Customer Reviews

Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Meltzer is a veteran of the wine auctions and his tips for buying at auction are invaluable. He also provides very solid ideas as to how to start your cellar ( the actual collection of bottles, not the construction of the thing) depending on your interests, lifestyle and approach to wine.

I found it most informative because of the wealth of tidbits and asides that he adds to it. He has been around for a while and it shows. This is a book i would give to someone who wants to seiously get into wine, and i would definetly buy it again.

Peter Meltzer is a wine and food writer who lives on the Upper East Side and in the Hamptons. He has been "Wine Spectator's" auction correspondent for more than twenty years.

Meltzer has written a practical approach to building a fine wine collection that fits your preferences, lifestyle, and budget. He covers:

-- Buying and selling wine at auction.
-- Bidding at online wine auctions.
-- Using the Web to calculate value or locate wines.
-- Buying effectively from wine merchants.
-- Storing and enjoying wine short and long term.

The book includes the "Wine Spectator" auction index which covers over 500 frequently auctioned wines.

Meltzer emphasizes the importance of understanding what you really want to achieve from your wine collection. He urges beginners to start out buying only enough wine for the first year, and gain experience using hints from his book. The hints will be useful no matter what your objectives. He has suggestions and cautions for folks looking for bargains, and warnings for folks at the top end.

For example, Meltzer describes three sales within a few months of one another in 2004. In the first, at NYWinesChristie's, a case of the Leroy La Romanée 1953 sold for $49,350; just a month later at the same auction house, another case of the same wine sold for $19,975 and then a third sold at Acker Merrall & Condit for $17,550. He discusses the factors that might explain the differences in price, including documented storage history or lack thereof, bidder's panic, and more.

In a recent interview he points out that collectors at lower price points can benefit from buying at auction: "What's really heartening is that the market has polarized, It's the trophy wines at the top for which people will duel to the depths of their pockets, while the lower end of the price spectrum tends to be sane, sound, and accessible. You can buy off-vintages and unsung wines at below retail, often for well under $500 per lot."

Meltzer answers questions online at "Wine Spectator" in a straight forward, practical manner:

"Q: If I buy wine at auction from a reputable house and open it to find the wine oxidized or just generally shot, is that just part of the risk assumed in buying at auction, or can I ask for a refund?

"A: Auction catalogs generally stipulate that you are buying "as is," leaving you little recourse if a wine is oxidized. However, auction houses are not in the business of making enemies, and exceptions to the rule may be made. If you uncover an oxidized bottle, immediately bring it to the attention of the auction specialist and provide him with a sample to evaluate. (This won't work, of course, if it's been several years since your purchase.) As a rule, auction houses carefully inspect consignments prior to acceptance, so danger signs, such as low fill levels, inappropriate color, protruding capsules and so on, should be detected in advance, causing the lot to be rejected."

Meltzer's book is an excellent resource if you have any interest in buying wine whether at retail or at auction.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Mr. Meltzer is a solid writer with an excellent wine industry pedigree. He is a collector himself and is the knowledgeable auction correspondent for Wine Spectator as well as being a contributing editor for Food Arts. His column in Wine Spectator is generally the first thing I read in that publication. Along with the "collector spotlight" segment, it is also often the part of the magazine I enjoy the most.

Unfortunately, I found this book somewhat poorly formatted. I think the problem is that the Mr. Meltzer tries to reach too broad an audience while simultaneously providing very pointed material. Truly, this is a book for the serious wine collector, or for the individual with a lot of capital looking to begin collecting. Either way, it is really meant for someone who is looking at wine collecting as an investment vehicle. In that respect, it serves its purpose and certainly deserves the attention of individuals in those categories.

The book starts with a chapter entitled, "A Cellar To Fit Your Lifestyle", setting the reader up for the expectation that the rest of the book is going to follow a model which is tailored to multiple audiences. However, this expectation is at odds with the actual direction of the following chapters. Successive chapters include "Buying and Selling Wine At Auction," and a historical breakdown, "Collecting: A Brief Background," as well as a discussion of The Wine Spectator Auction Index. These are all topics which I find fascinating, but which I believe could be intimidating for someone interested in starting a moderate or low-end collection. It almost feels as though Mr. Meltzer's editor insisted on the inclusion of the first chapter in order to increase the book's sales, after the rest of the book had already been written.

Some of the most enjoyable and interesting segments of the book are the mid-chapter interludes of either case-studies or anecdotes. I suspect that several of these interludes are really just reprints of Mr. Meltzer's Wine Spectator columns, or at least pull quite heavily from them. In many ways, these interludes could make up their own book. If that were the case, it would make for an infinitely easier volume to move through. As it is, the way they are distributed in the book can be distracting and bog the reader down. Additionally, their content is not always directly relevant to the chapter in which they located, thus making them feel as though they're included in a somewhat pell-mell fashion.

Finally, the writing can also feel overly cerebral and somewhat patronizing at turns. The numerous charts and detailed auction information can also feel overwhelming with the small typeface.

At any rate, part of me loves this book for providing information that serious collectors will find useful and which I found highly informative. The rest of me dislikes it for setting itself up as a collecting guide for the masses but then potentially alienating that readership with the layout and content.

This book explained a lot about Wine Auctions, Wine Investment, and how to look for wine bargains. I was looking more for how to cellar the wine, temperatures, humdity, location, how to build the cellar (starting with wines to purchase or how to think about starting a cellar) for truly wine drinkers and it lacked this information. If you want to invest in wine, great book.