Do you premier cru? Try your luck with "two-buck Chuck"? Tend to be vocal about drinking local? Or go ape for the grape in general?
Anyone who appreciates wine -- fine or the more everyday -- and survived the lockdown has probably thought about developing a cellar or cultivating new favorites after months of dining and quaffing in.
Those who can afford it, or who dream of that day, will benefit from the breadth of knowledge and experience of Donna Paitchel and David Shuster, the duo behind Curated Wine Cellars. The Bridgehampton and New York City business helps clients build and maintain their wine collections.
Ms. Paitchel previously owned the special events firm Summit Productions, where she traveled the world producing gatherings large and small for World Cup Soccer, the Super Bowl, the Breeder's Cup, the French Open tennis tournament, and several Olympics. But in March 2020, every event she had on that year's schedule was canceled due to the Covid pandemic.
She began to think about what else she could do. During lunch with one of her oldest friends, she figured it out. "I always wanted to be in the wine world."
As an event planner, she designed menus and then found the wines to match them in locations all over the world. In addition to the knowledge she amassed of varietals and their tasting notes from Long Island to South Africa, it also gave her a deep contact list of wineries and distributors across the globe.
Her friend at lunch happened to know an architect who designs wine cellars. She began to see the whole picture. "I called David and said 'I think I have a really great idea.' And it just started to take off. I mean, the whole concept." That concept includes advising clients on selections and purchases, managing inventory, and building the physical cellars for those who do not yet have them. It was a graceful Covid pivot.
She said any builder can make a cellar and any wine store can stock it. The difference is customization in the cellar's structure, organization, and its inventory. While wine stores offer great ideas, particularly for the small or beginning collector, merchants are "going to curate your cellar with the wines that they and their distributors carry." Conversely, "We're going to be looking at really unique locations and places to get new wine."
Managing a cellar is where they really distinguish themselves. "One of our clients, when we first met him, said 'I have a 3,000-bottle cellar and it's a mess.' And that's exactly what happens. People get very excited about wine, but don't have time to manage their cellars," she said. "They buy wine. Sometimes they put it away, but they're not even paying real attention. You know something they like goes up front. Something goes further back. The next thing you know you have boxes and cases stacked up."
For those who want the service, Ms. Paitchel and Mr. Shuster will clean out and organize the cellar. Then, using a proprietary software program they offer all of their clients, they will create a database of everything that goes in and out of it.
People often lose track of what they have, "and more importantly, what they should be drinking. Because wine does have expiration dates." At a given moment, they and their clients know what they have, what they're drinking, and what they should be drinking, sometimes across multiple residences.
"It's happened in my own cellar before I started doing this," she said. "I hold on to stuff to save for a special occasion." Time passes and when the wine is finally opened it's obvious it should have been consumed much earlier. "It's really disappointing, especially if it's a good bottle of wine." Every quarter, they remind clients who may not be paying attention what wines they may want to reorder and which wines are at their peak.
They have found as well that people rarely have the variety of wines required to cover all of their needs. They "get excited and buy wine, but they don't think enough about the balance of what you need, especially if you're entertaining."
"Because we come from the event side, we think in terms of entertaining and every special occasion in your life," she said. "Whether it's just having another couple over for dinner, having an important client event in your home, or a celebration, you need to have the right wine and you need to have a wide variety."
They restock the things clients like to drink, "but we're going to make sure you have things that are going to be perfect for dinner" whether it's pizza, barbecue, roast chicken, or osso buco. "If you're going to have an event, we'll talk to the chef or caterer" to get the right wine for that meal. They organize regular tastings so that customers can discover new wines that match their preferred flavor profiles.
Mr. Shuster has worked with Ms. Paitchel since his sophomore year in college. Although he too, has learned a lot about wine through the years, his side of the new business focuses on overseeing cellar construction and the inventory software.
He joined Summit when Ms. Paitchel needed 200 workers for the U.S. Open, which was taking place that year in Brookline, Mass. "He was home for the summer. And my parents knew his parents. David came with his siblings and started working for the summer. The rest is history."
The two have no plans to return to the old business model. "When it ended, it ended so abruptly. Quite honestly, the industry has radically changed because of it." She added that corporate entertaining has still not come back. "We felt it could be many years before it does."
At the same time, the travel that was central to their previous company has become fraught. On a recent pleasure trip to Canada, Ms. Paitchel said she encountered long lines, red tape, and missed flights. "Both David and I are used to traveling at the drop of a dime." Clients would ask "can you be in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday? And we just went." She said "It's not so much fun, traveling now."
With long established relationships from the event business, travel is not that important. Back when she was planning a party in Italy and needed wine, she had three different people she could call. Now, "I pick up the phone and call them and they're going to happily ship me what I want. . . . Even if I haven't talked to them in a couple of years, because they know it's real business." She has similar relationships everywhere, which also gives her access to difficult to find wines or limited releases. "We got a guy," she joked. "We always have somebody we can call on the phone and say 'I need this.' "
Mr. Shuster added that supply chain issues have affected their business. "If someone needs something, we'll get it, but it might take a little bit longer." They always ship their purchases by air, ensuring they will not sit in a shipping container for months on end.
"We think we set ourselves apart, " Ms. Paitchel said. "We haven't found anybody providing all these services together."
Although they have always worked very hard, they said both businesses have offered a lot of opportunities for fun. "We made people happy. That's why this was such a natural step for us. Because we want to make people's lives happy," and to make wine collecting easy and fun.