Bare Bones to Bordeaux You’ve toured your fair share of wineries, tasted everything from sparkling and red to dessert wines, and developed a palate to notice the nuances in different wines. It’s finally time to start your wine collection. But where do you begin? Do you stock up on budget bottles or only adorn your limited space with the best of Bordeaux like Chateau Margaux?
As a wine enthusiast who is looking to build, stock and grow their collection, it can be an overwhelming process. Fortunately, we have created a comprehensive guide that lets you stock up your bottles in wine cellar racks in Houston, Texas and other areas like Bellaire and Conroe. And, after reading this post you’ll know how to stock up a collection in order for storage, consumption and aging.
Tips to stock up your wine collection:
1. Identify Your Goals
Before you stock your wine cellar, you must be clear about your goals. For instance, commercial wine rack in Houston, Texas has completely different goals compared to a home cellar. They need to keep the most expensive bottles front and center so that they can be introduced to customers seamlessly. On the other hand, a home cellar is usually for growing your personal collection.
In some cases, wine enthusiasts also build an investment cellar where they treat the cellar, the glass wine cabinets in them and the wine as investment instruments. Here, the goal is to grow the value of your investment and sell the bottles later on for a profit. Your goals help you decide:
- The types of red and white wine you collect
- How you store them?
- Budget allocation to each segment
- The number of bottles you want to have, etc.
2. Wine Storage Basics
Before you stock up on your favorite wines, it’s important to nail the basics. A bottle of wine is alive and evolved depending on various storage factors. They include:
- Temperature and Humidity – Temperature fluctuations can ‘cook’ the wine into vinegar, change its volume and alter its chemistry. You won’t be drinking the bottle you paid for if you can’t control temperature. On the other hand, if your metal wine racks in Houston, Texas and other cities like Katy and Kingwood aren’t humidity controlled, it leads to severe problems like molding and loose corks.
- Odors and position – Wine corks allow the bottles to breathe and the ventilation and odor control is crucial. You can’t put your wooden wine racks in the garage and expect it to smell nice. On the other hand, storing wines in a horizontal position helps to keep the cork wet, sealed and minimize vibration.
- Light – UV light is another prominent enemy that can alter the chemistry of your wine collection. That’s why you want to keep your bottles away from it and use bulbs that don’t generate the same.
3. Consider A Modular Design
When you start your wine collection, you’ll have a limited budget. That’s why it’s best to start slow with modular wine cellar storage racks in Houston, Texas. These racks feature a design that allows you to expand storage capacity without ruining the look. Whether it’s vertical stacking, adding a few more racks on the side or adding more wine shelving on the walls, going modular gives you room for expansion and adjustments later on.
4. Designating Funds
Stocking up your cellar with the best win bottles from the get go will quickly exhaust your budget. You don’t want to begin by spending your fortune on a single bottle. Building a balanced wine collection requires a solid strategy with a good mix of budget, specialty and investment worthy wines in the collection.
If you’re looking to stock up on a few bottles to cash in on future profits, allocate at least 40% of your budget to it. Premium specialty wines that help you savor various milestones in your life should get another 40% of your budget. Finally, when it comes to regular consumption for weekend dinners, choose bottles that are affordable and don’t compromise too much on quality.
When stocking up on your wine cellar, it’s important to plan for the long term. Create an inventory system that allows you to track the aging of each bottle. Make sure to expand your knowledge to stock up on wines that increase the diversity and quality of your collection.
Summary: Can’t decide on stocking up your wine collection? Learn about storage, budgeting, choosing wines, and growing your cellar over time.
