Saru Mayo

• Personalized Wine Glasses
• Customized Champagne Flutes
• Etched Wine Glasses
• Wine Accessories
• Custom Etched Wine Glasses
• Fun Wine Glasses
• Custom Wine Glasses
• Wine Gifts
• Engraved Wine Glasses
• Personalized Wine Glass

Many people who go from simply enjoying wine occasionally with a meal to exploring new vintages and new and new wine styles often choose to set up a wine library or wine cellar at home. A wine library can include a few bottles of wines to try or can be an extensive, climate-controlled room that houses hundreds of bottles, sometimes for years.

If you are considering setting up a wine library of your own, the first thing to keep in mind is to relax and enjoy the process. There will always be those who are deadly serious about their wines and how they are stored. There is no need for you to have to build a ten thousand dollar wine room just to show that you enjoy wine.

Starting off small is the key. It takes time to know what your preferences are with wine. Whether you store reds or whites, how long you wish to age your wines before drinking and whether you want others to be able to spend time enjoying your wine library with you all play a role on your setup and design.

The most important consideration in setting up a wine library is to stock the wines that you enjoy, not just the wines you think “wine snobs” would approve of. If you like blush wines, by all means, store several of your favorites. You don’t need to have a case of each. Store as many as you think you can reasonably drink in the recommended storage life.

A wine’s storage life is how long it should be stored for before it begins to oxidize and obtain off-flavors and aromas. Each wine is different. Many wines in your local wine shop are meant to be consumed right away and will not improve with age. This is especially true for whites and blush wines. Other wines are not meant to be consumed young and must age for several years until the flavors have married together to give the wine a deep complexity. Enlist the help of your local wine shop merchant for advice on storage life and do some research online. There is nothing as disappointing as opening a much-anticipated bottle of wine that you have stored for many years to find that it has turned to vinegar over time.

Decide where you want your wine library to be. It can be as simple as a bookshelf in the corner to a room in the cellar outfitted with special wine shelves. The temperature of your wine library is important. All wine should be stored in a cool dark location. This is why basements are often preferred storage locations. A wine stored too warm or in bright light will age and oxidize rapidly which destroys many of the delicate volatile compounds that make wine enjoyable.

When the location has been decided upon and the wines chosen, it is time to get all of the necessary accessories together. A quality corkscrew, wine glasses of different sizes, and several wine stoppers all come in handy when enjoying your wine library.

Setting up your own wine library is fun and you may find that collecting the wines is as enjoyable as drinking them.