Wine Collector's Corner

My world of wine was very limited until about 15 years ago, my range of knowledge limited to red, white and……well that was about it.  The wine menus at restaurants were daunting and may as well have been scripted in a foreign language.  It became, to say the least, embarrassing, if not darn right intimidating.  If I was going to order wine at restaurant, shouldn't I have some hint of what I was ordering?  The question was, where should I start……..a great question that a lot of new wine consumers ask and rightfully so.  Today, there are so many new regions producing quality and affordable wines, that the task seems almost overwhelming.  Fortunately, a close friend recognized my enigma and suggested that I visit his local wine retailer and let him work with my taste preferences.  So I made the trip to the store, a very tasteful community based spirits establishment.  Very patiently Randy, the proprietor, worked with me, narrowing down my taste preferences and my budget, even offering samples of several wines.  After nearly an hour of discussion and tastings, we settled on a mixed case of inexpensive, everyday wine.  I also promised him that I would get back to him in couple of weeks afte completing my Wine Tasting 101a.  Two weeks later I was back at the store and ready to replace the depleted inventory.  I told Randy how shocked I was by the discovery that wine seemed to possess an amazing universe of aromas and flavors, brought to live even more so when paired with certain foods.  Over the ensuing years, I developed a close relationship with Randy, sampling one varietal after another from different wine regions but all still at affordable prices and in manageable lots.  Remember, as a novice, my goal here was to sample as many everyday wine styles as possible.

Then one evening, I headed down to the basement to retrieve bottle for dinner when I recognized that I had accumulated a few cases worth of wines.  It was comforting, I thought, to have a variety of standby wines to pair with different foods or just to share with friends at a casual gathering.  Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to expand my wine inventory to include many of the world’s regions and to consider adding a few special bottles for rare occasions.  It was at that juncture, as I look back, that the concept and intrigue of a wine collection first dawned on me.  However, if I was going to travel that path, it was clear that I required A LOT of additional education.