You don’t have to be a serious wine collector to be curious about aging wine and wine storage. If you have visited or live near the Willamette Valley, you know that Oregon Pinot Noir often ages well and is a great wine to cellar. This episode explores how to determine your wine storage needs based on your wine current wine buying patterns and objectives. 

Full Transcript:

Hi there, In this episode I’m talking about when to know how it’s time to cellar your wine and when to worry about your wine storage conditions. 

I became inspired to share more on this topic after reading an interesting article about wine storage, coupled with hearing some of my friends say they have too much wine.

This got me thinking about what is too much wine. I guess this is a matter of perspective. If you buy wine to drink it right away, perhaps having 20 bottles may seem like too much wine. But if you are curious about aging wine, the drinkable inventory would seem like much less.

I started off as the person who was a part of the 20 bottles is too much wine club. If I had 20 bottles of wine in the house I was swimming in it. At the time I had the mentality of buying my daily drinking wine from the grocery store and the wine I purchase while wine tasting for example, I would keep for a special occasion. 

I think this way of thinking changed for me when I wanted to learn more about wine. I was buying $50 bottles of wine and really knew nothing about it. I read a couple books and listened to podcasts, took a course from Wine Folly, and even joined Sunday School wine society. As I became more committed, I bought more wine to taste, I took notes to test myself and my learnings. Pretty soon my wine collection went from 20 to 50 and now nearly 200.

Once it became a hobby, It became easier to justify the purchase of wine.

Party of buying wine and enjoying wine is understanding your objectives. What kind of wine buyer/drinker are you currently, have you been wanting to gain a deeper understanding of wine, are you already a collector of wine?

Your wine collection might already tell this story. If you are a collector of wine already. Then understanding the intricacies of wine storage may be very interesting to you. If you find 20 bottles to be overwhelming, a small wine fridge might be a great next step. And if you are curious and want to join me in a learning journey. Try out Sunday School Wine or a Wine Folly course and let your curiosity evolve your wine objectives.

If you are buying wine when you go wine tasting, there is a good chance you are buying bottles that are age worthy. If you don’t know, it’s a good habit to ask. If your intention is to drink it within a few months. Then it really doesn’t matter too much.

All that said, don’t worry about wine storage if you cycle through wine. If your bottle quantities are getting up there and you are having a hard time keeping track of what you have.  Then it might be time to consider a storage and cellar strategy. For example a way to track your wine. I use an excel spreadsheet. If you want some more advice from someone just getting their feet wet, email concierge@nwwineshuttle.com.