THE COLLECTORS : Wine Cellars From the Ground Up

If someone tells me, “I have a wine collection,” I look carefully to see whether the speaker shows signs of the same affliction I had many years ago.

The signs are subtle, but the trained observer can make a diagnosis without asking embarrassing questions.

Look at the fingers. Are they slightly redder than yours? Perhaps this is a sign of having just come from a wine tasting (red wine dripping from glass). Look at the pants. Are the knees a bit worn? Could be an indication the person has been rummaging about on hands and knees in convenience stores that once had a wine section, looking for a long-forgotten prize.

Other signs: purple-stained teeth, a fascination with old Chenin Blanc, an inability to chat about dates in history without bringing up how good or bad a vintage it was.

Persons so afflicted are unlikely to know they are suffering from a mania that a psychotherapist might term “obsessive-compulsive.”

For most people, collecting wine starts the way it started with me: with the taste of a great wine that I just had to have more of. In my case it was 1970 Oakville Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon “Van Lobel Sels.” In 1976, it was $10 a bottle, almost as expensive as Chateau Latour.

I found six bottles. I called a friend, not really to gloat. OK, to gloat. He was blase. He said if I was starting a collection, I should get 1970 Simi Cabernet. It was only $6.50 and it was better.

I froze! Better? I dashed down to my local store.

“Do you have 1970 Simi Cabernet?” I asked, hopeful.

“I think we’re out,” said the clerk. “Look on that shelf.”

I was crestfallen. Cases of the 1971 Simi were there; no ’70. I started pushing the boxes around. There, way in back, was a case of the ‘70! It was in my trunk in seconds. I had won my first treasure hunt. I now realize that was a seminal moment in my fixation.

One thing led to another--a few bottles of 1973 Diamond Creek, a bottle of 1973 Mouton, nine bottles of 1974 Caymus Cabernet bought one at a time. I started going to my favorite wine shop every Saturday, then to wine tastings, then to wine auctions. I joined a small wine club.

At the same time, my car began acting strangely. It automatically stopped at every store that had a “Liquor” sign on it. I had nothing to do with it; the car was possessed. Once I was an hour late getting home. I walked in with two bottles of 1976 Chateau Laville Haut-Brion.

“How much . . . ?” asked my wife.

I replied, “Eleven doll . . . .”

“A bottle ?!”

I know people whose lives are consumed by collecting. Not to mention their closets, cabinets and garages. Pretty soon there is serious discussion about using other space in the house to store wine. (“Does Cindy need all that space in the nursery? She’s only 2.”)

There is, however, a way to manage the mania, to keep it under control and to assemble a respectable collection of wine without losing a sense of reality. But it must be done with a sense of proportion. If collecting gets out of hand, you could be in trouble: Few therapists specialize in treating vinomania.

* DECIDE WHAT YOU LIKE: Start by deciding what kind of wine you like. Then see if you like that wine with age. No sense aging something if you like to drink young wine, and many people do.

Should you buy a wine newsletter to help you find such wine? Newsletters typically tell you only what someone else thinks of a young wine now, not how you will like this same wine in a decade. Your best bet is to see if you can find an older version of it and try it alongside the youngest version available.

Sure, the older bottle may set you back a few bucks, but it’s a surer and cheaper way to see if you should be investing a lot of money in young wine that you intend to consume later. If you buy now without knowing how the wine ages, you may pay later too.

To find an older version of a current favorite, phone your local wine shop and ask to speak to the wine buyer. Good wine shops have a specialist; great wine shops have many.

* BUY IN MODEST AMOUNTS: Once you know that you like a certain type of wine and have a good idea of what is worth buying in quantity, buy a small amount of the wine, perhaps six bottles at most. Sure, I bought full cases of wine years ago, but I found that I usually ended up buying too much. And although it’s tempting to buy a case of something when it’s young, in most cases within five years you can usually find the same wine at a price not much more than it originally sold for, factoring in inflation.

This may not be true for something like Chateau Latour or one of my favorite wines, Chateau Margaux, but the aftermarket for fine wine--other than certain highly sought items--is pretty broad, and these days a lot of collectors are selling off older wines through wine shops.

My best advice is: If you plan on having a good-sized, broad-based wine collection, start with small amounts of very good wines.

