How Climate Disasters Are Recalibrating Wine Collecting
When Paul Ricci’s family renovated their New Jersey home, he installed a wine cellar for the bottles he’s been collecting since the late 1990s. “It’s an obsession,” he says, laughing.
The threat of floods and other weather events “crosses my mind,” says Ricci, a partner in the advisory group of a large public accounting firm. “You want to think about insuring your investment. Is it protected from floods, is it protected from fires and do you need insurance riders for that?”
It’s an apt concern in and beyond Ricci’s basement. As global temperatures warm, and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events grow, devoted collectors are recalibrating their approaches to buying and storing their prized bottles. Some purchase back-up generators and insurance policies, and debate the benefits of offsite storage facilities. Others ask existential questions about which regions to invest in and when.
This is all part of the expansive impact of climate change on wine. Fridges and cellars may be climate-controlled, but the planet they occupy most certainly is not.
Keeping a Closer Eye on Inventory
Climate disasters inspire many collectors to keep extremely up-to-date inventories in spreadsheets and password-protected documents so they’re sure that everything in their homes or remote storage facilities is covered.
“Store it in the cloud, don’t write it on a piece of paper you keep in your cellar,” says Chris Klingenstein, a private wine consultant based in Chicago.
Peter Molidari, the chief revenue officer of Uovo Wine, a wine collection and storage company, advises updating inventories every four to six months.
“Knowing what you have, and what the value of that collection is as the secondary market shifts, is critically important,” he says. Otherwise, “if you do come across a scenario of flooding where the labels come off, you don’t know what you have. Even if you know that you had some really good stuff, the insurance [provider] can no longer match it all up.”
Assessing Local Risks
Climate concerns vary regionally, too. Flooding, hurricanes and winds threaten collectors in Florida and the southeastern United States more than those in, say, the Southwest, where extreme heat is a concern.
Many along the Eastern Seaboard are reevaluating their basement storage. They’re either relocating it to a cool first floor or redesigning the subterranean space with custom drainage—or simply repositioning their bottles.
“Try keeping your bottles a little raised, even six inches off the ground will ultimately save a lot of collections,” Molinari suggests.
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On the West Coast, where earthquakes are more common, collectors store their bottles lower to the ground and in shorter stacks rather than in sky-high columns. Those in now-expansive wildfire zones are reevaluating building materials.
“You want to create fireproofing around the walls,” says Kathleen Bershad, the owner of Fine Wine Concierge, a wine consulting company. “A glass door can be very inviting,” she notes, but not all glass is fireproof. In that case, you want to find another way to protect it, like a steel or metal overlay.”
Bershad has thankfully never had to contend with smoke taint from wildfires in her own home. But, in an urgent situation, her initial move would be to “definitely turn off your cooling unit so you’re not cycling that air through your collection,” she says.
These small steps can make a big difference, says Molinari, who adds that, among private collectors, “backup generators have become a big thing.” He suggests checking to make sure the generator still works at least once a month.
Exploring Insurance Policies
Wine insurance policies don’t prevent environmental uncertainty. But they can help people who have spent a lot of time and money collecting wine protect their investments.
“Insurance is something that a lot of collectors don’t embrace or don’t understand,” Klingenstein says. “Homeowners’ insurance doesn’t cover your wine cellar.”
Last month, following the devastating Eaton and Palisades Fires in Los Angeles, Molinari received an influx of calls from collectors across the country, he says. Many were interested in reevaluating their wine insurance policies and moving their bottles into offsite storage facilities run by specialists like Uovo or Sotheby’s for safekeeping.
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Looking for Community
For Ricci, the collector in New Jersey, climate emergencies also serve as a call to support and engage with the global wine community.
Over the last several years, when record-setting wildfires razed northern California, he worried about the livelihoods of the winemakers whose work he admires, and the longevity of the industry that has brought him so much joy. He spoke to other collectors about making donations and buying library and backstock bottles from threatened wineries.
“When I see the floods and the wildfires, my first thought isn’t, ‘Do I need to insure my collection differently,’” he says. “It’s more, ‘This isn’t going to be the last one of these disasters. Should I buy some more bottles from this winery—not to make money off of it, but because I love them and don’t know how much longer they will be around?’”
More Wine Storage Coverage
- Do scratched labels on a bottle of wine matter? We asked the experts.
- Get to know the five enemies of wine and how to protect your collection from them.
- Here’s when and when not to use a wall-mounted wine rack.
- What’s the difference between wine fridges and wine coolers?
- Read our beginner’s guide to basement wine cellars.
- How to properly store wine—and why it matters.
From the Shop
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