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Choosing Cellar & Storage Space for Your WineJul 05 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line How to Choose a Cellar takes unusual and usual planning - and this will help you in that process.
G'day and welcome. We are about to discuss the process of how to choose a cellar or storage for your wine. This process encompasses many specific situations, however we will only cover two of them - choosing a cellar or storage for your existing wines and wine collection, and choosing a cellar or storage to create a new wine collection. In the process of exploring this interesting area of life, we are going to touch on concepts from the very basic to the involved, and at the end of this I will suggest some books you may want to read if you decide that your interest in the topic warrants further study. I am going to keep this to the necessary minimum so that you can read it and absorb it in a short time, and so that it can serve the function it is intended to serve - that being to help you understand how the process works, and how it may apply to you. Now that you understand what our plan is, it is time to proceed right to it! Please remember that this information includes the two topics explained above, written together - if something we are discussing does not apply to your situation, skim ahead by all means! With that stated, welcome to our discussion on How to Choose Cellar & Storage Space for your Wine, --- INTRODUCTION --- What you will learn here is how to determine the basic needs and issues that you must address in deciding how to choose cellar & storage space. At a minimum your primary concerns are space, volume, and expense, but these all depend largely upon your level of commitment, and because of that the procedure is still going to be slightly complicated. Just remember that it is simply a process of determining your present needs, deducing your future ones, and then addressing them. There are several levels to this process, with the first significant concern in choosing a wine cellar being what you will stock it with; If you have a well involved collection of wines you already know what your needs are, however if you are just getting started, you probably have lots of questions and are curious about where you should start. Here are a few tips for you in what you may want to consider as your goal for a basic cellar - though you should remember that wine is like so much of the rest of life in that it is a highly personal decision. Just because some one else likes brand X, vintage Y, does not mean that you will, or that you should! In fact that is an area we must digress to now: - Step One : Understanding Your Obligations Believe me when I tell you that the process of choosing a cellar or storage comes with a built-in obligation, and there is no way to avoid it. That obligation relates to the entire process, so it is important that you address it now. You should clearly understand and accept the onus of it, because the obligation we are talking about is the obligation you owe to your palate. All wine is not created equal, and in the real world, it is so much easier to get a bad wine than it is to find a good one. An accomplished wine collector would never settle for a bad wine, nor make do with an inferior one, because they are in on a secret that the vast majority of people do not know - wine is supposed to taste good! If you are one of the many people who does not know this, you probably think that wine is this bitter/sour/icky (pick one) stuff that you are obligated to drink to be polite at parties and dinner, but you would rather have a nice beer. Well mate, you are not alone, and that is a shame because you are missing out on one of life's great experiences! I have heard the above comment - the Beer one - from so many people that it begs to be used as an example. I like to reply to it by asking if they had ever had a bad beer? Of course the answer is yes, and it is then that I can tell them that the experience is identical - that there are in fact good wines out there, even great wines! That if they had just experienced one, they would feel differently about the whole subject, and that all they have to do is keep looking! As you explore the idea of creating your storage space or building up a collection, please remember your obligation to your palate, and taste the wine before you buy it! If you don't like it now, you are not going to like it in six months, and except for the rare ones that do age and mature in the bottle, you will know now whether or not you really like a given wine. Remember - Keep The Stinkers OUT! - Step Two : Purchasing Wine with the Cellar in Mind Having a wine cellar has advantages that easily make it worth the effort and expense. Consider this - when you find a wine you like, very often you discover that within a few months it is gone from the shelves, at which point the costs of obtaining it go up and continue to do so as the wine gets more scarce. With your cellar at home, you have the option to buy a year's supply, something that you can now safely do. All wines will last at least as long as a year in bottle, and