Cellar lore for dummies
FOR years Malcolm Clark has enjoyed cellaring wine. He started modestly
with a few dozen stashed into racks fitted into the stairwell, the coolest
part of his house. Today, a little wiser and richer, he's enjoying the
Rolls-Royce of cellars - a purpose-built $75,000 number deep beneath his
Canterbury home. Its capacity is 2000 bottles and it's pretty much full.
For an avid enthusiast or even serious collector, Clark's fitout is
stunning, stylish, orderly and manageable. The back wall features largely
champagne, while roof-to-ceiling metal racks along the main side-wall are
filled with Australian shiraz, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon and riesling,
plus a smattering of French and Italian. On the opposite wall wooden wine
boxes have been converted into drawers to create a nifty storage system.
And above them, there's more metal racks, in this case allowing the entire
bottle to be seen. There's no detritus, dust is seemingly absent, and the
humidity stays at 70per cent, with temperature fluctuations kept to a
minimum.
It's all very impressive, but it's not a trophy cabinet or an inventory of
investment wines. This is wine Clark, a GP, and his wife will enjoy today,
tomorrow and for the next eight years. Give or take. The wines reflect
Clark's taste, personality and personal recollections, and the space is
something of a refuge, too.
''The best part of having a cellar like this,'' says the 44-year-old, ''is
to wander around and think about the wines, remembering where they were
bought or who gave them to us. It's also about the memories of where you
were at the time you (first) tasted the wine.''
Clark pulls a Domaine de Pignan Chateauneuf-du-Pape from one of the wooden
drawers. This was bought after enjoying a bottle at a friend's dinner
party. It wasn't the same vintage, but he found that learning about wine,
and how it ages, is best done by tasting.
The potential ageing of wine can be as risky as Russian roulette and
unfortunately if a label says that a wine is best between five to eight
years, it is only a suggestion.
Veteran collector, vigneron, show judge and wine writer, James Halliday
says that as soon as a wine is bottled, it starts to lose primary fruit
aromas and flavours. While the loss is occurring, the wine becomes more
complex and the optimum drinking window could be drawn as an X on a graph.
One line shows the fruit loss crossing over another line indicating
complexity. It's where they meet, at the X in the middle, that you'll find
the optimum drinking time.
That's where the ''amazing transformation happens, say, of a young
riesling or semillon turning into a complex aged one,'' he says. ''It's a
magical combination that's hard to describe in a single word but it's when
the wine is singing at its loudest.''
Problem is that X-time is different for every style or variety. That's why
it is so important to taste cellared wine at intervals. It's not necessary
to taste the wine every year to gauge its progress, even assessing a
similar wine helps. For example, if you've put away several dozen
Coonawarra cabernet sauvignons, same vintage but different producers,
tasting one will be an indicator as to how the variety is shaping.
And yet, no matter how knowledgeable or astute a collector, there are
always wines that defy the odds. ''For no apparent reason, some wines, even
commercial ones, long outlive their best-by-date,'' notes Halliday, who has
been collecting for about five decades and has ''somewhere northwards of
10,000 bottles'' (and capacity for 5000 more) in his cellar.
About half of it is stocked with French or imported wine including Mosel
rieslings, which he adores. There are loads of local examples, too,
alongside his favourite Australian bias, Hunter Valley semillon. Halliday's
concrete-Fort-Knox cellar was built in 1985 beneath the family home in
Coldstream, abutting his office and a hillside. It has double-brick
insulation, and a natural humidity between 65 and 70 per cent. It
withstands the variations of Australia's harsh climate - a slow rise of
about six degrees between winter and summer temperatures.
''Why,'' he says, ''Do some magically hold on to a healthy vibrancy? So
you are not just drinking liquid history, but you're drinking something
quite beautiful.'' Halliday's rule of thumb is to try before you buy. A
just-released wine overly high in alcohol, and imbalanced as a result, may
not age well. Or conversely, a juicy fresh young drink made for immediate
pleasure is unlikely to last.
And he says that good advice from reputable retailers is invaluable.
Even those with exemplary collections had to start their wine journey,
well, at the beginning. Take businessman-restaurateur David Doyle, whose
cellars contain a staggering 44,000 bottles, worth an estimated $40
million.
