A series of interviews and articles with a theme of buying and selling wine here in NZ. Part 6: Selling your Cellar.
Back in May 2020, at the very beginning of this series of articles – ‘Buying and selling wine in New Zealand’ I had a conversation with Reece Warren of The Wine Auction Room. Today we go to the other side of the table, and talk to someone who is selling their wines at auction. Now, plenty of people will buy wine as “an investment” and then sell it later at a profit – that I guess is the idea of an investment. Personally, I find anyone who does this, rather than viewing a collection of wine as ‘an investment in a good time’ (as Reece would say) to be not my kind of person.
I’m lucky to find someone who will talk to me about this in a very different version – and a fairly emotive subject – selling their cellar because they realise they probably aren’t going to be around long enough to drink it all. As Reece also said in that first article – “A lot of wine we get consigned are from guys in their 60s and 70s with these huge cellars of thousands of bottles, that they realise they’re never going to drink”. My subject today is Sarah, a retired Air New Zealand Pilot. Sarah is a friend who is often the one who brings a bottle of wine to a tasting that is just either out of left-field, or just bloody delicious. Often with some age, and often very specifically great producers.
I start off asking just how they “got into wine”?
WineFolio: Was there an epiphany moment, with a special bottle? Before the amassing a collection began – just what got you thinking that “wine is good’!
Sarah Caldwell: When i was with my first husband in the early ‘90s – we’d just got married – we went to Waiheke, and came across Stonyridge somehow or other. We met Stephen and he talked to us and we went down to the cellar and got the full story. We bought wine and joined his club. That was the start of collecting Larose
WF: Did you go to Waiheke looking for wine?
SC: Probably not. It was just a visit. Then we decided to go on a holiday and visit wineries in Hawke’s Bay and Martinborough. At Martinborough I had my first taste of a quality Chardonnay – the Martinborough Vineyards Chardonnay – and that was just amazing to me then. I can remember thinking how beautiful it seemed – elegant, refined and balanced.
WF: And from New Zealand!
SC: Yes, so I starting collecting some Martinborough Vineyard wines. I think in those days it would have been Larry McKenna wouldn’t it?
WF: Yes, I’d think so. Did you stick with the region as a source of interest, or just that producer?
SC: Mainly the producer, although on that trip I bought some from a couple of other places as well. A Chifney – their Chenin Blanc, and I didn’t drink it until it was ten years old and it was beautiful – like a dessert wine by then. So it was Stonyridge and Martinborough Vineyard for quite a while. I then read up about Dry River and wanted to get some of that. By then I was just reading whatever I could get hold of.
WF: So you’ve found something that has got your interest. Now I heard that your job was as an airline pilot… did that give you access to ‘the world of wine’ then? Let’s say you were flying to San Francisco – did you, on your days off, head off to Napa, or explore the bottle shops overseas for treasures?
SC: Yes I visited a particular wine shop in San Francisco, they would let me go down into their special cellar where all the aged wine was kept. I bought the occasional bottle there. I took my husband on one trip with me as I had a few days off, and we headed up into Napa. We bought some wines there and brought them home, which was great.
WF: And you were just following your nose? Were you developing a taste for a particular style?
SC: It was a slow thing, just sampling wines I hadn’t had before. Because I was either doing sport or flying, I didn’t have time for a lot of other things back home. On that Napa trip I did a little bit of research to find some good places that we could go to. We basically went up one side of the triangle and down the other side. Stayed right up at the top at Calistoga which was wonderful. We went to Chateau Montelena, although we didn’t know much about it at the time.
WF: They’re not a well-known name, for something that had quite a big impact, with that ‘Judgement of Paris’ back in 1976 and they won the white wine competition.
SC: Stags Leap seemed to be the one that people knew then. And I’d never tried Zinfandel, so we did that. We went to a beautiful winery where you have the valley on each side, but this one was on the left-hand side where you were half in the hills, and they had a veranda where you could just look out over. It was beautiful and lush with plenty of vegetation. We went to the sister of The French Laundry – I think it is Bouchon – so we had a meal there. We wanted to get into The French Laundry but couldn’t (laughs).
WF: OK – so you’re not just into wine, but what I would call ‘flavour’?
SC: Yes, I have always enjoyed good food. At a wine tasting I was fortunate to attend recently, the food on the day was mostly cooked by men. I know male chefs probably still outnumber female ones, but not so many kiwi men cook, other than on the BBQ. That was a nice surprise .
WF: But do you think that if someone has a big cellar – so is very interested in wine – that generally it is a man? So here is a group of people who are getting together because they are extremely interested in wine. So much that they plan a whole day, with dozens of wines, and food to match – so the two go hand in hand – plus it is then a day where the skew is towards the men? And, personally, I would say I am more interested in food than I am in wine – probably not by much! When we went to Cotto last time – and I would say that there were four of us – but we ordered everything on the menu!
