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People start collections for a lot of reasons and depending on what they collect. One of collections people start is a wine collection, not to get drunk with but to have something available in case the need to celebrate arises or if they suddenly decide to have a party. People also collect wines for investment purposes and mostly, for bragging rights, which is why most wine collectors only have the best and top brand names in their cellars.
So how does one go about starting an impressive wine collection? It all begins when you go to your favorite restaurant, where the waiter asks you to sample their wine for the night and you just happen to love it. You loved it so much that the next day, you decide to purchase several bottles, or even a case. It’s so good you want to be able to share it with your friends and family who come to visit and before you know it, you’re having a cellar built. That’s OK, because the best thing about it is that it gets better with age, so it doesn’t matter if you have it in storage for a long, long, time.
To start your collection, you need to first set a budget. It can be fun to keep buying wine until it all gets out of hand. Think carefully about how much you can afford and stick to it no matter what. A bottle of good wine can cost anywhere between $10-2$20 a bottle which means you can be spending about $120-$240 dollars per case and that’s about $1500-$2500 a month. It may not seem a lot but then again, how many people buy a bottle of wine every day? What will matter most is how much you can afford to spend for this hobby. If it means having to dip into your lifetime savings, then you may be better off collecting something else.
You will also need a list of good wines to start your collection with. Torbreck wines, which are produced from the new boutique wineries in the Barossa Valley. This Australian winery was founded by David Powell in 1994 and produced its first wines in 1995. They are popular collectible wines because of Powell’s philosophy of securing grapes from old parcels of Barossa vineyards and then hand-crafting the wines in a traditional style to reflect its Barossa origins.
The next thing you need to do is to develop a buying strategy that will depend on how much you consume. For regular consumption, planning to buy 1-2 cases will suffice.
For special occasions you can plan to buy another 2 cases over the course of year so that means you can plan on buying 14 to 26 cases of wine per year, which isn’t bad. As long as you remember to compute the costs and make sure you don’t go over budget, you’re good to go. If you’re planning on collecting mostly torbreck wines, you may have to set your budgets a little higher since these wines are so popular that the demand has outstripped the supply.
There are only two important rules to remember to begin your impressive wine collection and it will do you good to put them to heart. Buy what you like, store them properly and you have something to toast about (and with) in the near future and in any occasion.
Stephen John is a food and wine enthusiast. He blogs about food, wine, and culture and works as a freelance writer for Wine Online Australia. He loves to travel and try exotic cuisines of different countries.
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