Long before he made mega-millions from the sale of his software business,
Doyle says he could neither afford great wine, nor appreciate it. It wasn't
until he tasted a '78 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne - ''a truly amazing
complex wine'' - that he realised what he had been missing. He was 21 then
and has spent the subsequent 18 years researching, tasting and learning all
he can.
Doyle's cellars are said to contain one of the world's top 10 best
collections but he retains a refreshing, no-nonsense attitude.
''I don't care if I'm in the top 10 or 20,'' says Doyle. ''The point is, I
love wine. One half (of wine collectors) treat their wines as if they're
part of a museum and are afraid to get into them but really, it's all about
enjoyment. It's not a hobby like collecting model trains. Wine is ephemeral
and once you drink that bottle, it's gone for good.''
About 80per cent of his cellar is in Laguna Hills, Orange County, southern
California (he bought the enormous off-site facility and promptly
established a wine storage business) and the rest is in Sydney, where it
bolsters the wine lists at Rockpool, the restaurant he co-owns with Neil
Perry.
Doyle can acquire any wine he desires - his cellar has its fair share of
Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache '78 or '61 Chateau Latour - but he
never buys with profit in mind. '' There's not one bottle in my cellar for
an investment purpose that's not my buying pattern. I buy wines I like to
drink.''
Doyle says it's possible to put together a great cellar without a big
stash of cash. One tip is to buy mixed lots at auction. That is, there
might be a dozen single bottles rather than a set. Because collectors
typically want the latter, they ignore the single lots. ''You won't believe
just how amazing some of those wines turn out to be,'' he says.
With a group of like-minded friends sharing the cost, it's a chance to
taste hard-to-find wines. Providing they are in good condition, it's
possible to learn what a particular style is all about and what an aged
example might taste like.
Prince Wine Store co-owner Philip Rich says that cellaring is imprecise
and not all wine benefits from being put away. Part of the allure, he says,
is the fact wine matures at different rates: ''The whole joy of cellaring
is gauging how a particular wine is maturing.''
He says there's no point and certainly no pleasure in buying a dozen
bottles, putting them away, not drinking any in the interim, and pulling
them out at your end point to find they have deteriorated. It's always
better, says Rich, to drink a wine young rather than too old.
Reducing the risk of premature ageing is paramount and Rich firmly
reiterates the importance of proper cellaring conditions. A wine cellaring
cabinet is one option, but if space is an issue, think about storing
off-site; many companies offer climate and humidity controlled warehouses.
It's certainly worth the bother, says Rich. ''Once you've tried a great
aged wine that still has good fruit but other layers of complexity, then
you never have to ask the question again,'' he says. ''Any great wine at
its peak will be more complex and more enjoyable than when it was young.
It's why my greatest wine experiences have always been with older wines.''
CELLARING TIPS
* Seek advice from an independent retailer. Tastes will not always match
but the well-informed advice is free.
* Don't buy without trying. Nothing beats your own taste and judgment.
* Movement or vibrations, heat, light, including direct sunlight, and
sharp fluctuations in temperatures are the enemies of wine. Wine needs a
stable, well-ventilated environment with the right amount of humidity
matched to a constant cool temperature.
GETTING STARTED
$500 to spend, drink now and over the next five years.
4 bottles Taltarni T-series shiraz 2006 @ $12.85
4 bottles Windy Peak pinot noir 2008 @ $11.00
3 bottles Katnook Founders Block cabernet sauvignon 2006 @ $18.35
2 bottles Levin sauvignon blanc, Loire France 2007 @ $18.35
3 bottles Toscar monastrell, Spain 2007 @ $13.75
3 bottles Pikes riesling 2009 @ $18.35
2 bottles Whistling Eagle Heathcote shiraz 2007 @ $45.95
2 bottles Giaconda McClay Road shiraz 2008 @ $36.75
2 bottles Le Pigeoulet des Brunier 2007, Rhone, France @ $27.50
Total: $503.85 (25 bottles).
Source: Phil Hude, Armadale Cellars. Prices based on its mixed dozen
case rate.
SOURCE: Epicure
Source: The Age