How to taste wine for (almost) free

One of the things that people who aren't "big wine drinkers" often cite as a reason for not trying a lot of wines is the expense -- buying bottles to take home can add up, buying glasses in a restaurant is even more so.  But... how do you find wine you love without trying new wines?

Ahh, the eternal dilemma -- the safe, comfortable, known wines versus the new, unusual wine with a hard-to-pronounce grape name from an appellation that you didn't know even made wine!

So, barring winning the lottery, what's an aspiring wine geek to do?

Simple.  There's tons of opportunities for you to try wine for little to no money!

Get on the mailing list of wine stores and restaurants with good wine lists.  It's not unusual for them to have regular, scheduled, tastings, and special events when producers come into town.  For example, there's 4 major wine stores in my region that have such -- two have monthly tastings that cost $10 ($5 of which is returned in the form of a gift certificate), one has semi-regular tastings (some of which are free, some of which are up to $25), and one has regular weekly tastings for free.  Additionally, one has monthly themed, in-depth tastings ("Cabernet around the world," or "Celebrate with Champagne and Sparkling Wine" for themes) for $25.  In all these cases, it's not uncommon for there to be specials or coupons on the wines tasted -- so if you like something in the store, you can take it home for a little off retail.

As for restaurants, one in my area has "wine down Wednesday," where house pours are $2, and the rest of their by-the-glass list is half off.  Others will host tastings (generally costing $5-$10) on a semi-regular basis; keeping track of the emails can be a bit of work, but it's easier than paying full price!  You'll also hear about "big name" tastings at some -- one steakhouse near me, for example, is having a dinner with the makers of Nickel & Nickel... for $125 a seat.  Still, that's only marginally more money than a bottle of their wine and a steak would cost, and you get to try 5 wines (and a 4-course meal).

Additionally, when you eat out -- look for wine flights for tasting.  In my area, a number of places now serve a flight of 4 wines for roughly the same price as 1 by-the-glass.

Then, there's the option of hosting a wine tasting on your own -- get together with 5 or 6 friends, everyone buys a bottle in the same price point (generally, my rule here is "about $20, and something you've not had before"), and get together to try them and compare notes.  

One good resource for finding out about cheap/free wine events, pretty much nationwide, is localwineevents.com.  Yes, some of the information will be repeated (two of the wine stores in my region, for example, post their events here too), but better to hear about something twice than miss it!

And how do you keep track of what you taste?  In my case, a notebook for recording stuff "in the field," and then Cellartracker for keeping it all straight and organized -- the whats, whens, and how-I-liked-the-wines of tasting.

Filling a wine cellar

One question facing any wine enthusiast often will face is "what should go into the cellar?"  In my case, it's facing me directly, as the husband of a good friend of my fiancee is looking at buying a small wine refrigerator (like the one pictured) and putting a case or two of mixed wines into it, and he wants me to help picking the wines.

So I've been mulling it over; what would I use to build a cellar?  I know what I have in my cellar -- Cellartracker tells me that I've currently got on hand 38 bottles of wine, focusing mainly on reds (6 white and 32 red), with the majority of "cellar-worthy" wines coming from the upper end of California (some Diamond Mountain cab, a number of bottles of Stags Leap District cabs), Argentina (three bottles of the best Argentine red I've ever had... that costs under $30!  That'll be a post for another day), and a lot of Bordeaux, focusing on '05.

So, what will I suggest my friend get?

Probably not the same wine I would -- from what I understand, he wants to have wine on hand for drinking on a regular basis, not for long-term storage.

See, there's multiple reasons for having a cellar; I want to (mostly) keep wine for years, he wants to have it for months.  Now, there is some crossover between these two categories (as I certainly have wine for short-term consumption), but the intent of the cellar's owner is surely most important in determining what to put in the cellar.

