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All the above are typical headings found when searching for wine storage.  Not one of these articles, or links, refer to the most important element of wine storage, being that of managing your wine collection.

The enthusiasm for promotion of wine racking, and wine cooling is because these are products for sale which enthuse because of their apparent beauty or usefulness.  Sadly the slightly less exciting, but much more important, aspect of wine cellar management does not score so well in searches.  

No matter how your wine is stored, in racks, boxes or just sitting on the floor, if it is not catalogued it will be squandered.  This waste occurs because wines are too often serendipitously chosen or randomly ignored.  

Wine cellar software providing easy and accurate management of your wine inventory is the first essential of collecting wine.  Racking and refrigeration can easily follow, with the final combination providing the best facilities for your wine, but the first step is to create a manageable Cellar List.  

Visit www.vinote.com to learn more about Cellar List Management.

New Releases August 2010

Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010

First of the new vintage Sauvignon’s this one is a classic Marlborough style. Bright fresh and fruity with loads of sweet passionfruit flavours and a long crisp finish, about $20 in NZ but on special at about $13.

Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard Shiraz 2008

Enticing aromas of liquorice chocolate and spicy oak, rich ripe berry and plum flavours, smooth soft tannins and a long sweet finish, delicious drinking and ready now, about $19 in NZ.

Murdoch James Blue Rock Unoaked Chardonnay 2009

There may be no oak but this wine has plenty of character. Creamy and rich with juicy citrus fruit, hints of spice and toasted nuts, the extended lees contact has added plenty of palate weight and interest, a smart wine that is a perfect anytime drink, about $25 in NZ.
Also worth trying is the Blue Rock Pinot Noir 2008 soft smooth flowing style with elegance, about $40 in NZ, for more go to www.murdochjames.co.nz .

Johanneshof Cellars Vendage Tardive Gewurztraminer 2009

What a stunner, pineapple, honey and spice all beautifully presented with a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness, immensely drinkable not the least bit cloying would make a delicious aperitif or match with a slightly salty blue cheese, about $29 for 375ml in NZ for more go to www.johanneshof.co.nz .

Mt Beautiful Cheviot Hills Pinot Gris 2009

Intense bouquet of pear and quince, ripe juicy fruit flavours with substantial palate weight and alcohol, beautifully textured and medium sweet, about $24 in NZ, for stockists go to www.mtbeautiful.co.nz .

Saint Clair Omaka Reserve Marlborough Chardonnay 2009

Big rich full bodied wine, spicy oak and tropical fruit flavours with hints of cocoanut and butterscotch on the palate, long lingering finish, a young wine still developing, about $33 in NZ.

Gladstone Vineyard Wairarapa Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Sweet herbs and freshly squeezed grapefruit flavours, nice easy style, softer and more food friendly than most, good palate weight and a long crisp finish, about $23 in NZ for more go to www.gladstonevineyard.co.nz .

On the Grapevine August

Bordeaux Hosts Gimblett Gravels Tasting

If New Zealand wine wants to compete on the world stage then it has to match up or surpass what the rest of the world offers, and the only way to impress is match our quality wines with theirs. So back in June, Steve Smith MW Director of Wine and Viticulture for Craggy Range packed his bags plus a few bottles of exceptional Hawkes Bay wines and headed for the first ever tasting of New Zealand wines to be held in Bordeaux.

The tasting consisted of Bordeaux varietal blends from the Gimblett Gravels region of Hawkes Bay, and was held at Chateau Brane-Cantenac in June this year.
The event was attended by some of the most influential chateau proprietors and oenologists of Bordeaux, as well as press and media. Wines from Craggy Range, Trinity Hill, Church Road, Villa Maria and Sacred Hill across three vintages were presented to the group.

The wines were received with enthusiasm, and comments ranged from, “fresh and well balanced”. To the more personal as Jen Claude Berrouet of Chateau Petrus noted “from New Zealand where men of character enhance an original nature by producing wines with unexpected complexity and subtlety”.

The wines tasted were from the 2005, 2007 vintages and 2009 (barrel samples).
The wines were Craggy Range Sophia, Craggy Range The Quarry, Trinity Hill The Gimblett, Villa Maria Reserve Cabernet Merlot, and Sacred Hill The Helmsman and Tom.

Entries for Air New Zealand Wine Awards Open

This year all entries are required to be 100% sustainably produced which means that grapes must be grown and processed under an independently audited sustainability program. A requirement that has made it tough for many of our smaller vineyards to comply due to the costs associated with the sustainability program. These pose a considerable monetary burden to many of our smaller wineries and it would be a shame to see them cut out of competing with our larger producers; after all the majority of New Zealand’s vineyards started out small, sometimes planted by amateur enthusiasts, before they grew to their present size.