SC: Yes, they do go together of course and I don’t personally know any women with a cellar but I do know of quite a few men who do have. Yes it does tend to be more men at those days. I think the high standard of the food prepared and cooked mostly by men is a little unusual, but I agree it goes with the wine territory. Yes, I have enjoyed Cotto as well!
WF: OK back to the wine! So you’ve been to Napa – has discovering wines led you anywhere else? Maybe somewhere you wouldn’t have gone to otherwise.
SC: Later on it did. Not then – I got married and moved out into the country, so our life was really flying and playing golf. I was three days a week playing golf, and the rest of it was flying, being at home and doing the garden. We would go to some parties at Stonyridge. Every year Stephen had a wonderful party – usually themed – and they were wonderful in the ‘90s because he went all out. They would be some semi naked women dancing. One of the parties we all had to dress up, and at one point a Lady Godiva goes galloping through the olive grove on a white horse. It was just amazing. It was a fun time being part of Stonyridge in those days – there was always something interesting. It is still very enjoyable.
On my trips to London, I started going to high end cocktail bars to try different things, I got a taste for high quality champagne, lol. Then when we separated and I came up into the city. I had my apartment in Parnell and met my second husband. At one stage I can remember having a cupboard downstairs, with a whole lot of those clay pipes to keep the wine cool. Maybe a hundred bottles at that stage. I’d come back from a trip and he’d had mates round and they’d gone and opened up the Stonyridge and I was furious!
WF: So the wine was more your thing?
SC: Yes, he was new to wine, but he got quite interested in it.
WF: And did you have other friends who were into wine, who you could share with and learn from?
SC: Not then no, later on I did. When I was with my second husband, he was a good tennis player, and we lived a hundred yards from the Tennis Club. We would spend time there, playing and socialising – and we did go out to dinner quite a bit. He was in Hospitality for quite a while. So he did start getting interested in wine. In fact our honeymoon was all based on wine. We decided to have the ceremony in Paris. We thought we were going to get married in Paris, but then it is too difficult – you’ve got to have a religious and civil ceremony, with 30 days in between. So we had to get married here, first, and then the ceremony in Paris. I ended up having two dresses! Haha.
Off we went and we had ten days in Paris. Went to the French Open for two days and watched the tennis, and ate out every night – and we went to some beautiful places. We had a ceremony in the American Cathedral in Paris – a beautiful, old cathedral. And we had twenty people as it turned out. My uncle flew from Hawaii to give me away, and we had champagne, foie gras , cheese and bread after the ceremony in the apartment we were staying in, before we headed out on the Seine for a night cruise with dinner and a string quartet.
From there we decided that our whole trip would be based around wine and food. We went to Champagne and stayed two nights. Through Simon’s contacts we got an invitation to lunch at Moet et Chandon at their Résidence de Trianon which is a beautiful 200 year old architectural complex set in the magnificent grounds, and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is used exclusively for invited guests to showcase champagne with food. The whole thing was based upon having Champagne with every course. And finished up with a superb 1976. The food was just outstanding.
So then we went to Ruinart Maison The first established House of Champagne, since 1729. A tour of their historic chalk cellars was a highlight. The chalk quarries, about twenty, extend over two levels and 8 kilometres. These chalk cathedrals, which are still active, are the only ones in the city of Reims to be both listed as a UNESCO Wolrd Heritage Site and classified as a historic site.
WF: Were you buying wines as you went around and having them shipped home?
SC: Well we bought some and carried them home! I think two dozen, and sweet talked the customs agent. We did have some Champagne shipped to us and some Burgundy. We went from the Champagne region up through Alsace. I bought a few wines there and we went to some wineries that were considered to be pretty good.
WF: People talk about Burgundy as a great food and wine destination, but would you agree that Alsace is probably THE gourmet destination. I think I heard that, now, there are more Michelin-star restaurants in Alsace than any other region of France?
SC: We didn’t really have the money to spend on Michelin-starred restaurants then so I wasn’t aware of that. Our most memorable meal was just in a tiny village restaurant in the Jura area, we had the local Jura wine and food from the garden and it was in a beautiful small white plastered room with arches. We found this village that was built on the edge of a large cliff – and I mean the edge! in a book I bought called ‘The 100 most beautiful villages in France’ and we decided that we would use this as a guide. When we were doing our wine, we knew where we wanted to go, but everywhere we went, we’d go to one of the villages that was in the book. And the places were so beautiful. I’m a photographer now, but even back then I was an observer.
From there we went down through Burgundy. We stayed in B&Bs and we went to Macon because we were going to find my girlfriend’s brother and I couldn’t get hold of her for some reason. But when we got there we realised it was a city, with lots of villages all around. And we thought we didn’t have a chance, but we had better go and find somewhere for the night.