* DIVERSIFY: Most people start by collecting one or two things. In California, the mania for young collectors is Cabernet Sauvignon. But older collectors I’ve interviewed almost all say they wish they had gotten more 1971 Barolo, 1985 Solaia, 1971 German Rieslings, or 1977 Port. So even if you have no present interest in, say, red wines from the Rhone Valley, it might be a good idea to buy a few bottles of top-rate Hermitage from 1990, one of the greatest vintages of all time, and lay them away. Later, you may find you love the character of old Rhones. If not, you can certainly trade them for something you like with other collectors.

* WHEN TO BUY A LOT: There is one exception to this admonition: With extremely hard-to-get wines (such as Grange Hermitage of Australia, Guigal’s Cote Roties, Chateau Le Pin of Bordeaux, some of the Gaja Barbarescos), you may have to buy the amount you desire up front, because so little is ever seen in the aftermarket. A little homework will tell you if your favorite wines fall into this category.

* TASTE BEFORE PURCHASE: It’s best to try a bottle of an expensive wine before you buy a large quantity of it. How many people would buy a pricey car without taking a test drive?

Especially with expensive wines, buy a bottle as early as you can and taste the wine with knowledgeable friends. Take careful notes. Pay attention to how the wine tastes alone, then with food. How does it develop over an hour or two? Do you like it more as time passes, or less? In particular, is it worth what you paid for it?

* SPLIT CASES WITH FRIENDS: Often the best way to buy is with others who like the same wines. (You can find these people by joining wine-tasting clubs, attending winemaker dinners, or even meeting people with like tastes in wine shops.) Since most great wines are shared with friends anyway, having a friend with a half case of a wine you like is a little like an insurance policy. In case you drink all yours while the wine is still in its ascendancy, you may have another chance or two to try it again.

* BARTER: Trading wine with others is a good way to maximize your exposure to great wines. It’s not always easy to determine whether you made a fair trade, but if both parties are satisfied, the trade is a good one, and it is especially good for collectors who have more than they need of a particular wine.

My best trade: In 1976 I got a bottle of 1961 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from a collector who couldn’t find two wines that I had--1974 Caymus Cabernet and 1973 Freemark Abbey Edelwein.

* INITIALLY, STORE SIMPLY: Temperature-controlled wine cabinets are lovely to look at and keep wine at optimum temperature. However, they are anything but cheap, and wine doesn’t seem to age significantly better in them than with simpler methods.

A starter wine “cellar” is the back of a closet that doesn’t change temperature much. (A bit of additional insulation is an inexpensive insurance policy.) Keep wines out of direct light; keeping them in original boxes is practical.

Some people use a room such as an office for storing wine and add a room air conditioner. But since air conditioners draw moisture out of the air, wine corks can dry out. Moreover, this storage method works only until all the space is used up.

One man I know built an extra little “home” on his property to house his wine, then a mere 400 cases. He installed a large commercial refrigeration unit to keep everything cool. Often on hot days, he’d wander down to the house and do an inventory, sipping a 20-year-old white Burgundy as he went.

Constant temperature is more important than cool temperatures that fluctuate. Readings as high as 70 will not harm most wine as long as they are constant, but at this level young wine ages a bit faster, and older, more fragile wines can deteriorate.

Areas underneath houses are popular storage spots, as are public storage lockers (see accompanying story).

* DRINK THE WINE BEFORE IT’S DEAD: Most red wine matures enough in its first five years to gain some bottle bouquet; few red wines require more, but unless you taste a wine now and then, you won’t know how it’s developing.

There’s a saying that addresses the problem: I’d rather drink a wine on the way up than on the way down. Waiting for a wine to reach its peak is some mystical trick that is more often frustrating than rewarding.

If you like wine, drink it before it turns nasty.

*

As for my own addiction to collecting wine, I thought I was cured two years ago when I ran out of space to store the stuff. I called a friend to inform him of my freedom from dependence.

He asked me if I had bought any wine in the last 60 days.

I admitted I had.

He asked me if I was still on a winery’s mailing list and buying from it.

I admitted I was, on three, in fact.

He asked me what I knew about D-day in 1944. I said 1944 was a lousy vintage.

“You’re not cured,” he said. “You’re in denial.”