For wine lovers with large collections, storage is often an afterthought. This is understandable. The intrinsic quality of the wines themselves, the provenance, the experience – and yes, sometimes the display – all of these are considered fundamental to their enjoyment of their wine. And rightly so – they are fundamental, and these elements are definitely the sexier side of wine. But protecting your wine in the intermediate period between sourcing and consuming it – that is often forgotten.
What do I mean by protection? For the typical consumer, it usually means making sure the bag doesn’t break on the way home; there is sufficient room in the fridge to chill it if necessary, and you don’t forget that you put it in the freezer.
However, for wines that are not only age-worthy but age-needy, the question is more complex. In such cases, protection means ensuring that the wine is stored over the longer term in an environment that will conserve both liquid and labels, that insurance against a catastrophic event covers not just the purchase price but the full replacement cost of the wine, and that your wine is secure from being lost in storage, whether via fraud or negligence.
A few years ago, I was in a beautiful cellar in an equally beautiful home in central London, filling it with wine the client had repatriated from his sojourn in California. Sadly, the wines themselves were not beautiful. It was very clear that many had been stored in conditions that were, let’s say, less than ideal. Protruding corks, light struck whites, signs of seepage. Yes, he was able to get some recompense, but the storage company couldn’t repay the full value, and their insurance did not cover it. My client was devastated, and it has taken him a long time to rediscover his enthusiasm for wine.
I spent last week in Gloucestershire, carefully replacing bottles into a stunning underground cellar that flooded in December. Thankfully, the client listened and didn’t bring in heaters, so the wine itself was saved. His insurance covered the diminution in value, and he has decided to keep all the bottles; he will have many more years of pleasure from them. However, for this client, the aesthetics of the bottle are part of the appeal, and there is no doubt that some of the joy in his collection, one of the finest I’ve seen, has diminished. At the same time, the insurance company is not only raising their fee but reconsidering the level of coverage, so any future flood could be far more costly to this discerning connoisseur. With climate change causing more extreme weather, devastating floods are becoming more likely. His cellar looks beautiful, but how safe is it?
I spend most of my professional life working with fine wine. But, just as not all wine can or should be aged, not all storage options are the same. Key factors are:
- the storage environment itself. How resilient is it? How protected against extreme weather, a fire, flooding, a power cut?
- What is the insurance cover? Who provides it, the receiving warehouse or your direct storage provider. Will it fund full replacement cost, or simply the purchase price?
- How reliable are their systems? If my wine will be physically safe there, will it also be administratively safe? Will they be able to find it again, is my name on the case if not how will they know it’s mine?
Working with clients with extensive cellars, I am encouraging them more and more to seek out professional storage for any wines needing ageing, and truly, there is none better than Octavian. Their systems are robust, the storage environment is as close to perfect as you can get, and they carry insurance to £450m each and every loss*. For under £20/case, much less if you are storing over 100 cases, your wine is stored, managed, and fully insured. Their teams are responsive, professional, and a pleasure to work with. And the peace of mind? Priceless.
* subject to terms and conditions and correct at time of publication