Welcome to the ultimate wine resource


Taste Your Way to an Affordable, Well-Stocked Wine Cellar

Does the phrase "wine collector" conjure up1. Experiment with less familiar grape
an image of a millionaire living in a largevarieties for bargains. Take the road less
home with a temperature-controlled roomtraveled and try wines you have never heard
dedicated  to  holding  fine  wines?of. For example, the low-priced premier red
of Portugal, called Bairrada, or South
It shouldn't. If you buy wine, you are aAfrica's Pinotage might be unfamiliar, but
wine  collector.they often deliver as good a quality and
taste as the more expensive wines of
First off, you don't have to have a specialCalifornia  or  Australia.
room dedicated to storing your wine. As long
as you keep your stash in a quiet, dark,2. Find understudies for your favorite wines
coolish place where bottles can lay on theirand you can save 20% to 30%. For example,
sides, you have a wine cellar. It could bewhen you need a stand in for Chardonnay, try
under the bed, on the closet floor, in aSpain's top white, Albarino, or let Malbec
refrigerated  cooler,  or in a basement room.from Argentina go on stage, and give Cabernet
the  night  off.
Secondly, you don't have to be rich to stock
your "cellar" with fine wines; you just have3. Buy the "next door neighbor." Seek out
to be smart. The operative concept is tastewines from up-and-coming areas adjacent to
the wines and decide for your self. Doingfamous vineyards and save a bundle. These
your own tasting "homework" is an essentialwell-made wines are easy on the wallet and
part of accumulating a wine cellar that youoffer real value. So start tasting
will  enjoy.Merlot-based blends - not from pricey St
Emilion and Pomerol - but from their
Be aware that higher price does notneighboring  areas.
necessarily mean the wine is better or that
you will like it more than a less expensive4. Sniff out the "wanna-bees." Megastar Tom
wine. I live by the motto, "if you can'tCruise went from being paid $75,000 as a
taste the difference, don't pay thewanna-be to getting $75 million for his three
difference.""Mission Impossibles." Your mission, if you
accept it, is to find those budding megastar
In general, you will stock your cellar withwines before they become famous and
three categories of wine. First are the tableunaffordable. For example, a bottle of Elyse
wines you drink within the first 12 to 24Cabernet, sold for just $14.50 in 2000, and
months, before they lose their youthfulis  now  at  $56  and  climbing.
fruitiness. These are your favorite everyday
wines for under $15 a bottle. A whopping 90%5. Ask specifically for "second labels" of
of the wines produced in the world fall intofamous red wines from Bordeaux and Cabernet
this  category!and Bordeaux-like blends from California.
These are premium wines made from grapes that
Next are the mid-priced wines that can bejust weren't quite good enough to go into the
drunk now, but will benefit from time intop brand, but they are dead ringers for
bottle. These are special occasion winestheir more privileged cousins -- only they're
costing $15 to $25 a bottle. Keep them forabout  one-third  the  price.
about five years and they will have slightly
more varied aromas and flavors. These6. Buy famous wines in poor vintages.
reflect  9%  of  all  the wines in the world.World-class wine producers have to ruthlessly
cull out poor grapes in off vintages to make
And the last 1% of your stock is reserved forexcellent wines. Still yet, off vintages are
rare wines. It's not for everyone, butpriced lower than wines from an ideal growing
collecting some special vintage year bottlesseason. Their  loss  is  your  gain.
-- the age worthy ones that only get better
with  age  --  can  be  a  fine  investment.Remember, you can be a wine collector and not
have to pay a lot for the pleasure. Follow
Here are six strategies to use so you don'tthe 6 strategies provided and they will give
have to empty your wallet in order to fill upyou affordable drinking now, and in the years
your  cellar  with  your  favorite  wines.ahead.



1 A B C D E F 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138