There are almost as many reasons to stash away wine as there are wines to stash away. If you’re new to the Wine Republic, I wrote about a few of them here. In this post, I’m going to lay down a few guidelines that have made my full-on obsession with the Good Juice manageable:

Set a budget and don’t be afraid.
One of the best things about loving wine is that there’s really so much out there to explore and enjoy. You can find plenty of exciting, crowd-pleasing food wine in the $9 to $12 range and there’s plenty of wine to age and turn heads with in the $12 to $20 range. Don’t let anybody tell you that you need to “invest” in Chateau Bling-Bling if you want to enjoy wine with some age to it. It’s just not the case.

Strike a balance and stick to it
If all you’ve got in the closet is a bunch of wine that’s too young to drink, you’re going to end up drinking a bunch of wine that’s too young to drink. Make sure you’re buying plenty of food-friendly drinking wine. Think of it as a liquid barrier between you and the bottles you’d like to have for a few years. I generally break my budget down into two categories: money for drinking wine, and money for cellaring wine.

Try to buy in multiples
The skeptics out there are thinking that I’m writing this because I own a wine shop and I’d love for you to buy more wine from me. I would. But there are plenty of very good reasons to buy a few bottles of a wine you like. If you’re aging a wine, having at least two bottles of the wine in you collection will let you check out its development. Open a bottle a year or two later – if it’s still too young wait a few years on the second one. If it’s ready to go, invite a few friends over next week and enjoy that second bottle with them. Buying three bottles means you’ll still have two to break out when you’re entertaining. If you’re buying drinking wines or wines to open with food and company, buying two bottles or more means that you’ll never struggle to pour seconds. And most importantly, if you buy at a good price, or buy a small production wine, buying a few bottles means that you won’t have to pay the full retail price or wait until the next vintage to have another bottle or two of that killer discovery you enjoyed so much the first time around. Sometimes you come across a wine you lust after and you just can’t pull the trigger on more than one bottle. Happens to the best of us. Buy it, put it in your cellar, and stare at it repeatedly for years.

Taste and taste often
Knowing what you enjoy is really what drinking wine is all about. Killer wine communities are popping up all over the country. Here in Burlington, there are plenty of restaurants with exciting wines by the glass for you to sample (belly up to the bar for an appetizer and a glass of a wine you’ve never tried before). Better yet, come to the free tastings we hold here at Dedalus. Taste and taste often should become your mantra.

Don’t kill the juice
There are a few environmental factors that you’ll want to keep an eye on so your prized bottle dosen’t turn into a funky vinegar-sherry hybrid. Wine doesn’t like light, heat, excessive moisture or excessive dryness. The ideal conditions – a cool, dark room or closet that runs at 55 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent humidity – aren’t a requirement. Really, environmental stability seems to be the key to getting the most out of your collection. If your cellar, closet, root cellar, etc. maintains a fairly even temperature between 45 and 60 degrees, and if it isn’t super dry or super wet you should be all set. A gradual change in temperature and humidity as a result of passing seasons shouldn’t have a noticeable impact on your wines as long as we’re not talking about extremes. Storing wine in your kitchen is the kiss of death. Every time you turn on the oven, you jack the temperature of your wine up by 5 to 10 degrees. If you’re a pasta fanatic, think about the moisture all that boiling water kicks off. Yikes.