There are innumerable ways to tailor-make such wine cellar starter packs, but the following three are based on brands I have tested over the long haul. They are cheap and cheerful and mostly widely available, all of them improving in taste when aged for five to 10 years rather than consumed when they are young.
These wines do drink well now, but taste so much better - more flavoursome and smoother - after half a decade-plus. The trick is having more than one of each bottle so that you can monitor their progress. And of course, something to drink now, too, so you don't plunder your collection.
Disclaimer: I am a wine writer and do not sell wine, so there is no commercial motivation behind any of the following suggestions.
Top tips to cellar wine
• Buy two of each of the wines featured below so that you can monitor their progress by drinking one in a year's time; the other in five years' time
• Replace the wine you drink in a year's time so that you keep the cellar stocked
• Add to the cellar whenever you can afford to
• Keep notes about the wines that you like (and don't) as a reminder for future purchases
• If you have a wine you prefer, swap it for one of these suggestions
The following options provide a modest idea of how very different wine styles progress with age spent in the bottle. Each one takes a different flavour path as it grows older. Vintages are not listed below because these wines tend to remain consistent from year to year.
Joelle's budget cellar starter pack, total $97.88
Montana Waipara Riesling (or Montana South Island Riesling), $11.95 (2 bottles = $23.90) Widely available
Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz, $16.99 (2 bottles = $33.98) Widely available
Mandoleto Nero d'Avola, $20 (2 bottles = $40)
From Co-Pilot Wine Distributors, phone (09) 412 9137 or email: steve@copilotdistributors.co.nz
Joelle's shoestring starter pack, total $99.98
Kumeu River Chardonnay, $17 (2 bottles = $34)
Wise Owl Ruffled Feather Merlot, $9.99 (2 bottles = $19.98) Widely available
Villa Maria Organic Merlot, $23 (2 bottles = $46)
Joelle's tasty cellar starter pack, $97.98
Main Divide Riesling, $19.99 (2 bottles = $39.98) From liquor stores and New World supermarkets
Coralto Nero d'Avola Sicilia, $24 (2 bottles = $48) Available from Minka Trading. Email: minka.trading@gmail.com
Ruffled Feather Merlot, $9.99 (one bottle)
What you need to start a wine cellar
• Good advice on wine that is worth cellaring - not all wine improves with age (most widely available wine is made to consume within hours of purchase)
• Anywhere dark with a stable temperature that does not fluctuate (or has minimal fluctuation) is ideal for storing wine
• Underground wine cellars and wine fridges are ideal, if the budget permits
• Last but not least, you need wine to drink now so that you don't crack into the bottles you are cellaring
How to choose wine to age
• If you spend more than $100 to start your wine collection, choose classics that are known to age well. These includes wines made from cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc, merlot, pinot noir, riesling and syrah, among others. Go for good vintages, such as 2013 New Zealand reds, 2010 Bordeaux reds and 2010 Australian reds
• Buy the best wines you can afford
• Buy wines from reputable retailers who store their wines well; don't be surprised if a mystery box you buy off a friend or at a wine auction turns out to be "interesting", at best
• Bear in mind that most low-priced, widely available wine is made to drink when it is youthful rather than to age, but there are exceptions: 2013 Ruffled Feather Merlot is from such a good vintage that it is likely to improve for up to five years
• Ask for advice. If a particular wine store or wine writer regularly matches your taste, take their advice on wines to cellar, and for drinking now
• Take risks and experiment: reds from Portugal, Spain, Italy and the southern Rhone Valley in France can be stunningly good value
• Splurge once in a while on a special bottle and stash it at the back of the cellar where it's easy to forget
• Avoid keeping wine sealed with plastic stoppers
• Keep your collection out of easy reach
Splurge trio
2013 Georges Road Block Three Riesling, $22.50
North Canterbury winemaker Kirk Bray makes some of the region's best rieslings and pinot noirs, including this stunner from 2013, which tastes exceptional now and will age well.
2013 Redmetal Vineyards Basket Press Syrah, $30
This Hawke's Bay syrah has richness of flavour, full body and structure to improve for at least a decade.
2013 Matua Single Vineyard Syrah, $60
Here is a stunner from an awesome vintage that will age for at least a decade.
Where to store wine
• In a large cupboard, provided it is insulated and away from heat
• Underneath the house, particularly if it is underground
• A well-insulated room inside or outside the house
• A wine fridge or purpose-built wine room
Where not to cellar wine
• The back of the pantry
• The top shelf in the garage
• Under the bed
• The purpose-built wine rack right next to the oven - or anywhere in the kitchen
• In the carport
• In the tin garden shed
• In the wooden garden shed
• In the attic
• Anywhere the temperature fluctuates
• In bright light
• Standing up anywhere, if sealed with cork
Why not
• Heat bakes wine and destroys its flavours
• Heat encourages corks to dry out, which runs the risk of air getting in and oxidising the wine
• Light causes wine to deteriorate
• Temperature fluctuations can destroy wine quality
The posh ready-made cellar
It might be small, but the 40-bottle Vintec wine fridge, priced from about $2200, is big on delivering the ultimate wine cellar conditions.
Two years ago I took one for a test drive, cellaring two widely produced wines in the wine fridge and another two bottles in a metal lock-up cabinet where the temperature fluctuates by about 15 degrees up and down, over the course of a year.
The wines were: 2010 Church Road Hawke's Bay Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2011 Stoneleigh Marlborough Riesling. I tasted them before storing them and then six months later, which is barely enough time to see a noticeable difference.
Two years down the track, they are now beginning to show vast differences in taste. Predictably, those stored in the Vintec wine fridge taste fresher whereas those from the lock-up are showing signs of deterioration. There is strong flavour development in the riesling and the red blend tastes slightly dusty.
There is no doubt that the wines stored in the temperature- and humidity-controlled, 40 bottle fridge have fared better in the constant 12C and the humidity-stable environment of the fridge.
This environment emulates the optimum cellaring conditions of an underground, concrete-lined cellar where the temperature does not change at all.
The other bonus of the fridge is that the labels do not deteriorate as they can in some damp underground spaces, such as under the house where I used to keep wine.
• Find out more about Vintec wine fridges from Stephen Boyle at White Refrigeration, phone (09) 376 5680.
