Welome Harold.

I was in your part of the world for a short time in January and I was very surprised by the sheer number of wineries there.

That is so cool Harold, you definitely should make the software available for sale!

I have never been to Australia and have always wanted to go. That is great that you've been to so many wine regions there! Do you have any photos? I love looking at photos from far away places

Poor old Brom. Down to a couple dozen in wines that matter (Bordeaux, dessert, white Burgundy) and I like to keep a half-dozen or so mixed any time bottles on hand. (Yeah, I like to do that, but it was only last week that I had to say to myself "What? No white to drink?"

I note the mention of refrigerators.

I keep my wines in an old chest of drawers in the cellar.

Anyone use actual wine racks or old boxes?

I used to have a large network of wine racks in my basement along one wall. Over time though everything got moved into a fridge. It just added that extra level of security for times we got a heat wave of 100F for 7 days in a row, so I didn't start to worry about losing the flavors of the wines.

I do have a small (24 bottle?) wooden wine rack in the kitchen for drink-quick bottles. But I also have a small (30 bottle?) wine fridge in the kitchen too where I put better drink-quick bottles. So really nothing tends to end up on the wooden wine rack, and my boyfriend keeps after me to give it away so we get that space back. I like it because I put things on top of it and because I hang my casual-use glasses underneath the top shelf (it has an area for upside down hanging of glasses)

It might be easier just to show a picture of the kitchen rack -



It's been moved now and no longer holds the alcohol on top.

Me too! Last week I was having fish and wanted a white. OK, I've got 12 bottles of white and not one that I really fancied --I wanted Sauvignon Blanc... So scooped up one from the supermarket. But Ineed to stock up on savvys.

Yes: I've got a 'ready rack' under a work surface in my kitchen and in a spare room closet I've got a rack

These are the PVC racks we built that I used to have in the basement -



I've since given those all away to friends and family though. So we only have actual fridges in the basement, then upstairs we have one fridge and the one wooden one.

I am new to wine and I have heard many different things about the storage and shelf life of wine. The old adage is that wine tastes better with age. But then I also hear that wine should be drunk soon after you purchase it, up to around 5 years. Too much misinformation out there. I'd like to start a collection, but if its not going to age well, it kinda kills the idea. Any suggestions?

There are thousands of types of wine so there's no one rule to apply to them all. It would be sort of like asking "how do you cook a vegetable". It depends greatly on what vegetable you are trying to cook! Every one is different

I have a set of guidelines by wine type here -

http://www.wineintro.com/basics/aging.html

but even that is simplistic. There are Cabernets that are very much meant to be drunk in a year or two. There are also cabernets which age wonderfully for 20 years.

The key is to figure out what wines you love, and to start there. So example lets say I love 10 year ports. So I know the flavor I love is when they've aged for 10 years. So that means I build a library of ports that can age for 10 years. I don't buy "drink now" ports and try to put them into that shelf. I look for ports that are meant to age 10 years.

Let's say for the sake of argument that I also love white zinfandels. White zinfandels are meant to be drunk within a year. So while I might have a few bottles in my fridge so I can grab one when I have a salad, I wouldn't be aging those. They would be short term storage, like you'd have salad greens in your fridge. They are in there for the short term.

Yes it means you have to learn what you like - which is a fun quest! And it also means you have to keep track what's in your fridge, because if you let those white zinfandel bottles age for 10 years, they aren't going to be very tasty

Thanks! That is exactly what i was looking for!