really being enough.

As you can see, this particular wine fridge is very definitely filled to capacity. What the owner will do if they want the bottle with the gold wire on is anyone's guess - wine bottle jenga is not to be recommended!

Wine fridges are quiet, can be very elegant to look at, and can be installed virtually anywhere. As they are 'coolers' more than 'fridges' they also tend to last for a long time as the machinery is not being asked to do very much. Looking at them purely from a storage perspective, what you effectively have is a 'mini cellar', with the constant cool temperature and settled humidity found in the most ideally sited subterranean cellars. This versatility and flexibility means that wine fridges are an ideal solution for anyone living in a flat or a house with no obvious ambient storage suitable for wines. The choice is endless, and you can buy models that allow you to store and therefore serve wines at differing temperatures within the unit, the theory being that white wines are stored cooler than reds, and in the most advanced examples, even that the various areas within the unit reflect the conditions encountered in the region or country that the wine is from.

In my view the only real practical purpose here is for service, not storage. An assortment of scientific papers claim that wine X should be stored at temperature Y in order to achieve optimum maturation - though I would question this logic, as wine is so subjective....