I have been enjoying the forum for several months now, and have come to respect the opinions and advice of the members. With this in mind, I have a few basic questions that will help me decide if it is time to shift my focus from storage to aquisition...

I have a very deep basement in my home (12 feet below finished grade) with block walls and small windows on the southern exposure that are all but shielded from sunlight - even on the sunniest of days, the basement remains very, very dark. The temperature in the basement ranges year round, 59 minimum to 64 degrees tops, (I monitor it closely). Humidity (as in most newer homes) ranges from about 40% to 45%. I keep my wine on its side (most still stored inside the cases).

The basement is not, nor ever will be a place to entertain friends, so any room I might build will be for storage, not showcasing my wine. (The basement is completely unfinished and serves dual duty as a cat feeding and "rest" station). I have a lot of room in the basement to construct a temperature and humidity controlled cellar for storage, but considering the conditions I already have, will the benefit be overwhelmingly substantial?

As many folks do, I drink most of my wines within a few months of purchase, but I also want to be able to enjoy them several years down the road. I just want to give them a safe and comfortable home.

Is my current angst unjustified? I have avoided expanding my collection to this point and your thoughtful advice will help me more than you will know. I apologize for the wordiness, subsequent posts will be much shorter, I promise! Thank you for your help!

Thanks for jumping in and posting gf.

IMO your storage conditions are fine for wines you plan on drinking over the shorter term. If you plan on acquiring some higher end bottlings and aging them for much longer periods of time then I'd recommend some sort of temperature controlled environment. Depending on your long range wine plan perhaps you could purchase an appropriately sized wine cabinet and place it in the cellar for your long term agers.

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Depending on your long range wine plan perhaps you could purchase an appropriately sized wine cabinet and place it in the cellar for your long term agers.

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I agree with that.

Welcome to the forum.

You may want to consider putting in a window ac unit with temperature controls for the summer months to keep the temp below 60.

Welcome, gent.

I will dissent with the prevailing opinion here. I think most wines will do fine at a max of 64 degrees, even for long term aging, although they may not go as long as they should (start opening your 2000 bordeaux in 2015, not 2020).

If you were so motivated it would be very easy to build a wine room in the conditions you describe in order to get an area cordoned off for wine storage, it just depends how handy you are. Frame off an area, insulate the walls and ceiling heavily, and install a cooling unit. I would bet the unit will run rarely in summer and never in the winter (I'm assuming you're not in the south based on the temps you quoted).

This is better value than a wine fridge, it will give you much more storage, and you will cherish it more. I did it and I don't regret it for a minute.

gf,

I'm with grossie, in that it sounds like the basement has the potential to be turned into a "proper" cellar without a tremendous amount of effort or expense. I'd look into sectioning off a portion to store AND "showcase" your wines. One of the major drawbacks of my "wine cabinet" based storage system is that when I show my friends my collection, I am showing them cabinets with tons of stacked up and undisplayable bottles. I wish I could "showcase" some of by children more properly.....

PH

Thanks everyone! I knew I had come to the right place for good advice.

Looks like I will be continue to expand the collect andlook closely at constructing the room. At least now I know it is something that doesn't have to be built "overnight."

Thanks again friends!

I 'd concur with grossie and Purple Haze. You have what is called a good natural passive cellar. Most wines are aged in similar conditions and do just fine. There's a lot of hype about what constitutes "proper" cellaring. You may, as grossie states, have to trim a couple of years of the drinking window of some of your longer term wines.

By the way, I currently have an appartment cellar unit but it was a present and I easily enjoyed fine wines aged 10 years and more in a natural cellar whose conditions were similar to those you have described.

I would also concur with grossie.

a

I hate to NOT disagree, but I can't (is that 3 or 4 negatives?). I can offer an anecdote -- I have a buddy who loves French wine. He's been buying for around 20 years, and only recently has he built a proper cellar. He routinely pulls out Bordeaux and Burgundy from the early 1970's, and they've all aged beautifully.

Here's the punchline -- this guy lives in Atlanta.

I think you're fine.

Having said that, you'd be "safer" if you built a proper cellar.

Add me to the list of agree-ers!!

My storage situation is very similar to yours. My felling is that a big expenditure of $$ will not greatly improve my storage situation.

Welcome aboard.

DBW

Golf&Zin: How did you manage to not NOT disagree? Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Passive cellars that stay at a constant cool temp are just fine for aging. As several others warn, be careful of temp flucuations. Keep them out of any sun light or any other source that may tend to heat a bottle but not the general air temperature.

Happy Holidays!

Just another way of putting this into perspective... A/C has only been around for 50-60 years, but just about the most sought after wine on the planet is 1900 Margaux. And most of the cellars it was stored in were not as nearly-perfect as yours. Seriously, 59-64 degress with no sunlight is only 4 degrees north of the perfect cellar...

a

Thanks everyone for the additional posts and thoughtful advice. I am convinced now my passive cellar will give them the home they deserve.

I am looking at heavy-duty, chromed steel racking units (each designed to hold 168 +/- bottles) available at Sam's Club. Again, the finer style racking would only be appreciated by the cat. (The bottles are "cradled" by the design of the shelves so stacking them won't affect the labels or interfere with hang tags). Does anyone have experience with this type of storage system? Pro's and con's again are welcomed!

GF- I did extensive research into this topic when I built my cellar. Here's what I came up with.

It's similar to what you describe, but there are no cradles for the bottles, those are unneccessary and probably decrease your storage capacity. The weigth capacity for these shelves is tremendous (I think 500lbs per shelf). Check out the link inside the link above. The manufacturer's wesite is there.

BTW, my labels are fine, no damage at all. Also, I bought very simple steel bars (1"x 1/8" x 5') from the hardware store to hold the bottles in. It works very well, and so far I have had no problems at all with these shelves. They have done an excellent job.

gentleman,

You know, you are pretty lucky you have a cat in your cellar (unless he climbs up the rack and knocks down some bottles). A couple of years ago I bought a few 1970 Montrose for $75/bottle because the labels had been eaten off by mice or rats (the bottles with labels were $150). So, the cat may preserve the value of your cellar.

a