The Auswine Forum

With the recent banter on the Forum this week concerning wine cabinets and storing wine when you don't have a dedicated/climate controlled cellar/wine fridge , I thought it might be interesting to pose the question: How and where do we store the majority of our wine collection?

I personally store most of our wine at home, with about 9 cases stored at Kennard's in a professional off-site wine locker (the really good stuff! ). Our house is fortunately built on a sloping block, and the design of the house has made for a perfect cellar to come into existance at the back end of the house, under the kitchen. I have insultated the whole room and installed a wall mounted air-conditioning system which is used in summer to keep the temp below 18 degrees.

The only drawback is now the majority of our collection is readily accessable which can be very dangerous, especially when having a dinner party and you whizz down to the cellar and in a half sozzled state to make a decision on the next bottle to be drunk.

So how about you, how and where do you keep the majority of your wine collection?

Andrew Jordan wrote:The only drawback is now the majority of our collection is readily accessable which can be very dangerous, especially when having a dinner party and you whizz down to the cellar and in a half sozzled state to make a decision on the next bottle to be drunk.

Imagine the problems I have in this situation, my cellar opens directly off the dining room.
http://users.tpg.com.au/handreck/Cellar/cellar1.html

Luckily a lot of the really good stuff is hard to get at in a hurry and I can lock one of the cabinets.

Brian,

Impressive cellar. Like the fish-tank full of corks on the table.

Luckily a lot of the really good stuff is hard to get at in a hurry and I can lock one of the cabinets.

Good ideas! I might do something similiar ....

I keep all my wine at Kennards (personal collection as well).

I spend time creating HOMEPACKS™, dozen cartons with a mix of wine that I Know I like to drink (and my wife likes to ) so when I am running low at home I can just drop into Kennards, grab any HOMEPACK™ at random and know I will have a nice collection to drink. I am also considering making summer homepacks so I have one or two whites and sparkling reds.

My typical homepack™ consists mainly of budget every day drinking wines, with a few premiums and maybye a very nice one thrown in as a suprise - I opened one the other week and had a 2002 Kalleske Shiraz, 1991 St Hallet Old Block and a 1995 Houghton Jack Mann

Andrew Jordan wrote:Like the fish-tank full of corks on the table.

Yeah, it's full now, I only put corks with brands on them in the fish tank. I counted them recently, I'm thinking of posting a picture for a competition for the nearest guess as to the number of corks. (I'm not quite anal or bored enough to count the occurrences of each brand or the brand with the most corks).

I have a cellar in my house. That and the two car garage were the main selling points and clinched the deal.

I used to have a private bin at Millers but the costs started to get ridiculous ($180 a month for about 100 dozen) so I moved it all home and bought a whisperkool machine.

Looking to upgrade the whisperkool to a fondis but with all these mailers coming out lately, it's unlikely to be until after Christmas.

BTW Brian, I also collect corks with brands. Just have them in a big plastic bag at the moment with no notion of what I'm going to do with them. Was thinking about going into the corkboard business maybe! The ones without brands go to the girl guides for recycling.

A big dilema for us expats is where does one put there gear....?
I have two wine fridges, one here, one in oz. I also stock some in a storage faciltity.
The funny part about this is - I am a complete novice who buys based on this forum. My fridges are full as a result, but I never get near what I want.
Its the auswines forums fault I have two fridges but dont remember whats in there:lol:

As I don't have enough room at home for the "collection" I have had to improvise.

My cellar is located here. It's juts a little differnt to most.

Ric,

I am sure the animals have a fun time when you leave at night!

Andrew Jordan wrote:Ric,

I am sure the animals have a fun time when you leave at night!

Andrew,

Are you calling my staff animals? Just well there is a back to base alarm and it has to be set by a certain time or I get a phone call.

TORB wrote:As I don't have enough room at home for the "collection" I have had to improvise.

My cellar is located here. It's juts a little differnt to most.

So that's where that mousey smell comes from that you keep thinking is brett.

I just installed a cooling unit in a basement room (well insulated). Should pay for itself compared with commercial storage in about 4 years.

Prior to that I used a crawlspace under the SE corner of the house. Now my partner knows where everything is and boy, how our drinking patters have changed!

Doug

I have half of my collection back home in Dad's cellar, the other half just here in my room on a rack in New Zealand. There's normally a towel draped over it to prevent the light penetrating and also to ward off any interested parties. With the climate here in Christchurch, temperature is normally not an issue apart from several days in summer (and I can't afford proper storage anyway - that's perfectly good wine money!).

I'd love to have two cellars when I'm rich enough to own (and perhaps build?) my own house; one dark, dank ground cellar like the historical mind conjures up and then one specially built inside the house. I came across a hardcover text nearly a year ago now that I never purchased, but had images of incredible architecture with regard to breathtaking cellars. Must try and track it down.

Hi all,

Mine's been put in the"Other" category as its a traditional SA underground cellar that does vary in temperature but not significantly and not from day to day. More like summer to winter by about 6 degrees C.

Whilst dangerous having the wines close at hand the 6' steel ladder (under trap door in the kitchen) will put off any intrepid partygoer and me attempting a raid late at night. I hope my public liability insurance covers any silly people.

Chuck