Some tips for building your first wine cellar

The wines of France occupy a central place in the world of wine, Bordeaux wine like pinot noir have an international reputation and are consumed at all the tables of the world. Starting with France, where food and wine pairings are legion both in haute cuisine and in the privacy of homes. That's why many French people want to build a wine cellar, but when you want to launch, you never really know where to start.

Find a suitable cellar

The first step before you start buying wine for your cellar is to determine the storage conditions, or the cellar proper. If you are lucky enough to have a cellar at home, it can be used as a natural cellar to accommodate your grands crus.

 

If you don't have that luxury, there are other solutions. The first is to acquire an electric wine cellar, which is similar to a small refrigerator dedicated to your bottles. The other option is to deposit all the wines with a external warehouse specialized in the storage of wines and spirits.

 

Trust your usual wine merchant

Once the place of storage has been defined, it will be time to proceed to the purchase of wine, the keystone of the constitution of a cellar. If it is quite possible to go through the large distribution to stock up, it is strongly recommended to visit your wine merchant. The latter, does not just sell wine, he lives a real passion for wine and will pass it on to you.

 

In addition, if you do not have time to attend oenology courses, it will beexcellent advice – whether to help you find one to accompany your cold cuts or cheeses of the day or to help you find the best wines for your cellar.

 

Finally, going through a wine shop is also a guarantee to find local wines (from the Rhone Valley to the hillsides of Lyonnais). And, a privilege offered by the wine merchants will give you that you will rarely find in the large distribution - if ever - it is that of the wine tasting in order to refine your choice among the proposed wines.

 

Vary the bottles in your wine cellar

A good wine cellar is above all a varied cellar, a cellar representative of the wines of the world. Even if France has this chauvinistic reputation, when it comes to wines, there is no harm in opening up to foreign wines (Italian wines are fine wines just as famous as French wines).

 

It is therefore important to vary your buying habits to always discover new wines. For example, here are some supply channels :

• Visit directly the grower from wine regions: this will allow you to discover new grape varieties and awaken your taste buds to new aromas ;
• Going to a wine fair or a wine fair: this kind of event will sometimes allow you to find real treasures ;
• Auctions: the best way to find old vintages, great wines or crus classés ;
• Go through the sale of wine on the internet: the advantage of this method will be to find a wide range of wines quickly and easily.

 

Take pleasure in building up your collection

A tip that seems obvious: unless you start a sommelier conversion or see wine as an investment, the constitution of your cellar must remain a pleasure.

 

So first choose wines that you like. Do not stop at appellations or trends, compose your cellar with passion, like a wine bar that would constitute its wine list.