This year’s international judges include two writers Eric Arnold from USA, currently editorial director for Bottlenotes.com. And Stephen Brook from UK, author of The Wines of California and contributor to a number of wine publications based in Austria, Sweden and Korea.
From Australia, Ben Edwards president of Sommeliers Australia and director of The Wine Guide (a global sommelier consultancy); and Philip Rich also from Australia, founder and partner of Prince Wine Store in South Melbourne, one of the largest independent fine wine stores in Australia.

Judging will be from Monday 1st November to Wednesday 3rd November, results will be announced on Wednesday 10th November, and all Trophy winners will be announced at The Wine Awards Gala dinner on Saturday 20th November in Auckland.

NZ Winegrowers Year in Review

Wine Exports grow 5% to $1.04 billion
Grape vintage reduces 7% to 266,000 tonnes
Average value of bottled wine exports declines 11% to $8.70 per litre
Exports of Pinot Noir exceed $100 million for the first time
Membership of Sustainable Winegrowing NZ covers 93% of the producing area and 85% of wine production
MOU signed with Organic Winegrowers New Zealand

Some good and some bad news here, at least exports are still going up but the price per litre drop is not good. New Zealand has prided itself on the high price per litre it has maintained for some time in our export markets. But it is excellent to see Pinot Noir exports increasing; it is now second only to Sauvignon Blanc but a long way behind with  Sauvignon totalling 115,810 million litres exported this year Pinot Noir’s total was 8,207 million litres.
 

In these harder times the opportunities for buying wine at highly competitive prices are all around us, making the value of cellaring wine higher compared to when things are going well. 

If you ensure that you are buying wines that will keep and improve over the next few years, you are “putting money in the bank”.  

Just like money in the bank, you must ensure that you manage your holdings.  

We read endlessly about temperature, light and humidity for storing wines, but the frequently neglected element is managing your wines.  

It is essential to maintain an accurate cellar list to ensure that your wines will not be opened inappropriately nor will they be held too long for their own good.

Cellaring without accuracy puts all your wine at risk of squandering or spoiling.

The reason that good cellar list management is seldom mentioned is because so many wine cellar software programs fail to provide any aids to maintain an accurate cellar list.  

Vinote provides a unique cellar management system which removes all dependence upon good memory and guarantees an on-going accurate wine inventory.

Your constantly accurate wine list provides you with the confidence to invest in quality wine; you always know what is in your cellar, when it should be opened and where it is.

There are a number of Vinote users, and I guess other wine cellar software users, only occasionally approach their cellar program.  While I can understand that the prime urge is to enjoy the wine being held, I fear that those who do not use their software on a regular basis are missing out on many of the pleasures of cellaring.

To list a few –

There is the pleasure of perusing the wine list on a regular basis to know what wines are waiting to be opened, and which ones must be opened.

There is the pleasure of selecting a wine to match the food and the occasion with help of tasting notes, drink by dates and price.

There is the pleasure of finding the wine, which has been sitting there for possibly a number of years - using the Vinote tag number in the cellar.

There is the pleasure of enjoying and sharing the wine that has been appropriately chosen.

There is the pleasure of, later, using the Vinote Tag to accurately remove the wine from the cellar software, whilst reminiscing on the wine and entering some tasting notes.

Finally there is the pleasure of knowing that all your wines are accurately recorded so that past wines tasting notes can unearth and future wines will be suitably selected and easily found.

To store wines in a cellar and not regularly use your wine cellar software means that you are missing out on many of the pleasures and your efforts in recording your wines may be wasted.

I recommend to all users of wine cellar software, to use your program on a regular basis, making the most of the work you have done and increase your pleasure in cellaring and your wines.

I regularly receive emails from people who want more information on how to best use barcodes on the wine bottle.

The first thing to know is that the barcode is generally a 13 digit number generated by the winery.  There is no hidden information in the barcode. Some of the digits represent the country of manufacture, some the identity of the producer company, some represent the particular wine and a couple of digits which act as a check sum, ensuring that the barcode has been read correctly.

The action of scanning a barcode simply reads the code as numbers and displays these on the screen, replacing the need to key the numbers in.  The important process follows, where a database such as Vinote Cellar is searched to display the wine details relating to this barcode.  

Vinote Cellar takes the value of barcodes further by printing a unique number and its barcode equivalent on each Vinote Bottle Tag.  This allows the cellarer to identify a wine bottle by scanning the tag’s barcode.  Just as the bottle barcode, through Vinote Cellar, provides details of the wine, the tag barcode provides details of the bottle to be viewed and adjusted; in particular this ensures accurate removal of opened bottles from the current wine list.

Barcodes on bottles and tags, in association with Vinote Cellar, make for accuracy, speed and efficiency in wine and bottle identification.

To read more on this subject Click Here. 

New Releases July 2010

Sileni Cellar Selection Merlot 2008

Plum and berry fruit nicely balanced by just a touch of smoky oak, soft ripe tannins and plenty of ripe fruit make this an easy drinking wine that is at its best now, about $19 in NZ.

