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I just started another post where I mentioned 2 of my Old Spinster aunts in Germany who lived in an old 200 yr old apartment in the middle of a village in Germany. I have a lot of fond childhood memories of them and them drinking,buying and storing wine. They had a cellar a few stories down form their apt. I remember it was always a hike down a few flights of steep wooden stairs to this cellar. We had a few keys to get in and they kinda looked like old fashioned black iron keys, antique like. In this cellar, they had wine...and lots of it!!! The cellar was always a little cold and damp and smelled a little musty., although immaculately clean. This was a celler that went through wars and I believe was used for hiding and such for protection. It seemed to be below street level on a busy street, so you could hear the cars wisking by and footsteps of pedestrians as well.

So when one of my friends recently told me she had a wine cellar, I immediately thought of something underground like this...but now I know it's those refigerated cellars of modern age, of which I am sure I will own one soon, as my interest in wine is soring by leaps and bounds.

Does anyone else have any experience with these Original Type of Cellars...underground in villages of Europe?
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Serge,
Thanks for the pic. Theirs were not in big barrels, but in collected bottles, mostly from their day trips and tours to different parts of Europe, mostly Germany. They were just ordinary women collecting wine and enjoying it from time to time. They have since passed away and a distant cousin was there in a FLASH to collect all the wine, as it didn't mean much to us at the time, because we were NOT into wine!!! I can just imagine what was there!! The way they kept everything else they had of such quality.
I went to France for a friend's wedding last fall, which was held at his sister and brother-in-law's country house. I'm guessing this place is about a hundred years old. Anyway, attached to the garage was the "wine cave", and ground level was a few feet above the floor, so you had to step down to get into it. Not really an underground cellar, but enough of it was underground that it keeps their wine at reasonable temperatures, and it was pretty neat.
I went to the Val SanGiacomo winery in Switzerland (Near Italy), and saw their cave....They had a whole street lined with what looked like old houses, but were actually underground cellars. They bored huge holes in the side of a mountain about two or three hundred years ago to get natural cooling from the inside of the mountain.

They used old iron keys (even today) to open the huge double doors. Apparently the row of houses used to be used in the summer time to store all of their salami's and cheeses, so they would basically have "block parties" inside these huge refrigerators. Quite an interesting trip.
quote:
Originally posted by heyta:
I went to the Val SanGiacomo winery in Switzerland (Near Italy), and saw their cave....They had a whole street lined with what looked like old houses, but were actually underground cellars. They bored huge holes in the side of a mountain about two or three hundred years ago to get natural cooling from the inside of the mountain.

They used old iron keys (even today) to open the huge double doors. Apparently the row of houses used to be used in the summer time to store all of their salami's and cheeses, so they would basically have "block parties" inside these huge refrigerators. Quite an interesting trip.


WOW! I'd love to go there!! That sounds so cool!

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