How to Start a Wine 'Cellar' (in a Closet or Basement or Under the Bed)

One of the delights of wine is seeing what happens with the passage of time. But if you don’t have a specially built wine cellar, a cold English castle, an unlimited budget and/or the patience to wait 10-20 years, can you share in that delight?

Emphatically yes!  With just two to six bottles of a wine, the ability to spend $15-$30 per bottle, enough space to stash away a box or two and the willingness to follow your wine for two to three years, you can have a very compelling “cellar.”  If you know a few tricks.  Which is what we’ll be teaching you in this very chill and easygoing class on starting a wine “cellar” on a cash and space budget.

You’ll start off by exploring a pair of young white and just released red wines to learn a bit about what to look for in a wine that will improve over the next few years.  Then you’ll see what happens with time as you get to know two different vintages of very nicely price cellar wines:  a 2017 and 2020 Lirac and a 2016 and 2019 red Bordeaux.  All while learning things like:

• What happens while wine ages? (A:  Lots of things!)
• Is cellaring just for red wine? (A:  Nope – white wines can evolve too)
• How can I age wine if I don’t have a wine cellar? (A:  Creatively and easily)
• Do I have to buy a solid case of a wine to cellar?  (A:  Nope – one to drink now and two to follow is great)
• Does wine always get better with age?  (A:  Nope – it changes in ways you may prefer or not prefer)
• How long do I have to wait? (A: Depends on the wine, your storage and you – but even six months can make a difference for many wines and a couple of years is almost always interesting)
• How will I know when my cellared wines are ready?   (A:  We’ll argue they’re ready whenever you pull the cork!)

After the class, we hope you’ll feel both confident and inspired to start playing around with aging wine at home yourself.

And, if you like, we’ll offer a free one-hour consultation with a team member sometime in the three months following the class to advise on creating your own, personal, wine storage system and coming up with a game plan to build a “cellar collection” of your own. 

It’s going to be a deliciously fun evening.  Join us!

Host or Publisher Chain Bridge Cellars