So, what would I choose for short-term storage?  Wines that are ready to drink now, or at least within a year.  Given a hypothetical 12-bottle cellar for wine, I'd try to include:

• A bottle of nonvintage Champagne or other good sparkling wine-- it's always good to have something on hand to celebrate with, even if you're just celebrating Tuesday.
• An Australian Shiraz -- Friendly and fruity, good crowd-pleasers. 
• Some Pinot Noir -- yes, it's trendy, but it's also versatile.
• One Rhône red -- A bit more earthy, great for steaks, and undoubtedly adding cachet to a dinner ("Oh, we'll drink French tonight.")
• A low-oak Chardonnay -- Sometimes, you don't want your wine to taste like oak...
• An oaky Chardonnay -- ...And sometimes you do.
• A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc -- Great with seafood, another crowd-pleasing wine.
• A Washington Merlot -- Some of the best Merlot I've had in recent memory was from Washington state; good value for rich, plummy, cherry wine.
• Two California Cabernets -- Ideally, both from Napa -- one from the mountains, and one from the valley floor, to allow for the different styles to show off.
• Two "oddball" wines -- a Torrontés, perhaps, a Carménère, or some Pinotage from South Africa.  A Brunello or Rosso di Montalcino.  Something not within the "normal" varietals.  What's the point in playing it safe all the time?

Now, if I were designing for aging long-term, things would be a bit different.

• Replace the nonvintage Champagne with something vintage (vintage Champagne is made to age longer).
• The Shrazes would either become upper-end Aussie wine, or small-appelation Rhône wines (Vacqyras, Gigondas, or Chateaneauf-du-Pâpe).
• The Pinot would become a Burgundy.
• The Californian Cabernets would become either upper-end cabs (read: probably overpriced), or ageworthy left-bank Bordeauxes (2003 and 2005's, if they were being bought at retail right now).
• The Merlot would become a right-bank Bordeaux.
• The Chardonnay would become a bottle of Montrachet or Mersault, and a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisee or Chablis.  If possible, they'd become Premier or Grand Cru wines from those regions.
• The Sauvignon Blanc would either become an upper-end Bordeaux blanc, or replaced entirely with a Sauternes or a good German Riesling.
• A vintage Port would probably appear, if possible.
• The oddballs would still be oddballs, but now concentrating on areas with age-worthy wines -- Tupungato in Argentina, Stellenbosch/Rustenberg in South Africa, Barolo and Barbaresco in Tuscany.

Of course, there's other ways to plan out a cellar ("I want to get the best wines from [insert-region-here]," or "vertical tastings of [insert-wine-here]," or "horizontal tastings of [region] in [year],"), but for the most part, these two plans would satisfy the desire to either have a bottle on had for most occasions, or to have wine worth aging for a couple of years.

Of course, a better plan is to get a 24-bottle cellar, and mix the two cases!

The care and feeding of Cellartracker, part 2, working with wines.

Yesterday, I explained how to add wines to Cellartracker.  Today, we'll learn how to consume wines (out of the database, I mean), make notes both of consumed wines and tastings of wines not in your cellar, and how to add an entirely new wine.

Drinking a wine out of your database.  It's Friday night, you're having steaks... mmm, perfect pairing for a bottle of cab.  After you pop the cork and take the first sip (because, if you're like me, the wine will almost assuredly be tasted before the meal is done... or even started!), pop over to your "My Cellar," and click on the wine you've tasted.  Under the "My inventory" heading (below the basic wine information), there should be a number -- the number of bottles you have -- and a little "D."  Click the D.  That brings you to the "Drink a bottle" page, where you can consume your wine.  You can add a private note ("Had with Dad for Father's day steaks"), rate the wine, and add tasting notes.  When you're done, click the "consume this bottle," button, and voila.  Your Cellartracker cellar is one bottle lighter, and (if you felt like making notes or a rating), the wine you just had now has a review for others to see.

Making notes on a wine not in your database.  Say you went to the local wine store and there was a tasting (gee, I hate it when that happens!).  Lo and behold, you loved (or hated) a specific wine or wines.  You can let the world know!  Find the wine (both name and vintage) using the search, and under "personal and community tasting history (public)," click on the "add a new public tasting note."  Make the note as you would with a consumed bottle, and now the world knows that this wine rules, and that wine sucks.  At least in your opinion, that is...

Adding an entirely new wine.  So, you got a bottle of artesinal wine from the vineyard where you vacationed.   Amazingly, Cellartracker doesn't have that wine in it's database!  First thing to do, make sure you're searching for the right terms; I've found that it's best to look for the varietal and appellation, then display the results by wine, and then sort alphebetically.  Display all, and scroll through to find your wine; it may be in there.

