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Wine Cellars
Wine collecting for investment and consumption continues to be very popular. Storing and caring for your collection can be a concern. Standalone wine cellars are available to the homeowner who does not have the extra space to build their own cellar. Many wine enthusiasts have the space and choose to build a wine cellar in their home and equip it with the proper storage and technology components to insure proper temperatures, humidity, lighting, and individual bottle attention.
Proper Wine Storage
Bottles should be stored on their side so that the cork remains moist, and they should also not be exposed to vibration or temperature change. It should be maintained at a constant 50 to 55 degrees with a humidity rate of 70%.
Proper Temperature for Storing Wine
Temperature is most important; you should aim to keep it around 50 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. A lower temperature can help age the wine. If there are any fluctuations in the temperature, you should make sure that it happens slowly. As long as the temperature does not go too high and the fluctuations are slow, then your wine should be okay.
Proper Humidity for Storing Wine
The proper level of humidity for storing wine in a home wine cellar should be around 70%, although it is perfectly acceptable to keep it 10% above or below the 70% level. If you have too high humidity, the labels can easily rot or mold, which can affect the wine's value. On the other hand, if the humidity goes too low, around 50%, the cork could shrink and bring air into the wine.
Other Useful Wine Cellar Storage Tips
You should also strive to keep the wine in a dark place, as lights can ruin any type of wine. Light causes the wine to age too fast, making it in your best interest to store wine in a dark location in a home wine cellar.
Storage in a proper location, such as a home wine cellar will also bring the best taste. In the world of wine, nothing is more disappointing than waiting several years to open a bottle of fine wine, only to find that it is nothing but vinegar. You can prevent this from happening though, by taking care of your wine by storing it in a proper home wine cellar.
We hope we have shown why the investment into a wine cellar is not only necessary but also a must if you want to protect your valuable wine collection. Wine cellars are not only for the true enthusiast but also even for the casual wine lover. Wine is very sensitive to the elements of heat, light, humidity and vibration and even the modest priced wines can take advantage of proper storage techniques.
Wine cellars are becoming a much more common thing to find in personal homes and not just wine establishments and fine restaurants anymore. A home wine cellars is a statement of your commitment to the finer things in life and nothing could be finer than a great bottle of wine to share with family and friends.
Wine Cellar Designs
Wine cellars can now be designed to fit almost any space in the home and are as much a statement of your taste as any other piece of fine furniture. Wine cellar designs can be done by a professional designer and you will be amazed at the number of choices when it comes to things such as types of woods, glass doors or not, and pretty much all aspects of your wine cellar or home wine cellars can be tailored to your individual style and taste. Once you have a design there are basically three ways you can precede.
Wine Cellar Construction How to Build a Wine Cellar
You have a few choices to make at this stage of the game: you can buy a ready-made wine refrigerator, have a custom wine cellar built by a professional contractor who specializes in wine cellar construction or you can take the build your own wine cellar route. Alternatively, there are also wine cellar kits available which might be a good alternative to the professionally installed way.
Depending on your budget, your comfort level with DIY projects and your time frame a professionally built unit might be the smart choice here. You can save a fair amount of money by building your own wine cellar but it is a fairly complex do-it-yourself project and should be left to the more seasoned home project people out there.
Here at Preferred Wine Cellars you will find interesting articles on wine cellars and a listing of wine cellars dealers in your local area. We have done a lot of the legwork for you so you can easily locate a contractor or wine cellar dealer near you quick and easily. We are adding new articles on a regular basis so why not take a minute to bookmark us in your favorite social bookmarking site and also add our RSS feed to your favorite online reader and get updates when new content, dealers or city listings are added quick and easy.
Thanks for visiting,
Christine and everyone here at Preferred Wine Cellars
An Introduction to Wine Collecting
Some people like to collect wine because they love to drink it. Others might buy wine to store it and then sell at a profit later. Wine collecting is not just for wealthy people and anybody with an interest in wine can start to collect it.
You do not have to build a huge wine cellar or get hundreds of bottles of wine. You can begin with a small wine cellar and just a few bottles. You don't need to be a wine connoisseur either and whereas most people who collect wine will enjoy drinking it too, some people only collect it to sell once it has reached its prime.
