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A Wine Story

By Mike Muirhead, ISG, CMS, Sommelier

I fell in love with wine while working in Sydney, Australia. I started my wine collection there over 20 years ago when a Sommelier I worked with was selling off his cellar in order to move across the country. I pored over the list of Australian gems for something that could meaningfully start my collection. I chose a 2000 Mount Mary Quintet, and at $100, it was 2 weeks of tip-out for a struggling bartender.

I didn’t have a “cellar” in my rental with three other friends, but this was the start of my collection. The wine travelled back with me to Canada, where it first lived in the coldest closet I could find. I graduated to a small, 30-bottle fridge, where I started to add to my prized possessions, mainly other Australian wines I could get my hands on, sprinkling in some French and then Italian. My collection has moved over five times in Winnipeg, and as my “cellar” has grown, I continue to look back at my first bottle with fondness and excitement.

When asked about starting a wine collection, I find that people make a couple of initial mistakes. First, they assume that they need to have an actual cellar. Second, they think they need to have wine from everywhere to make it a “complete” wine collection.

Let’s start with the first misstep. Wine collectors are very lucky here in Winnipeg: most of us have basements, and most of them are (at least a little bit) cold. The key to cellaring is constant temperature, no movement or vibration, as little light as possible, and the ability to store bottles on their sides. Most of these criteria can be found in the corner of a basement closet. Even an outside wall closet in an apartment will often have decent conditions for mid-term “cellaring.”

To address the second concern, we inject a little romance. Wine collections are often thought of as “show pieces”— things we can show off to impress guests when producing that special bottle for a special occasion. What I am suggesting, though, is that your cellar should be a reflection of your tastes and your experiences—it can tell a story.

I’ll use my collection as an example. I have around 200 bottles that I have collected over the years. In the beginning, most of my collection was Australian, reflecting the wines that I had cut my palate on and also the most popular region of the time. As my wine education progressed, so did my desire to collect wines that were “required reading” for a Sommelier— Brunello, Barolo, Bordeaux, Sauternes. Many of these wines still reside in my collection, and in a few instances, in “vertical” format (multiple vintages of the same wine). However, I have few occasions to drink these wines, and no one ever seems to want to dive into dessert wines with me.

In the last 5 years, I have started to think more about cellaring for occasions—wines that commemorate my wedding and the birth years of my two sons. (How is this for bad Sommelier luck: the years of my major milestones—kids, my wedding, even the year I was born—are all poor vintages.) The Sommeliers I work with have also seen their collections morph into something reflective of their own passions and tastes, not an expansive tour of the whole wine world. Gary Hewitt has a solid Riesling selection, while Sylvia Jansen leans more toward bubbles and port. Jill Kwiatkoski has wines that remind her of the places she has travelled, and Ricki-Lee’s is strong on Canadian content, reflecting the time she spent in the Okanagan.

Instead of worrying about a wine collection that is “showable,” let your wine collection become a part of your story, as prized and full of memories as a photo album or a travel journal. My wine collection started by telling the story of my journey as a young collector-turned-Sommelier. It reflects how my tastes and my education have evolved over the years, punctuated by memories of where I have travelled, special life milestones, and gifts from the people in my life. And when I open a bottle, I am not just drinking a fine wine—it connects me to the moments that make up my life. Such is the power of a really good wine collection.

For more information about Jones & Company’s Cellar Starter Club, email wine@joneswines.com. 

CELLARING PRIMER

DO

Ask a Sommelier: Sommeliers can guide you to the best wines for cellaring, advise you on the length of cellaring time, and suggest wine that also fits your palate. Jones & Company also offers a Cellar Starter Club where we pick out some great wines for mid-term cellaring.

Focus on three important aspects: Fruit, tannin, and acidity (all in good quantity) are the building blocks of an ageable wine. Fruit will dissipate over the years, tannins will soften, and acidity will hold it all together—this is why Riesling does so well, even without the tannins. Wines that can age should be harder to drink in the early years because they need time for flavours to meld together.

Buy wines to mark milestones but be creative about what you buy and be ready to drink it before you wanted. I chose some amazing Rieslings for my kids’ birth years (hopefully they are wine nerds at 18 too!). Where possible, buy in multiples so you can see how the wine is progressing. Get caught up in cellaring for a long time: Some wines do amazing over short-term cellaring (3–5 years). This allows time for the tannins to meld and the wine to become more harmonious.

DON’T

Get caught up in points: Just because a wine gets amazing points does not mean that it can age forever. I have seen $18 wines get 95 points—but that means that they are amazing now, maybe not in 20 years.

Assume all pricey wine is good for aging: So you got married 19 years ago and splurged on a special bottle for $20 (that’s $50–60 in today’s dollars)? Unless your wine has the specific traits that are optimal for cellaring, consider opening that special bottle for your 20th anniversary as opposed to waiting until your 30th!

Get caught up in cellaring for a long time: Some wines do amazing over short-term cellaring (3–5 years). This allows time for the tannins to meld and the wine to become more harmonious.