How to Build an Enviable Wine Collection

It’s easy to become intimidated by the prospect of building your first wine collection, but it undoubtedly comes with ample joys, too, like building your taste and learning about various wineries, grapes, vintages, and more. And, once you own that gorgeous collection of wine, the idea of what you’ve achieved is really quite exhilarating (and makes for quite the story!).

Here are several things we suggest you keep in mind before taking the plunge:

 

Understand Your Purpose

 

Before curating a wine collection, you need to understand your intent. What are you trying to achieve? There are several ways of looking at building a wine collection:

• A collection of wines for everyday drinking that you enjoy on a regular basis.
• A collection of wines for special and memorable occasions like a birthday, wedding anniversary, New Year & Christmas celebrations, graduation or promotions.
• A Coming of Age Collection that you gift to your child on their 21^st
• An investment collection with the purpose of an ROI (return on investment).
• Or simply a mix of all these approaches that fulfills all your desires.

Being clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing is a very important step, as it will inform all subsequent decisions, so don’t skip it!

 

Curation is Key

 

Once you’ve decided what kind of collection you’d like to curate, the next step is to choose what kind of wines your collection can include. Here, we can take a few approaches:

 

• Go for wines you already know and enjoy! This is a very safe approach, akin to watching your friends enjoying a thrilling roller-coaster at theme park from the safety of the comfortable bench. There’s little risk, and you’re guaranteed to be satisfied.
• Then, there is the road of discovery approach — this is where you start trying new wines from the producer you already know, or the region you’ve explored or a style of wine you’ve previously enjoyed.
• One level up, and you have an approach that is one of total openness and exploration, similar to taking a year off and travelling around the world. Here, you try wines from new and previously unknown regions, countries, indigenous grape varieties and more. For example, if you loved the taste of several Austrian wines, you would then dive into other regions, trying out different producers and learning about them through your palette.
• There is also the possibility to build a vertical collection of your favourite wine in various vintages. This is a good idea when you already know the wine’s character and personality — but are keen to get to know it even better. Trying the same wine in different vintages helps you deeper understand the wine and find out just how multidimensional it truly is.
• You can also take your favourite grape variety and build a collection around it. For example, you can explore the world of the gorgeous Pinot Noir: trying out various regions, countries or producers, which would be an exciting journey around the world.

Don’t Underestimate Expertise

 

You wouldn’t buy a car without looking into it first — buying wine should be no different. Spend time researching and reading about any potential future wine purchases: you want to be sure of the style of the producer, the quality of the vintage and the historical performance of the wines. It’s no less important to hear about the personal stories from the winemakers — there really is so much to wine, we’re sure that this educational process will be thoroughly enjoyable!

 

Be Thorough With Choosing Your Source

 

Once you've decided on the contents of your collection, you need to choose where your wines will be coming from (aka - your supplier). Whether it is Berry Brothers, Hedonism Wine or an online retailer – it’s entirely up to you. Most importantly, you want to be sure of the provenance of wines: that’s why choosing a trusted source is extremely important. Another great way to fill your cellar with amazing wines is to buy them directly from the wineries you visit when travelling the beautiful world of wine.

 

Wine, Not Vinegar

 

Before your delicious wines arrive, we recommend thinking about how you’ll store your precious collection. Wine, like us humans, likes to be taken care of and appreciated. The finest cellaring conditions will nurture the development of your wines and create a comfortable environment for them until the day they come on stage and perform at their best. Temperature controlled wine fridges with two or even three different sections (the white, the red and the one under the key – for those grabby friends of yours ;-) ) are absolutely great. Wine cellars, on the other hand, are just like castles for those royal wines of yours! Then there are bonded warehouses, which are great for investment collections and future gifts.

 

Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labour

 

Once your wines are safely delivered to their new home, we recommend fine-tuning your glassware selection. Forget the generic, and focus on the professional, where the glass shapes are driven by the style of wine and grape variety. This will dramatically enhance your experience and allow for the wine to truly shine and show off its beauty. Don’t just stop at glassware, either: decanters, preservation systems and other wine accessories add to the exquisite experience of fine wine drinking.

 

Building wine collection is a long and delicate process, but it is also truly unique, exciting and unforgettable. At Bespoke Wine Collection, we specialise in curating unique wine collections that are well-balanced and build around your personal preferences and desires.  We’re on a mission to inspire you to be adventurous with wine and gastronomy, and to continue exploring the magical world of wine!