Main Divide Waipara Valley Chardonnay 2008

Year after year this wine always delivers far more than its price suggests. Ripe sweet grapefruit flavours beautifully wrapped in toasty oak, a serious wine that reflects the pedigree of the Pegasus Bay winery is not to be missed, about $19 in NZ.

Saint Clair Marlborough Riesling 2009

Delicate light and refreshingly crisp, lime/lemon flavours and a long honeyed finish, young wine still developing that will reward cellaring for at least 2-3 years, about $20 in NZ.

Crowded House Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Crisp fresh and herbaceous with distinctive green gooseberry flavours, a fruity drink anytime wine from Catalina Sounds winemaker Nina Stocker, about $18 in NZ.

Tupari Marlborough Pinot Gris 2009

A new boutique wine label made by winemaker Glenn Thomas from Awatere Valley fruit, Glenn has had years of experience working with fruit from this side of the hills and has crafted an outstanding wine. Rich concentrated flavours of pears and spice full bodied with substantial alcohol and a long spicy finish, medium dry style that should be enjoyed with food, about $29 in NZ for stockists go to www.tupari.co.nz .

Mount Dottrel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2008

Savoury complex wine with ripe dark cherry flavours, fine structured tannins, lovely balance elegant and delicious drinking, about $35 in NZ for stockists go to www.mitrerocks.co.nz . 

Vidal Hawkes Bay Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Dark dense ruby aromas of smoky oak and ripe plums, full bodied wine with sweet ripe tannins, a smartly priced wine that offers more than you expect, about $20 in NZ.

If you enjoy wine, you undoubtedly have a few bottles stashed away, so you are cellaring. 

If you are cellaring you undoubtedly enjoy building up the number of bottles your are stashing.

As your bottle numbers increase you undoubtedly will struggle to find the occasional bottle that you remember has been cellared, but where is it? 

The elusive bottle will have already been opened and the occasion forgotten, or it is hunkering down in some forgotten corner.

This occasional failure will undoubtedly lead you to loose faith in your memory and in you ability to securely store and then find treasured bottles.

The transition from haphazard cellaring to organised cellaring with efficient usage of space and efficient cellar list maintenance, is a simple step. 

Once you have improved space and cellar management your confidence in finding your favoured wines grows and your pleasures in your cellar become truly gratifying.

Vinote Cellar, wine cellar software, is easy to use and enhances the value and pleasure of cellaring. 

There are a great many articles written, on managing a cellar in regard to heat, light and humidity (no longer an issue with screw caps), but seldom do beginners learn of the essentials of managing their wine inventory.  

Wine and memory do not make good bed fellows, so a good inventory system is possibly the most important rule of all.  

Free cellar software, that maintains an accurate summary of what wine is in your cellar and when it is best opened, is easily obtained and can start you off on the right foot, no matter how few bottles you are holding.

However it is not the software that manages your inventory, this must be done by you.  The hard part is remembering the wines you have opened and removing them from your wine cellar software database.  Despite best intentions, empty bottles are tossed away, before their demise has been recorded.  Pledging to remember, to keep a list or to operate the program as you enjoy a wine, are all wasted promises.

Vinote has overcome this gap between memory and inventory accuracy with the use of pre-numbered bottle tags.  

Each bottle is tagged on entry into the cellar and this tag is retained when the wine is opened.  The tags survive for years in the cellar; they will withstand any harsh treatment to ultimately provide the prompt needed to accurately update your database.  Inventory accuracy is maintained.

A cellar without an inventory is a dead cellar.

All wines should be cellared so that the ‘drink now’ wines will be held until called upon and aging wines are held properly for the long hall.

For those being chosen to rest for some time longer in the cellar some simple rules apply.

1. Check out the winery and the wine maker for other vintages. If the winery is new to you, check out its credentials from reviewers and other wine drinkers tasting notes and comments.   Medals from wine competitions can give misleading signals especially as to how wines might age.
2. Taste the wine in a familiar setting. The ambience of where you are tasting can make a difference to your perception, as can the residual flavors of food or other wine. 
3. Mark down bitterness or greenness. These faults are unlikely to vanish with aging. 
4. Don’t mark down leanness or tightness. These will, in the right wines, improve with aging. 
5. Buy a wine that has the flavors and balance you are looking for. Go on, indulge yourself - this is what you are looking for! 
6. Buy enough to follow the wine’s aging. As the wine develops, you want to have enough stored to allow you to open the occasional bottle to test how it is aging. 
7. Maintain an accurate wine inventory, and know where to find every bottle.  The best of wine storage conditions are valueless without an accurate wine inventory, so that your recording of the development of aging wines can be recorded and their future opening dates displayed.

Cellaring wine greatly enhances the total wine experience.  Following these few simple rules guarantees happy cellaring.