Equipment - the basics

Storage - a wine rack under the stairs where it's pretty cool and dark; the rack is designed to hold 40 bottles on their sides, but I can squeeze in 100+; anything more than this gets put into either packing crates or wine boxes until needed

Glasses - various, nothing too fancy just as long as they are the right shape

Jug

Decanting - previously, it was nothing too fancy, just a jug with a 2l capacity, but I was given a flat-bottomed decanter in late 2010 and have since become a convert to using one

Opening - sommelier knife, aka waiter's friend






Temperature:

- for chilling whites, either the fridge or the freezer; for last-minute cooling, a Wine Cooling Sleeve (stores in the freezer, chills a bottle in 5 mins)

- for warming, a three-bottle rack in the kitchen will get something up to room temperature within a day, so I just need to remember to take out the right bottle no later than the morning

Storing leftovers - stick the cork back in and put it in the fridge

Books - owned:

- The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson, Mitchell Beazley, 1971
- Webster's Wine Guides 1996 and 1999
- Oz Clarke's Wine Guide 2004

Books -borrowed:

Hundreds from various libraries.

Favourite websites

Jancis Robinson

Links

Riedel - http://www.riedel.com/

Bormioli Rocco - http://www.bormiolirocco.com/home_en.htm

The World Atlas of Wine - http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Atlas-Wine-Hugh-Johnson/dp/1845333012

Oz Clarke - http://www.ozclarke.com/books

Jancis Robinson - http://www.jancisrobinson.com/