A collection starts the day you buy wine you do not intend to drink this week. That is also the day it becomes possible to store it badly, lose track of it, or buy the same bottle twice without noticing.
Settle the storage question before buying
Wine keeps best somewhere cool, dark and stable, lying down if it is under cork. Stable is the word that matters most: a closet that holds a steady 64°F (18°C) is kinder than a spot that swings from 54 to 75°F (12 to 24°C) with the weather. General guidance on conditions is set out in the WSET storage notes.
You do not need a cabinet to start. You need to know which place in your home is coolest and steadiest, which is a measurement rather than an opinion. The storage comparison guide covers testing candidate spots with a thermometer over a few days, and the fridge capacity guide covers what a cabinet really holds once you eventually buy one.
Twelve bottles by role, not by score
A first dozen chosen from a list of highly rated wines usually produces a shelf you are afraid to open. Choosing by role gives you a collection you can use on a Tuesday and still be proud of on a Saturday.
4 everyday bottles at your weeknight price: 2 bottles for food you cook often: 2 bottles good enough for guests: 2 sparkling, for occasions that arrive without warning: 2 to keep for two years or more:
Buy the everyday four from two different producers or regions rather than four of one wine. The purpose of the first dozen is to find out what you like at home, which is different from what you liked at a tasting, and repetition tells you very little.
Record four fields from the first bottle
The habit matters more than the fields. Producer and vintage, quantity, location, and date bought. That is enough to answer every question a small collection raises, and it takes about fifteen seconds per wine.
Add the price if you want the yearly view later, and a photograph of the label if the name is long or the script is hard to read. Everything else, including tasting notes and drinking windows, can be added when it becomes useful. The inventory guide covers the first count when the collection grows past a rack.
Buy the second dozen from evidence
After a few months, you know something you could not have known at the start: what you actually opened. Buy the second dozen from that, not from the same list you used the first time. Repeat what emptied quickly and drop what is still standing.
Once a year, work out what you drank in total, using the yearly rate guide. It settles how much to buy far more reliably than an offer in an email does.
Three things not to do in the first year
Do not buy for investment. Wine as an asset is a different activity with its own storage, paperwork and risk, and it is a poor way to learn what you enjoy. Do not buy a case of a wine you have never tasted, however good the discount. And do not build a shelf of bottles you are saving for an occasion that never quite arrives, because the collection you are afraid to open is the one you will regret.
Open something good early, write one line about it, and let the collection grow from what you learned. The tasting note guide covers a format short enough to actually keep up.