You don't need a vaulted stone cellar to age wine well. Wine columnist Joelle Thomson's advice is refreshingly practical: any dark spot with a cool, stable temperature will do. Around 12C is ideal, but 16 to 18C works too, as long as it doesn't swing wildly. That rules out the cupboard beside the oven, and opens up a cool cupboard, an insulated corner of the garage, an unheated wardrobe or a small wine fridge as perfectly good homes for a growing collection.
Storage orientation matters more than most people think. Cork-sealed bottles should lie on their side to keep the cork moist; screw-capped bottles are happy standing up. And what actually makes wine improve? Chemistry and time — the slow merging of fruit, acidity and tannin structure, in reds and whites alike. The catch is that structure has to be there from the start. A bottle you don't enjoy now won't transform into something magical in a decade, so build your collection around wines you already love.
On what to buy, the classic European heavyweights — Barolo, Barbaresco, Bordeaux, Burgundy and top Chianti Classico — remain the obvious big-budget choices. New Zealand offers plenty of its own age-worthy names: Te Mata Coleraine, Craggy Range's prestige wines, Felton Road, Ata Rangi, Escarpment Pinots, SOHO's top Waiheke reds, Central Otago Pinot Noirs, and Greystone and Pegasus Bay. For tighter budgets, Thomson suggests the more affordable siblings of the famous bottles — Te Mata Awatea, Ata Rangi Crimson — or looking abroad: Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, structured Spanish reds, Portugal's new wave, and southern Italian Nero d'Avola, Montepulciano and Aglianico.
The column rounds out with specific bottles worth tucking away, and they read like a starter shopping list. A 2024 Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah from Hawke's Bay's Gimblett Gravels (NZ$200) can go a decade or more. Dog Point's 2023 Chardonnay (NZ$60) has seven to eight years ahead of it, while Two Paddocks' 2025 dry Riesling from Central Otago (NZ$42) is lovely now and better in ten. On the value end: a 2021 Colossal Reserva from Portugal at NZ$38, a Sicilian Planeta Nero d'Avola at just NZ$29.99 that can age seven to eight years, and Pegasus Bay's concentrated dry Riesling, good for a decade.
One last tip worth stealing: keep a separate stash of ready-to-drink bottles so you're not tempted to raid the ones you're patiently ageing.
For travellers, this doubles as a souvenir strategy. If you're heading to Central Otago, Hawke's Bay or Martinborough, buying a couple of age-worthy bottles at the cellar door — a Pinot Noir, a Syrah, a Riesling — gives you a holiday that keeps paying out for years. Just get them home to that cool cupboard.