One of my best friends is a bold red wine fanatic; when I say he loves a rich Cabernet Sauvignon, I mean he will turn his nose up at any bottle of white wine or even Pinot Noir. His only love is Cabernet. But there’s a reason for his niche taste: he’s allergic to wine…
When you buy a case of pre-arrival wines from a retailer, you probably don’t expect to wait six years for your wine bottles to arrive. That’s what happened to Wine Berserkers forum member Mike Wenzel, who bought pre-arrivals from the now-bankrupt California wine retailer Premier Cru. He explained on the forum that he bought a…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: Beaux Freres Chateau Latour Tenuto San Guido A few years ago, a Chowhound forum member faced a problem many collectors have when they suddenly inherit a huge wine collection: how to sell the bottles on consignment. The writer was brand new to wine, and had no clue what the wines that…
Buying or selling wine at an auction isn’t a decision to make lightly; although most auctions are staffed by knowledgeable experts who check bottles for authenticity, there’s still a risk when you buy or sell wine at auctions. For starters, many of Rudy Kurniawan’s wines were sold through auction houses, which is one reason he…
An acquaintance of mine adored wine, but for some reason, he hated calling himself a “serious” wine collector. When he imagined a serious wine collector, he envisioned stuffy, wealthy elitists who own thousands of bottles in their enormous home cellars and read nothing but Liv-ex reports and Wine Spectator reviews in their down time. Even…
Wall Street Journal wine columnist Lettie Teague says that Joan Fennell runs Washington’s Chateau Ste. Michelle with an iron fist. Fennell requires every staff member in her tasting room to be knowledgeable about the wines and provide every guest with the best winery tasting room experience possible. At one point, Teague was watched Fennell critique…
If you’re considering building your own wine cellar from scratch, you’ve already made the move from a beginning wine collector to a serious wine speculator. That’s because building a home wine cellar is a huge investment that only the most serious collectors should consider. The cost of most home wine cellars runs anywhere from $20-$30…
Wine collector Martha Welch grew up around some of the finest wines in the world, from Margaux to Petrus. As a young girl, she watched her father’s wine collection grow, but she had little interest in being a serious collector herself. All of that changed when her brother introduced her to California cult wines a…
So you finally get on allocations lists for two of your favorite California wineries, but when your wine options arrive, you discover that you don’t love every wine on the list. What do you do? This exact situation happened to a Chowhound forum writer, who says that he signed up for Rhys’ and Dirty &…
This past summer, I was fortunate enough to attend a wine event offering samples of some incredible Rhône wines, including a number of Syrah vintages. As one might expect, most of the wines that I tried were heavy in new oak flavors, brimming with intense earthiness. While these wines were delicious, by the end of…
As a collector, how do you find the bottles that you know are going to taste amazing and gain value on the secondary market? The best way to make this happen is to learn all you can about wine. Like a Master Sommelier, you should know how to pick out the best wines in a…
In an opinion piece for Wine Spectator, wine writer Matt Kramer said, regarding wine certification, “Nothing about wine or — dare I say it! — accomplished wine service requires this pseudo-professionalization.” Kramer explains that wine certifications are as useless as they are elitist, and that too many professionals put emphasis on formal education over real…
