The cellar is a place for sampling, discussing and dreaming about wines. There are no hard-and-fast rules about which wines should be cellared. Like a library, a cellar builds up over time. It should reflect the personality, the taste and the passions of its owner.
Probably the classic authors will form the skeleton of a good library / cellar:
But they should be supported by less known writers, or up-and-coming ones that have been discovered on travels or with friends. They will show the individuality of the owners taste.
Even if all is not perfectly organized and you are the only one able to find your way around it, your cellar should resemble you. Thus you will feel at home here.
Here are a few helpful suggestions…
Temperature and Humidity
The cellar is a place that may hold secrets, or treasures. It gives an added dimension to a house or home, flat or apartment. It should look after its guests, and so be dark, cool, vibration-free, and well ventilated.
Wine is a living substance, so it reacts to certain stimulants, such as: movement, light, heat or cold. Great wines have the longest lifespans, provided that they are kept in ideal conditions.
Temperature should be fairly constant: between 9°C and 12°C in winter, and not over 15°C in the summer.
Rapid changes in temperature can make your wines age faster and less harmoniously.
Stored between 10° and 12°C, white wines are at the ideal temperature for both ageing and serving. Whilst red wine will age slowly and well. They just need to be brought up from the cellar an hour before serving.
Hygrometry (the amount of moisture in the air) should be at around 70%. This will help keep corks supple and the air out of the wine inside.
It is better to avoid storing near smelly substances (onions, cheese, fuel oil, paint, etc) in the cellar; as some corks (not the best ones) can be slightly permeable.
Storing
To prevent corks from drying out and letting air into the wine; keep bottles horizontal.
Wine does not like being shaken about, so it is best to decide where you are going to store a specific lot and leave it there until you decide to drink it; five, ten or twenty years later. Keep these wines for ageing separately from the everyday drinking ones.
An ideal storage system keeps each bottle steady, enables air to circulate and allows one to see clearly how the system works: the country, region or vintage of wines, for example.
To keep a visual track of what is what and of what is left; you can use slates on each bin.
These will provide identity and the residual quantity of the bin’s contents. Impermeable neck tags (cellar discs) are also good idea to identify the wine without having to move the bottle. The cellar disc gives you 3 pieces of important information: the appellation, the vintage, and the appropriate ageing period.
Organization
Here are just a few examples of ways to classify your wines:
- By colour and type (red, white, rosé, sparkling, sweet)
- By country and then by region: (Chile, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, USA, Australia, etc.)
- By grape variety
- By purchase date
- By type of food match (wines for fish, red meat, game, vegetables, chocolate, etc.)
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