Organizing Your Cellar

[RJonesUSC]

I'm about to get a standing wine cellar (Vinotemp) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about organizing my wine.

Country->Varietal->Vintage
Varietal->Vintage
etc.

I was hoping to get some imput from some of you on how you organize your cellars and why.

Thanks in advance.

[Kcwhippet]

There are a few software programs out there designed to help you manage your cellar. However, I chose to create a simple Microsoft Access database to do the same thing and it costs me nothing since Access came with the OS. Even an Excel spreadsheet can help you manage. Regardless, you really want to know how to arrange your wine in the Vinotemp. I believe it keeps a colder temp on the bottom than the top, so I'd keep the whites down below. Other than that, I think it's really just stuff them in where they fit, as long as you have something to tell you what wine is in which slot. You can try all sorts of ways to arrange by the way, as you have below, but what do you do if you have only one space available and that's in Australia Shiraz and you want to put in a bottle of CA Pinot Noir. Personally, I only try to keep things somewhat sorted by varietal, but for no particular reason, other than it seemed like the thing to do at the time, because I have that Access database. I even have some reds in among the whites. Oh, BTW, I have a rack that's two bottles deep and holds about 350 bottles. I also have some in wooden cases on the floor of the cellar, and two smaller auxiliary racks off to the side that hold another 250 or so. Of course, it's nowhere the Weener's cellar, but that's another story.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 09-29-2005).]

[RJonesUSC]

Thanks for the reply.

Ya, I already use CellarTracker (which I think is great btw) to keep track of the wine. I suppose it doesn't really matter where it is in there since I'll know exactly where everything is anyway.

I only started getting into wine more seriously a little over a year ago and purchased a wine frige that held about 75 bottles. I've since long outgrown that. It's scary how quickly all the bottles can add up. The Vinotemp that's coming holds about 350 bottles. I'm hoping that will last me for longer than the 75 bottle unit did.

Thanks again for your reply.

[hotwine]

Organizing by Country -> Varietal works OK. If your Vinotemp has sliding shelves, I recommend placing the bottles on the shelves neck-in, butt-out, so you can easily read the labels as you pull out a shelf. But if the shelves are fixed in position, you might find it preferable to place the bottles on the shelves butt-in, neck out. The capsules will give you a clue as to what's on a particular shelf, but otherwise you'll be reading the labels upside down.

I tried using paper nameplates cut from 3"X5" cards along the bottom rims of the sliding shelves in my EuroCave, but that idea only lasted about a year.

So long as my stash is less than about 400 btls, I can usually remember where I put a particular bottle, whether in the EC, the cellar or the Haier. It's when there's more than that number to deal with that I start wandering around asking for directions.

[dananne]

We recently finished moving our wines from an older, fading unit into a new 400 bottle Vinotemp credenza-style unit. From my experience, there are two things to keep in mind. First, most Burgundy and Oregon Pinot Noir, as well as Chateauneuf-du-Pape, don't fit the racking. Thus, I was forced to take out one of the racking units and just stack. Second, organizing by region/varietal works OK, but make sure you put the ones meant to age behind the ones meant to drink sooner if you're going 2-deep. I ended up having to redo mine, as I kept having to remove bottles to get at the ones behind them. Stupid, I know, but I didn't plan well enough in advance, and I didn't want the wines sitting out while I decided what to put where. So, of course, they ended up sitting out later when I restocked everything. This was especially true for the stuff stacked on top of the shelving, as often more than one bottle needs to be moved to get at the stuff behind and/or below.

[ccartman2]

I have a couple of questions here. 1st, since most wines are made ready to drink and don't have an extremely long shelf life, why have a cellar with 400 bottles of wine?

2nd, if you are storing common bottles of wine, how do you keep from drinking them? [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img] just kidding on this one, but I usually just buy a bottle from the store, when I am ready for a bottle, so why store them?

[winoweenie]

Hi Cartman and welcome to the board. There's only one way to answer yopur question and that's for you to try a fine bottle of wine with the proper age on it. Then you wont have to ask. WW

[Innkeeper]

We keep our cellar in two sections. The majority of the bottles as Cartman suggests are in "rotation." We keep these separated by white/red, and the reds by style or origin; but don't keep any records on these. Then we have about three cases laid down. We track these by "year of consumption" with a simple WP file. Once these are consumed, we take the salient points from the TN we post here and move the wine to a "Wines Consumed" file.

[hotwine]

Cartman, it's true that most wines made in the US are intended to be consumed upon release into the distribution and marketing network. The winemaker may age his wines in barrel and/or bottle prior to releasing them for sale, to improve them with age or maintain his price point; buy in general, most US wines are intended to be purchased and consumed shortly after hitting the retail shelves. (Most US wines.... not all.)

In Europe, many wines are not intended to be consumed upon release. They are intended to be cellared by the buyer until they reach an optimum drinking window, which might be several years, even decades, after purchase.

Reasons to cellar are numerous. A few of mine include:

- To maintain a diverse inventory of wines for pairing with an equally diverse daily dinner menu.

- To maintain a supply of favorites so as to avoid supply shortages.

- To buy wines at current prices and avoid future price increases.

- To selectively age wines under one's own optimum storage conditions, rather than risk the transportation and storage conditions of wholesalers and retailers that might not be optimum (in terms of temperature, humidity, light and vibration).

Wines are foods. They must be handled and stored properly to maintain their food value. It's as simple as that.

[maygoddess]

This is an interesting topic and cartman had a very question..why store wine if most wines here are meant to be drunk upon release..
I was just reading a local business article about young consumer wine drinking/buying habits and most consumers these days drink wine upon buying..usually buying just before drinking. Our generation(I am late 30's)..so say 20-30s..drink as we go,so to speak.
As you learn to appreciate more wines and pick favorites, you may find yourself stocking up a bit more rather than just grabbing any bottle off your local store shelf for the evening's meal or whatever.
We have a 47 bottle wine fridge..we won it actually..and I never thought this would be beyond full and ready to move on..but we are stocking up more and just not drinking as fast.

Also..I have been given bottles of some wine that I think I want to age..new concept for me..as I usually drink as we go!

Also..If you have a wine fridge that you have neck out and one deep like I do, I found these plastic neck hangers that you dry erase marker on the wine info and can wipe off and reuse. This stopped us from having to pull out the bottles each time to see what we had, thus messing up the label.

Anyway..I think an inexpensive small wine fridge is a good first step..even if you plan on getting a few bottles to keep of stuff you like and want to have on hand.

Anyway..my two cents!

Patty