If you are thinking about collecting wine, it is vital to invest in a wine cellar. The wine has to be stored in a suitable place so it will age well and turn into a good vintage wine. Its value will rise instead of fall. If you do not protect your wine by investing in a good wine cellar, your wine will deteriorate. Therefore, if you want to collect wine, it is paramount to build or buy a wine cellar and learn a bit about wine storage.
Reasons for Collecting Wine
Anyone with a functioning wine cellar will have wines, which are ready to drink. A lot of fine wines from wine merchants will be ready to drink in a few years so if you start your collection now you will have some wonderful wines to enjoy in a few years. Add to your collection as often as you like or as often as you can afford to and you will have fine wine whenever you fancy a glass.
Maybe you have an important event coming up, such as a fiftieth birthday or an anniversary. Plan this in advance by investing in some wine which is going to be ready for that time and you will be able to provide the most amazing wine for it. You can also buy wine which are going to be a lot more expensive in the future or which are not going to be available at all.
A lot of fine wines like some varieties of Bordeaux are released and sold before being bottled and after that time, they are much more expensive. Wine has been a sound investment since the early 1980s and you can get a great investment return on it.
Is Wine Collecting Easy?
Wine collecting is not difficult as long as you understand the basics. The two most important things to learn about wine storage are humidity and temperature. Wine needs to be kept at a constant temperature. If you store it in a warm place for a few weeks, the heat will damage the wine. Too much cold is just as bad for wine. It should be kept somewhere cool, not cold, unless you are chilling the bottle just before serving it.
Some wines are supposed to be stored over a long period of time and others are not. You should read books or websites about wine collecting before starting to collect it. After doing a bit of research, you are ready to start planning your wine cellar. So, what are you waiting for? Wine collecting is a rewarding hobby and you can do it on a small or large scale. It is great fun and enjoying fine wine is a wonderful way to relax and delight your senses.
Five Reasons to Use Your Own Wine Cellar
1) Wine is an Investment
Wine is not only a good investment but it is a "wasting asset" which means it is not liable to capital gains tax because it has to be consumed within a certain amount of years.
2) Collecting Wine is Fun
Wine collecting is something that can be fun and you will need your own wine cellar to do this. There is plenty to learn about the world of wine and savoring a fine wine, which you have collected and stored, is a very enjoyable experience.
3) It Does not Cost a Lot
It is a myth that wine cellars and wine collections are only for the super wealthy. This is because a wine cellar can be as small or as large as you line. You might want to have a hundred bottles of wine but there is nothing wrong with beginning with just two bottles or three or whatever you can afford.
4) There are So Many Wines to Choose From
Unless you are only collecting wine to sell and make a profit, choose wines you like. There is no point in collecting really expensive wines just because of the price tag. Instead, choose wine styles you happen to like and you will find them much more satisfying. Taste the wines before investing in them, else you might collect a wine for five years and then discover you do not like it! The fact that there are so many different wines to choose from means it is worth building a wine cellar and collecting some special ones.
5) Fine Wine is Available to You Whenever You Like
If the occasion calls for a nice bottle of wine, you can quickly go downstairs (or wherever your wine cellar is located) and choose one. How else could you have fine wine on tap whenever you need it?
Try These Preferred Wine Cellar Dealers and Articles
Here is just a sampling of our list of wine cellar dealers and wine articles you'll find plenty more inside the site.
Purchasing the Perfect Wine Cellar a Buyers Guide
How to Successfully Play the Wine Auction Game - Insider Secrets
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Thanks,
Christine and everyone here at Preferred Wine Cellars
A Brief History of Wine Cellars
A wine cellar is a place to store wine so it can age well. In the old days, wine was made for immediate consumption so there was no need for a wine cellar. This changed when wine merchants wanted to export the wine. A lot of wine was stored in amphorae, which were terracotta wine containers.
Not a lot was known about proper wine storage in the early days. The Romans stored wine in smoke-filled rooms above or beside the kitchen. The smoke was a good preserver for the wine but unfortunately, the heat destroyed the qualities of the wine. Richer Romans built special rooms for the wine but the temperature and humidity fluctuations still meant the wine quality was often affected.