We had a B&B book and I looked in there, and I thought ‘well I’ve heard that name before’ so we went to Pouilly-Fuissé but there were only two B&Bs, and one of them sounded more upmarket so we decided to treat ourselves. And when we got to the door and started talking to the owner, my husband said “You don’t by any chance know a Kiwi called Ben Needham do you?”. I started to tell him they won’t know him when she said “Yes – he lives in that house just there” – an amazing needle in the haystack moment, haha. And we made contact and they said “Come to dinner tomorrow night.” That was lovely, and I was sent down to a very dusty old cellar for a wine or two.
From there we went down to the south of France. We did splurge a bit there, and stayed in a beautiful place in St Tropez. A small, older hotel that had a swimming pool in the back.
WF: Can you speak any languages?
SC: No, sadly. At school I learnt French and German, and after two years I stopped doing German. I think I did three years of French but didn’t apply myself properly. After I left school I did a year of private lessons in French, and then chucked it in when I started learning to fly. It’s something I’ve wanted to do all my life, but have never really done. I kick myself now because if I’d carried on, I’d be fluent.
WF: These days, I suppose you’d learn Chinese as an option.
SC: Yes, but is that somewhere you’d want to go to often?
WF: No, Italy and France is where I want to go!
SC: Yes, the same. A friend of mine who is a pilot has been learning Italian for five years now and his holidays are always to Italy.
WF: Did you develop a liking for a particular type of wine over the years? Are you a white wine, or a red wine person?
SC: Both. The only thing I have never really liked was Sauvignon Blanc. One Sauvignon I have enjoyed is Te Koko, though I did try the 2021 Cape Crest Sauvignon in the last few weeks and quite liked it, but it is a Sauvignon dominant blend with barrel fermentation and 11 months on the lees.
I love Champagne – particularly vintage ones – Chardonnay, Riesling and all the other whites, and am very partial to Pinot Noir, Bordeaux blend reds, like Merlot-dominant blends.
After my second marriage broke up, somewhere along the line I got more into the wine collecting. I had the makeshift cellar down in the basement of my apartment in Parnell, and then I bought a wine fridge. I started to think I really need somewhere where I can put them all together and in a more controlled environment. There just wasn’t the room for it and I needed the storage for other things. So I went to Kennards in New North Road, but after a while they put their prices up and it got quite expensive. Then I found out about Fine Wine Delivery Co. and their price was a bit better. I went there and had a small cellar. And then of course they started sending me all their emails! And that’s when I really started buying wine, seriously and eventually needed a bigger cellar.
One of the things I liked to buy was Organic wine. Hence, Rippon, Prophet’s Rock, Stonyridge, Ata Rangi, Quartz Reef etc. If they were Organic and a top wine, then that for me was the best wine I could have. I went to the showcase nights at the FWDC as well, and I’d buy quite a lot of wine at those. There was an Elephant Hill night, Te Mata Estate, and a Dry River night – I met Wilco at that. I organised to go down and he gave me a tour and a tasting. As I got promotions in my job and my salary went up, I bought more expensive wines!
WF: So did you ever look into boxes and think to yourself “Oh I don’t know why I’ve got that – I’ll sell that on”?
SC: No – I’ve never sold any wine. I’m really torn by having to sell them. I’m quite attached to them all! I wasn’t thinking of them as an investment. In fact I could have bought four or five wine fridges in what I’ve spent on storage over time. So, I just carried on buying and I was able to afford wines that were very good. My small cellar got to the point where I opened the door and couldn’t get to any of the wines, because there were lots of boxes in the centre of it, right up to the door. So I rented a bigger cellar! And with that all then going onto the racks, I discovered a few wines I’d forgotten I had as they weren’t large amounts – the Don Melchor and Continuum.
WF: But they weren’t that old? So it’s not like you found a wine you bought back in the 90s and forgot about?
SC: No they got drunk, lol – I did find a few chardonnays from around 2011 that I hadn’t got around to drinking, I think mainly because I bought them as library releases and in my mind I had only had them a short time. So I will be trying those very soon.
WF: So is it all wine that you’d bought as current release, or have you bought a few special wines at auction?
SC: No, I haven’t bought at auction yet – I’m tempted! And most were at release, but I have bought wines when wineries have done a Library Release, and often FWDC would have tastings for customers and there was often some older vintages there, plus I ended up on their email list for older vintages of very good wines.
WF: I have bought a few things here and there. And probably managed to get more good bottles than bad ones. Mostly the wines have been very good – you get the odd one where it isn’t but that’s the risk you take. So – your thought process when you decided ‘enough is enough – I need to trim this down’? You decided you would keep – what, a hundred bottles?
It has been quite a wrench to sell them, but it is time now. Whilst I never bought them as investments, it’s good that they can be, and I am grateful I could afford good wines and hopefully it will be worthwhile. I would never get to drink all those wines – there’s far too many, and I’m not drinking so much now either. Probably the only wine I’ll still buy is the Stonyridge Larose, which i have been buying since the early 90’s and I love the Larose.
