I’m talking about wine cellars. What did you think I was talking about? 😉
There’s been a lot of chatter on the line this week (if you haven’t seen The Internship then continue thinking I’m a dolt) about an impending global wine shortage. On Monday, Morgan Stanley published a report that basically says the world is running out of wine (just Google Morgan Stanley wine shortage, and you can sift through about 300 articles).
Cue panic. Or . . .
I hated ECON in college. HATED it. But I remember this (the stuff of nightmares):
If we have a global wine shortage, then demand will go up . . . and so will prices. And then economists will say something about a natural correction in the market. Y-A-W-N . . .
And just like that my little wine hoarding “problem” looks like a pretty smart solution.
I’ve been accumulating wine for years. You have to be careful when you accumulate wine. You buy a bottle here, six bottles there. And before you know it, you’re one of those people who have more wine than they can ever drink in a lifetime. I hope my kids end up liking wine . . . because it’s going to be their inheritance.
I keep my wine in Harry Potter’s bedroom . . . a cupboard underneath my stairs. When we finished our basement, I had the space finished and insulated separately from the rest of the house. While it’s not a perfect cellar temperature, it’s damn close, and my wine is very happy there.
Well, it was happy there until I outgrew my little wine cupboard. Now my wine also lives underneath the guest bed, and on shelves in our basement storage room. But I know where every single bottle is. Mind like a steel trap, I have.
With all this talk about Winepocalypse (seriously – it has its own hashtag thingy on Twitter), I thought it would be fun to play voyeur for a week and sneak a peek at everyone else’s wine cellar. Are you prepping for the end of the wine world? BTW, I have it on good authority that zombies prefer beer, so we’re good.
Here’s a peek inside my little wine cupboard/cellar:
Tweet me a picture of your wine cellar at @armchairsomm. Or post a picture in the comments if you can figure out how to do that (because I can’t). If I get enough pics, I will gather them and put together a follow-up blog post.
Fair warning: If your wine cellar looks like any of these fancy-schmancy wine cellars, I’m coming to your house for the Winepocalypse. Save me a spot at the tasting table.
Salud!
Can’t wait to see the pics! We’re just starting a big construction project in our basement and part of that includes a 10 x 13 cellar with access to hidden tasting room. They’re putting up glass walls and cooling/humidity, but not finishing it because I’m looking for decor and rack ideas…
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A hidden tasting room? Like behind a rock wall?!? I’m jealous already . . . sounds INSANE and AWESOME!! Salud!
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No pictures from me, sorry – because they would be super-boring – my cellar consists of 5 wine fridges of different sizes ( smallest is for 6 bottles, largest is for about 160), and the wire wine cage, all scattered all over the house… If I will only have to drink the wine I have, and will open a bottle per day, I will probably survive for about a year and a few month.
But I also can bet that Australia, Chile, Argentina and Gallo will take care of the crisis for us…
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I think you’re right about Australia, Chile, Argentina & Gallo!! And I’d LOVE to see a pic of your 5 wine fridges and cage!! Salud!
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Seriously? One of them you can see in this post: http://talk-a-vino.com/2011/12/23/fears-of-the-oenophile/
They actually don’t look all that different and all that exciting…
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Seriously. I love it. They have wine inside, right? That makes them exciting! Salud!
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Love your cellar! My husband and I talked about reworking the area under our stairs, too, so I’m re-inspired! My plan is likewise to stock up on more wine – I want to be prepared in case of a wine crisis.
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The under-the-stairs space is just wasted if you don’t do something with it . . . wine made perfect sense to me! I just wish it wasn’t so crowded. Must stop buying wine!! Good luck with your cellar plans, Connie!!
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Well I can show you one wall of my cellar. When I designed it and built it, it was for about 900 bottles, now I have about 1300 jammed in there, with another five cases in another room. The room now is so tight, that I cannot turn around and get a bottle from a rack that is behind me. I must exit the room and step back into the room backwards to get the other bottles. Such is life and I will live with it. It is not a showplace, but a good storage area lined with end crates from the old wooden wine boxes, and then the other walls are plastered with labels that I have soaked off of the bottles that I have drank (a wine scrap book on the walls). Here is one picture as a hyper-link: http://thewineraconteur.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/fullracks2.jpg?w=300&h=200
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Awesome! I now have complete cellar envy!! And I love end crates from those old wooden boxes — they’re like works of art! Salud!!
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Holy shit.
1) I am truly impressed with people’s ability to collect. Props to the Wine Raconteur and Talkavino. My ‘cellar’ is pretty modest with only about 300 bottles excluding regular drinking stuff – three case of that probably
2) shortage? Just a few years ago, there was a glut. Not to worry, we can hunker down in our basements and finally get to those wines that we make excuses to leave for a few more years. Maybe even in a hidden tasting room?
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My cellar + overflow = about 330 bottles, so I’m right there with you. I’m trying to cut back on purchases, but then I see some great little Rioja I have to have. Or a nifty Oregon Pinot. Sigh. I think I need a hidden tasting room now! ;o) Salud!!
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Never knowing where we will end up definitely puts a limit to our collection. Right now, we have around 200 bottles stashed somewhere, and we keep it at around that number because we will move next year, and then probably again 2-3 years later. I am not a person that likes the thought of staying somewhere long, so my compromise is to keep my wine cellar manageable and moveable.
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Moving wine is the WORST!! Our last move was “only” about 40 miles, but it doesn’t matter if you’re moving 40 miles or 400 . . . moving and schlepping all that wine is a CHORE!! Manage and move . . . sounds like a good plan to me! Prost!
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Waiting till I upsize my living space, where I intend to have a proper cellar. In the meantime, I have about 30-40 special bottles on a rack all tagged and tracked in cellar tracker. I try and collect a few special ones each year to set aside. The other cases and cases my wife and I buy go down the old belly on average one a night! Wine is fun to DRINK too! Shit, I hope I’m not responsible in some way for the wine shortage 🙂 Ill post a pic of my 40 btl closet rack is of any excitement to anyone. The drink me nows are in the kitchen…
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I’d love to see your 40-bottle rack . . . I think it’s fascinating the different ways people store and manage their wine collections. I use Cellar Tracker, too . . . indispensable. I rely on that site more for reviews than the “biggies”. Salud!!
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I finally went in and put in everything last night, put on my drink by tags, and I downloaded Corkz so that I can look it up on my iphone before i dig out the flashlight. The wine is happily stored in the dark dusty corner of my closet, at ground level on hardwood floors over the basement. no overheating, not too cold, and no light to spoil it. been working out great! Ill post a pic when I get home tonight.
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these are my keepers. i’m still moving some stuff around to tag and put on cellar tracker, so its not full as usual. its modest but there’s some good stuff in there. can’t wait to buy my house and go big!
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