A wine collector who lived close to the New York City subway system was terrified for the safety of her wines; whenever the trains would roll by, she could see her bottles rattling in their holders. Everything else about her cellar was perfect, down to the temperature and humidity, but she wasn’t sure how well…
We’ve written about the importance of wine education on this blog before, including a list of the best classes you can take to become a serious collector, but you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on formal classes to learn everything you need to know about wine. The best wine education books supplement your…
Collectors trade mailing list horror stories like baseball cards. A Don Rockwell forum member once signed up for the Cayuse mailing list in 2009, and by 2014, he still hadn’t moved off of the waitlist. When he asked the winery when he could expect to become a mailing list member, he was informed that he…
When wine educator Mary Gorman-McAdams decided to clean out her wine supplies a few years ago, she was horrified by what she found lurking in her apartment: entire stacks of rose, Prosecco and cheap Merlot gathering dust behind her newer bottles. She says, “I had some initial hope for the Cotes du Rhone, but alas,…
Rhone wine expert John Livingstone-Learmonth isn’t easy to impress, yet when he talks about Jamet, he gushes, “A lot of people would give their right arm to possess even a fraction of this family’s vineyards.” For decades now, Jamet has produced the Rhone wines with greater complexity and depth of flavor than many other estates…
Quality auction houses take every precaution to stop wine fraud, but sometimes, their efforts aren’t enough. Last year, a popular auction house was accused of trying to sell counterfeit wine to customers, and was stopped when a sharp-eyed expert caught the attempted fraud. Years ago, the auction house had successfully sold an authentic bottle of…
Would you spend $40,000 on a single wine tour? What if the winery offered you the chance to craft your own blend, sending you home with customized, engraved bottles? Chateau Duval-Leroy is offering just such a package for its VIP customers, and it’s just one of dozens of ultra-lavish tours being offered this year. VIP…
In the 1930s and 1940s, French winemaking families could easily pay off even the steepest wine inheritance tax within one harvest season. Today, paying off inheritance taxes on vineyards can take 10 years or more on family-run estates. Domaine Armand Rousseau’s Eric Rousseau explains, “It’s even more crippling for domaines that have difficulty selling their…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: Bordeaux Burgundy Tuscany Nephrologist Ken Bleifer started collecting wine 50 years ago, simply because he loved the taste. By the time his collection reached 4,000 bottles, he realized he had more wine than he could possibly drink, and decided to sell a few of them off. He soon discovered that he…
Summer is just about here, and you’ve probably noticed a change in the way the strength of the sunlight. As the sun breaks through the clouds and the temperature rises, natural sunlight inches its way into the corners of your home that are normally dark and dreary all winter. This is great news for your…
Wine experts Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher never planned on becoming serious collectors — it suddenly happened one day when they realized they owned more bottles than they could possibly drink. However, it isn’t always this easy to start a wine collection. As much as 90 percent of the wine sold in the US is…
Off the top of your head, how many wine retailers can you name that sell wines and offer you expert advice by phone based on your personal cellar needs? When wine collector Martha Welch bought more than 2,000 bottles of wine over the past four years, she had the benefit of a truly full-service retailer…