that large an amount guarantees ample time to hunt around for a replacement as you consume your stock. Consider also that if the wine is one that will age well or has a long lifespan, you are setting yourself up for years - even a decade - of pleasure by simply thinking ahead! - Step Three : The Contents - Building the Basic Cellar For the average person, a basic wine cellar would include a sparkling wine, an appetizer wine, a dessert wine, an everyday white wine, a white for special occasions, an everyday and a special occasion red, and a Rose or blanc de noir as the basic selection spread. That is average for type though, and assuming that all things are equal, the numbers of the above will be roughly as follows: 3 bottles of Sparkling Wine (or more depending on your likes and frequency of drinking) 5 bottles of appetizer wine (such as port) 6 bottles of desert wine (as many as 12) 24 bottles of everyday white wines (get a selection but get what you like) 3 bottles of a white for special occasions 8 bottles of an everyday red wine 1 bottle of a red for special occasion 1 bottle of a Rose or blanc de noir What you end up with is a minimum of 51 bottles, and that is for the "average" cellar. You will no doubt discover that you end up with considerably more than that, as there are a lot of everyday wines that are good-to-great, and the temptation to own them even if simply to ensure an adequate supply is great. Flexibility is the key, and a serious measure of thought as well, because determining your level of interest and taste is the first step in deciding on what to buy or build, and please remember, either buying or building - creating a wine cellar is not an activity that one should undertake lightly. - Section Four : Finding Your Size Sit down with paper and pen and think about your wine drinking pattern for the past year: how many times did you buy wine? How often did you drink wine with a meal? Now here is a more difficult one - how often would you have had wine with a meal if you had a cellar from which to pluck a bottle? How often did you need a bottle of wine for a special event, or to take to a dinner you were invited to? How often did you entertain? How many anniversary and birthday events took place in your home? Christenings? How many of those special events would have benefited from wine? Once you have worked out the above, start applying the type of wine that each event would have used, and how many bottles, and write it out. When you are finished, compare it to the listing above on the basic cellar - how close is it? That worksheet is the most useful took you will have in deciding on the cellar or storage space you will be needing. Based upon the bottle count on it, you now have a good idea of the capacity you will need to address. - Section Five : Practical Matters We have accomplished a lot so far. We now know what you like to drink, and we have a reasonable idea of the quantity that you will need to store or cellar. It is now time to start thinking about space and space availability in your home, and where you will be able to establish your storage or cellar. Luckily you have a lot of choices, as you are not limited to the traditional cellar concept. In fact, it may be hard for you to accept, but in this modern age of controlled climate hardware, just about any old space will do. Take a walk through your home - do you have a spare closet? Is there a space available under the stairs? How about a garage? Room in the kitchen? Pantry? You will find someplace, and when you do, the most important thing to think about is conditions. If it is not a dark place - say a garage or basement - you have ruled out a glass door or glass front on your cellar or storage space. If it is small, and your needs from the worksheet above match the space, why the next step is to look through the cellar and storage area in EPinions, and on the Net, as that is the final step in your quest. You have all of the information you need now to make this decision, and your choice from here on is limited only by your budget and imagination! Stick to your obligation, spend within your budget and start enjoying the benefits of owning your own cellar, and you will join the growing ranks of wine aficionados in this exciting and tasteful hobby and epicurean pursuit. I want to thank you for spending this time with me, and I want to tell you that I enjoyed telling you about this. I am always willing to answer questions - my e-mail is available in my about page. Good luck with your quest, and I hope you will always find at least one bottle of your special wine! NB: Resources for further study The Wine Enthusiast (Monthly Magazine) 800- 356- 8466 The Wine Spectator (Monthly Magazine) 1-800-752-7799 (http://www.winespectator.com/) HOW AND WHY TO BUILD A WINE CELLAR, by Richard Gold PARKER'S WINE BUYER'S GUIDE, Robert M. Parker, Jr. (Simon and Schuster/Firestone) VINTAGE TIME CHARTS, Jancis Robinson The Wine Book by Oz Clark. WINE SPECTATOR'S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUYING WINE, Wine Spectator Press WINE TASTING, Michael Broadbent (Simon and Schuster/Firestone)  |
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