WineInk: Collectibles — Part deux
You might not think of yourself as a collector, but I’ll bet you have some things that you hold onto for a variety of reasons.
Do you have a roomful of dusty books that have not had their pages turned in a decade or more? How many pairs of skis do you currently possess in your quiver that last saw powder in the winter of 2015? And since we are on pairs, how many pairs of Hokas, Merrells, Cole Haans, or dare I ask it, Patrick Louboutins, are living rent-free in your closets?
Yes, we all have our little collections, but when many of us think about “Wine Collections,” we think in terms of big-money collectors and underground cellars. A couple of weeks back, this column highlighted some of the billionaires — with a B — who live in Aspen and have been known to collect wines and wineries as a hobby. This is just part of the package that comes with having more money than you know what to do with.
But there are others, including yours truly, who have just a few special bottles that they keep for their own reasons. They, too, are collectors. To be a wine collector, all you have to do is have a single bottle that you hold and don’t drink because, well, because it simply has some special meaning to you. I have a few bottles of wine that I have let age, some perhaps a little too long, because they were made by winemakers I admire and have known over time.
These include wines made by people like Randy Ullom, the long-time winemaker at Jackson Family Wines who directed the portfolio’s production for decades before his recent transition to an ambassador’s role at the company. I keep some wines he made at Stonestreet Vineyards in the Alexander Valley because they will age well, and they remind me of him.
The same is true of the Kosta-Browne wines that were made back in the day when Dan Kosta was part of the team. The exquisite pinot noirs from 15 years back are still showing well at the quarter pole of the 21st century. And I wish I had some of the bottles of Canadian ice wine made by my ski buddy Donald Ziraldo and co-founder Karl Kaiser under the Inniskillin moniker. Instead, I keep a few bottles of the sweet nectar Ziraldo now makes under the eponymous Ziraldo label. All these wines are still made today, but there is something unique about having the wines made by the originals, the OGs, before they moved on.
Then there are some bottles that I have acquired over the years and kept for a while because they came from places I have travelled to and wineries I have had the pleasure of visiting. A bottle of Dom Pérignon P2 Plenitude Brut Champagne reminds me of a trip to the Hautvillers Abbey, the historic ancestral home of the Benedictine monk who had a legendary role in the world of bubbles. There is a bottle of Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay that reminds me that the Margaret River Region of Western Australia is among the most beautiful places I have ever been. And touching the gold leaf label of Gianluca Bisol’s Venissa conjures visions of the Venetian Island where Bisol revived an ancient grape called Dorona and created a luxury product from an agricultural challenge.
There are myriad reasons and ways to “collect” bottles of wine, especially if you have the means to do it right. You can find a consultant for a fee or begin by simply identifying what wines you want to collect. The beauty of starting a wine collection is that it is a very personal thing that you can create and is completely unique to you.
To start, try to find a place where you can store the bottles you want to collect. Cool, dark, and dry describe the conditions that wines like, and even if you don’t have a cave or a cellar (who does these days?), you can still likely find a place that meets that description in a closet or a basement. Get a wine rack or buy a wine fridge for a few special bottles.
Next, identify what you want to collect and why. Maybe you want to forge a small collection of bottles from the year you were married, or the year one of your children was born. You might go into great wine shops and source those wines or go to online sites and seek them out.
Maybe you want to begin a collection of wines from a single vintage or a single grape, or both, so that you can taste them as they change over time. If you love Chardonnay, consider buying a case of Brewer-Clifton Chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills in Central California, a case of the aforementioned Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay, and a White Burgundy from Domaine Laflaive (depending upon your budget) from the 2023 vintage. You can, over the next decade, open a bottle a year of each and taste the evolution of a single grape grown on three different continents. Think of your wine collection as a journey through time and the places that produce great wine.
It is not a large selection of wines that I keep, but I have more bottles of wine than I have shoes and skis combined. And most bring a memory to me of people or places that have made an impression on my life.
That’s the best reason I can think of to become a wine collector.