But, what if the vintage isn't there, or it's a new release from an existing producer?  You can add a wine based on an existing wine -- for vintage changes (the easiest), you click the "new vintage" under the "Vintages" header in the left-hand column.  Input the proper vintage in the text box, and make sure all the other information is correct (sometimes, appellations change as vintages change, and producers source their grapes from different places).  Similarly, if you need to add a new wine -- say, a Cab producer makes a Merlot this year, you'd go into the new vintage screen, and edit the varietal.

If the wine is completely new, you'll have to add an entirely new wine -- click on "add wine to my cellar" under "common tasks" in the left hand bar.  Type the wine name in.  When it doesn't return any existing wines, click "CLICK HERE to create an ENTIRELY NEW WINE."  You'll have to specify all the information (heck, you can even specify the UPC if you like), but it'll get put in as it would with a modified wine.

So, this covers most of what you might want to do with Cellartracker; there's more to discover on it, but hopefully this'll help you get the basics down.  Tomorrow... more wine, I promise!  There's a couple of good bottles of Chardonnay in my fridge, just aching to be tasted.

The care and feeding of Cellartracker, part 1, managing your collection.

Cellartracker.com is an online wine database; it allows you to track your wine collection, make reviews on wines you've tasted, see what other people think of wines before you buy... basically, it's a wine-and-computer-geek's paradise.

So how do you use it?

Well, after setting up an account, you might want to start adding the wines you've already got on hand into your cellar.  It's easiest to do so by searching for the wine in the search box; make sure that the dropdown menu is on "wine (all data)," and that the "only show mine" checkbox is unchecked.  So, for example, if you have a bottle of Château Pontet-Canet 2005, that should be your search term (and, don't worry about any circumflexes, accents, or umlauts -- you can type the letter in as normal, without the mark).  In the case of Pontet-Canet 2005, the search will return three wines -- Hauts de Pontet-Canet, Pontet Canet, and Pontet-Canet Kosher.  

Click on the name of the correct wine, and Cellartracker will bring you to the specific wine's page.  Here, you can see other user reviews of the wine, add copyrighted reviews (from, say, Wine Spectator, or Wine Enthusiast), make notes, and generally work with your database .

To add a bottle (or more) of wine to your cellar, either click under "My Inventory," or "add a new purchase."  I prefer to record purchases, as that allows me to track the cost/value of my wines, so we'll treat this hypothetical addition as a purchase; if you prefer to simply add inventory, the process is similar.

On the purchase page, there are options for number of bottles, size (the default is 750 ml, but if you've got a magnum or half-bottle, or some other size, find it in the dropdown), cost per bottle, store (this should be initially empty, but there's a text-entry box to add a new store; you can set a store as a default under "my account" on the "display options" tab), purchase date, delivery date (useful for wine bought online, or a futures purchase), any order notes, a storage location box (default is "cellar," but if you store wine in another place -- for example, keeping Champagne in the fridge -- enter that location in the text box, and you can choose it later in the dropdown.  You can set a default the same place as a default store -- "my account," in the "display options" tab), and bin (if you've got a large cellar that is subdivided by bins...).

So, enter the appropriate information, click "add new purchase," and lather, rinse, and repeat with the next wine.  If you've got a large collection, this could be a weekend-long project (ahh, but think of the fun you can have, ferreting out bottles, remembering where you were and what you were doing when you got them....).

Now, that's what you do when everything goes right.  What if you can't find a wine you own?  Well, that's when it's time to add a new wine... which we'll get to tomorrow.

When you're done adding wines (and making notes on wines that aren't in the cellartracker database -- and, yes, you may well find some, even as complete as the database is), you should be able to see a long list of your wines when you click "my cellar."  Some of them will have drinking windows (right now, that'll be the average of what other cellartracker users thing the drinking window of the wine is), some will have a rating denoted as something like "CT88.4," which would mean the average user rating of that wine is an 88.4 -- and that there may well be reviews that describe the wine (some folks only add numerical ratings, so not all wines with a CT score will have full reviews).  From this main cellar page, you can do a number of things; sort your wines by varietal, vintage, producer, and appellation in the "summarize by," dropdown.  You can even print a wine list!

Tomorrow:  Adding new wines to the database, and consuming wine... from the database, I mean -- I'd hope that you know how to consume wine, in general!