Cellars were built to store vegetables and grains in the early days, as well as acting as hideouts. Only the very wealthy would have a cellar devoted to wine and ruins of these have been uncovered in Spain, Gaul, and Pompeii.
The First Wine Cellars
Wine cellars were not very common until stone became the main material for building. Early houses were built on arches to give them the earth's support, so they would stand firm even if the earth shifted a bit. This meant that digging thirty feet into the ground would provide a steady fixed temperature of about 55 degrees F whatever the season.
Today it is possible to control the humidity and temperature. Storing wine in the ground was the first wine storage technique and it is still popular today. The lack of changes in temperature and humidity, as well as the lack of aromas and vibrations, mean the wine can rest until you are ready to open it.
Basic Wine Cellars - What to Look For
Wine cellars come in many styles, shapes, and sizes and if you are new to wine, collecting it can be confusing knowing which kind to go for. You can choose the perfect one to suit your storage limits and budget.
You do not even need a spare room since the smaller wine cellars are upstanding racks, which hold a few bottles inside. These can hold anywhere from one to about fifteen bottles and they can fit in a corner or closet.
Wine cellars range from under a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on size. Starting small is no problem and if you have limited space, you will still be able to get a small wine cellar. You can buy an upright wine cellar, hire a contractor to build you one or build your own.
You will want to compare different wine cellars. If you are using a refrigeration device rather than having a wine cellar under the house, you need to find out if it is noisy, if it expels hot air and how long it is guaranteed for, amongst other things.
How to Store Wine for the Best Results
Wine requires a constant humidity and temperature. It must be stored away from light and vibrations, somewhere clean and well ventilated for the best results. Choose a room for your wine cellar, which is well insulated because this helps to avoid changes in temperature.
The wine cellar must be dark and quiet and you need to store the bottles on their sides so the wine is in contact with the cork, keeping it wet. This means it will not shrink and allow unwanted oxygen into the bottle.
Wine Around the World
Wine has been around for more than six thousand years. Fermented grape juice, or wine as we call it, is well loved in many countries. Some people enjoy relaxing with a glass after a long, hard day and others love to collect wine or to invest in it and sell it for a profit.
Vines have been cultivated since 4000BC in the Middle East and the Egyptians were making wine with grapes in 2500BC. The Greeks planted vines from the Black Sea to Spain and kept the wine in earthenware pots. The Romans kept it in bottles and barrels and planted vines in some of what are today's top wine districts.
A lot of Europe's main wine areas were extended by the monks and they kept the trade in wine alive after the Roman Empire declined. Wine reaches the New World via Columbus and it was the Spanish missionaries who introduced it to Chile and Argentina in the 1500s. In the 1700s, the Californian south became a wine region when the missionaries traveled north.
Vines were planted in New Zealand and Australia in the early nineteenth century by British immigrants and the first Dutch vines were planted in South Africa in the 1650s.
Old World and New World Wines
Wine can be divided into Old World and New World. The Old World includes Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Hungary, Germany, and Italy. New World wines are from New Zealand, England, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, North America and anywhere else outside the traditional winemaking areas.
New World wines are usually from hotter places, which means the grapes are riper, and the wine is fuller bodied and contains more alcohol. People who enjoy wine often enjoy sampling new wines from different regions to compare their flavors and other properties.
Wine has been popular for hundreds of years and it is a versatile drink which is suitable for a variety of different occasions. Whether you enjoy the occasional glass of red or white wine with your dinner to complement the flavors of the meal, sharing a bottle with friends when you have a pleasant evening together or simply collecting wines to sell later at a profit, there is no doubt that people love wine for different reasons. If you want to try wine collecting, red, white and rose wines are all possibilities. Few things beat the satisfaction a wine collector feels when uncorking a bottle he or she has carefully stored for years and experiencing the amazing aroma and the wonderful flavor. A wine cellar is crucial if you want a safe storage place for your hand-picked bottles of wine. This gives the wine a controlled climate to mature and age, developing its depth of flavors to perfection.