What does Your Cellar look like?
 

So we all know The Cellar - but what does Your Cellar look like?

very cool ,scryv. There's almost as much wine in your cellar as there is whine in this one.

You keep a negro in a box in your cellar? :eek:

We don't have a cellar. Not many people in Oz do. If we did it'd be full of wine though. :)

No cellars, or even basements, in my part of the world, either. Not even a measly attic.

Negro in a box?? We don't even do that in Mississippi

Scriveyn's Old School.

Sorry, no cellars or basements here either. I could show you my attic, but then I'd have to get my ass up there... you'll have to wait until it's time to get the Christmas decorations down.

27 hour shipping?
You'd be lucky to better today!

I'm very impressed. We need some details about that wine though.

Hardly a house without a cellar over here. - So I see why you dwellars want The Cellar.

Mostly Spanish, French, Portugese & Italian. Plus, rarely, some overseas. I prefer to put the extra quid into the quality of the wine, rather than into the transport cost.

Well, here's the top of the range:

Where do you live, scriv?

Because we need to visit.

Some 2 pi r to take the edge off the evening? Hmmm, a well-rounded bouquet with a hint of algebraic spices...


:drunk:

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.

What UT said - the moisture is to preserve the corks, but that is not as much an issue with a lot of the companies going with synthetic and or having the bottles properly tilted. Put a thermometer down there and track it a bit. Unless you are storing some really expensive wines you should be fine.

How many hands do you have?

Nice stock of bottles. - Yes, the stock tends to overflow the available rack space.

Temperatures are well above outside in winter and well below in summer. Maybe 10C in winter and 15C in summer, but not sure if I remember correctly. I haven't measured humidity, but there is a dry earth floor and corks are keeping well.
As you and UT mentioned, the main thing is that temperatures don't undergo shortterm changes.

Yep, that's me

my meager rack
 

the good stuff is on the bottom shelf

the good stuff
 

and I had a bottle of this the other day
Lamuri Tasca d'Almerita Nero d'Avola
OMG! I'm loving watching the Euro drop!:D

Oh and here's my own personal cellar

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

This is what many years of no spare cash will do to a cellar. Seven years ago this was full :sniff:

Our "cellar" is in the kitchen pantry and never has more than 3-4 bottles in it. High turnover. We like our wine to be nice and fresh.

No cellars on the GA coast. Dig down about 15 inches and you have standing water.

Our cellar is the top of a cabinet in the dining room. All of the wine that is there has been given to us over past holidays and we weren't able to serve or regift it to others.

We do have a basement though. It's old and scary.

We have a basement that is old and scary too. Probably not as old as yours.