Have you ever dreamed of owning an enviable cellar stocked with memorable bottles featuring the world’s finest fine wines?
If you are budding oenophile looking to take your passion for fine wine to the next level, then LLM has everything you need to know about the art of collecting wine.
If you enjoy drinking fine wine and sharing it with friends and loved ones then curating your own luxury collection is the best way to insure you have a bottle, or three, on hand for you next dinner party or special occasion.
As a first step, consider what you enjoy drinking; your favourite styles of wine, preferred wine producers and then move beyond your comfort zone. Even if your go-to is a spoiling bottle of vintage Champagne, it’s important to experiment with different wine regions and unsung producers – especially when you’re still in the blossoming stages of building a collection.
Get excited
You are about to embark on a new adventure and it’s going to be a very pleasurable journey, so get excited about wine collecting.
Building a varied collection of wine will make the journey all the more interesting. Buy a few cases from several wine regions and you will be rewarded with a diverse portfolio to enjoy. Get advice from a reputable wine merchant who can advise you on alternatives based on your tastes.
Joe Fogg is the head of private clients for London-based merchant Cru Wine who are, this year, celebrating their ten-year anniversary of advising collectors, enthusiasts and investors.
He told us: “I always advise people to think about what they enjoy drinking and this will form the beginning of a cellar of wines to appreciate. However, it’s always good to have a diverse portfolio of wines from different vintages and regions from across the world. These should include the classic French regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne but also lesser-known fine wine-producing countries that offer excellent drinking and great value.”
Joe adds: “We are passionate about fine wine and can offer advice on all regions and producers and give guidance on wines to seek out. Our experts create bespoke portfolios for every client based on their preferences and budget.”
A portfolio of pleasure
A well planned out portfolio with medium and long-term pleasure potential will continue to grow in its own right. When the wines start to reach maturity you will have all the bottles you need for every occasion, be that an extra special bottle for your anniversary, a magnum of vintage Champagne for a wedding or sharing a selection of your hand-picked bottles over dinner with friends.
Having a love of fine wine is a reason for starting a collection, however this passion can come at a price point. It’s important to consider how much you are willing to spend. You want to have enough wine to make it interesting, but you don’t have to pay a fortune.
From the classic regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, Cru Wine’s top tips would be Grand Puy Lacoste from the underrated vintage of 2017, now drinking perfectly and bursting with Pauillac charm and character. Louis Jadot Corton Charlemagne is a good bet for the exceptional value it offers versus its qualitative peers – drinking now but will keep and is very versatile with many fish and meat dishes.
Champagne is a must-have for your home cellar and Grand Siecle Iteration N°25, NV is a delicious choice displaying notes of nectarine, pear, citrus and autolytic aromas of pastry and brioche.
Outside of France, try Matarocchio – 2016 produced beautiful wines in Tuscany which balance ripeness with freshness and structure. This 100% Cabernet Franc from the renowned Antinori estate is a dark and sumptuous beauty, with superb complexity and nuance.
Cantena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is one of the finest Malbecs money can buy and a showcase of this variety’s ability to produce truly world class wines in Argentina. It’s beautiful floral aromatics, red fruit flavours and structure make it the perfect paring for chargrilled steak and chimichurri.
Botanico from Familia Zuccardi is Argentina’s answer to Chablis. Clean, fresh, mineral and excellent value versus its northern hemisphere peers.
Cellar savoir-faire
Savvy wine collectors can even drink fine wine for free! Look to buy three cases of one wine, wait for the wine to reach its optimum maturation and then sell two and the money you make could pay for the third.
Cru Wine is the UK’s fastest growing wine merchant and recently appeared in the Financial Times 1000 list for fourth consecutive year.
“Thanks to the close relationships we have built up with respected producers and suppliers over the past decade, we offer great wines at competitive prices,” says Joe, who has helped hundreds of wine lovers to curate enviable portfolios of wines.
Top tips for collecting wine
Build a varied portfolio of fine wines from across the top regions including Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy. Cru Wine also recommends including some bottles from Italy and the New World.
Smart collectors also look to Argentina, Spain, California, Sicily and other less-traditional wine regions for high-quality wines.
Buying wine when it’s first released, known as en primeur, means you are getting it at the cheapest price. You will need to wait for it to mature to its optimum drinking window, but this will ensure you have some amazing fine wine for future enjoyment.
Provenance is key when building a portfolio. Buy from a reputable fine wine merchant and keep it stored in a bonded warehouse to ensure your wines are maturing in the optimum conditions which are regulated for temperature and humidity. When the wine is ready to drink you can get it delivered to your home and keep it in a wine fridge or cellar. It’s important to store you wine properly at home.
Wine savvy collectors might consider buying two or more cases of the same wine, one to keep and the others to sell and help to subsidise the bottles you drink.
Do your research on the producer and wine. Look for wines that are well-regarded by the international wine critics with positive reviews and high scores as this will influence the market perception of a wine.
Be patient. Building a cellar takes time and will include a mixture of wines drinking at different times from three to five and even 10 years’ time.
Keep an inventory of the wines you own, where they are stored and the optimum drinking time.
Enjoy it! Collecting fine wine is a pleasure to be shared and enjoyed.
If you are looking to curate a stellar wine collection, visit cru-wine.com.
All imagery used in this article credit: Spiral Cellars
