Now is the great time to get into wine storage and keep those reds in your cellar or under your bed. Haven’t you always your own wine cellar? You don’t need to rip up the kitchen floor. Your wine cellar could simply be keeping some nice reds in a cool part of your house for a several years.
During this time, your wine begins to evolve from youthful awkwardness to mellow maturity. One of life’s greatest pleasures is sharing a mature bottle of wine. So you should get wine cellar started.
It is well documented that we are experiencing a wine glut, mostly with premium red wines such as cabernet sauvignon. This situation occurs at the same time as a big shake up with major wine producers Southcorp, Orlando Wyndham and Hardy, and also rising retail competition between Coles Myer and Woolworths.
With wholesale wine distribution been impacted, some larger names including Tuckers have disappearing with new mega-relationships being formed. While overseas sales of our wine grows of our lower end wines, large volumes of premium grapes remained unpicked.
Once you know which wines you like to drink, simply check out prices and specials online, or in local wine press. See Houghton, Saltram and Yalumba, Penfolds, Wynns, Hardy. Smaller labels including Peter Lehmann, St Hallett, Tahbilk, Knappstein and d’Arenberg have a lot to offer. Plus, newer, less know labels are always trying to move up.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the countless number of wines on the shelf, find yourself a good independent bottle shop to get great advise. While they may not be the cheapest, their recommendations can save you from buying and storing a bunch of ordinary labels.
If you’ve decided to store wine, you need to find a cool spot to keep them, ideally a cool place in the garage. Alternatively, go to a storage facility such as Wine Vault, Wine Ark or Kennards and rent some space.You can start off with some famous 2002 vintages or credible 2003 vintages, then you begin your wait.
Most red wines are meant to be stored from two to five years, comparatively your bolder, full-bodied reds from should be stored from six to eight years – with some twice that amount of time.
South Australia with its shiraz and cabernet sauvignon grapes, remains the true home of the traditional full-bodied reds. In the Barossa Valley the favourite wines such as Grant Burge, Barossa Valley Estate and Peter Lehmann can be found while some newer brands including Glaetzer, Thorn Clarke and Two Hands are also worth noting. In McLaren Vale, winemakers such as Woodstock, Wirra Wirra, Maglieri, Geoff Merrill and Tatachilla are all worth looking out for – along with newcomers Mr Riggs, Dowie Doole and Kangarilla Road.
In Clare Valley you can find some great earthy and affordable reds wines including Mitchell, Pikes, Sevenhill, Tim Adams and Kilikanoon. While Coonawarra has emerging winemakers Majella, Penley Estate and Balnaves to accompany their established as Bowen, Leconfield, Hollick and Rymill wineries.
Victoria’s best storaged shiraz can be found in Heathcote but also have a look at Hanging Rock, Shelmerdine, Heathcote Estate and Shadowfax, Jasper Hill and Heathcote Winery.
Grampian Red Wines are a great wine to store with Seppelt a leading label plus Mount Langi Ghiran and Great Western. Next have a look for some cabernets from Nagambie Lakes, including Tahbilk and Mitchelton labels as well as shiraz and cabernets from the Pyrenees.
When looking west, there are internationally cabernet blends especially from Margaret River rarely disappoint including Cape Mentelle, Cullen and Moss Wood. And in New South Wales, fine reds can be found in Mudgee which are great for storage. Some great value red wines can be found with Poet’s Corner reds such as Henry Lawson Cabernet Sauvignon or Montrose Black Shiraz.
