That Chateau La Fleur is rather impressive. I'm not familiar with the Clos Major - whats it like?

About two to three hundred metres from here
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...yn/cellar5.jpg

and about a mile or so from here (not my photos)

Since drinking and driving don't go together, I stick to drinking. :D

It's a cuvée of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, 14 months in barrique. Have opened only one bottle of these and quite a while ago. I noted a strong "oily" film on the glass, indicating the heavy character of the Tempranillo. The Cabernet S. gives it more character.

Of course the La Fleur is easily 2 classes above the rest. It has a sensational nose and made every other wine I'd had until then seem like a can of Coke. Brought it home from Paris.

Ooh! I have a pic like that (although nowhere near as good) from an overgrown vineyard in the village I stayed in when I was 15, in the Auvergne. It was on the edge of the village but the vines were still growing when I was there.

No idea what it was called, just that it was a tiny place in the shadow of the Puy de Dome, but still managed to have fresh bread every morning. Nom nom nom.

I will be looking to acquire both locally - any idea on a bottle price?
Wait where are you located again?

The LaFleur cost me 30 Euros in 1995 (a chain of wine bars "L'Ecluse" in Paris, 15 Quai des Grands Augustins)
The Clos Major 8.50 in approx. 2000 (my local wine shop in Germany)

Gotcha - well then that probably won't equate well over here in the states. Hmm, I may have send a little something your way for a return box of goodies.

classic, look hereSee if that list has what you want.

Trouble seems to be, there are dozens of La Fleurs around. Took me a while to find a reference to the right one:
http://www.winefoodfoundation.org/su...essrelease.pdf
(see last page of this PDF)

Sriveyn, I'm curious about the temperature of your cellar. Is it constant year round or does it fluctuate as you move from summer into heating season? Ours is where our boiler sits and is considered "semi-conditioned space" It is a bit warmer in the winter than it would be if it were not home to the boiler, but it isn't heated so to speak.

Whats the variance foot3? If the space is large enough you can always put your stock as far away from the boiler as possible. or create a barrier between the boiler and the rest of the room, unless of course you use it for something else. That or insulate the boiler maybe?

Sind Sie Deutsch?

I informed Katkeeper that she had to participate in this thread. Then I took the pics and now I'm gonna post them. But these are her bottles.

If there is a Cellar cellar, this is it: I think it's a Vinotech? Keeps these at 55 degrees with proper humidity.

http://cellar.org/2008/cellarwine4.jpg

But there is still overflow.

http://cellar.org/2008/cellarwine3.jpg

And overflow.

http://cellar.org/2008/cellarwine2.jpg

You want trophy bottles? OK! :D

http://cellar.org/2008/cellarwine1.jpg

It says 1969 on that Dom.

Why are three of the bottles in that rack backwards?

Classic,
In the summer it is a lot cooler than the outside, and usually damper all year round. In summer it is from 75-95 outside w/ humidity between 60%-100%. The cellar is usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler and the humidity is about 5% greater than outside. Winter time it is more constant at about 55 to 60 degrees with humidity at 50%.

The boiler helps a bit in the winter and adds only a marginal amount of heat in the summer since it makes our domestic HW.

I wonder what it would be if it were isolated from the house with insulation in the floor.

The "ideal" temp for a wine cellar is 55-58 F, but if you can keep it generally cool (below 70), the overall temperature isn't a deal-breaker. More important is not having great variations in temperature. If the location varies 10 degrees between night and day, that's bad.

Humidity in a wine cellar is to preserve corks. (And labels, I suppose.) As long as it's never so dry as to dry them out, and never so damp as to mold them, it's good.

The other things to rule out are direct light of any kind, especially sunlight, and vibration.