Cellaring for the not-so-wealthy

[Caesar]

Has anyone had any inspirations for where to cellar wine when there is no cellar to be had in your house? The closest thing in mine is a crawlspace with uncontrolable temperature in the winter. The upshot of this is that I am unable to invest in "steals" when I find them at times(example: 1995 Lafite at $45). Well, actually, I did buy that one, but turned around and sold it out of fear that I could not do it justice through aging, and my concience wouldn't allow me to just keep it and let it go to hell. Any ideas sure would save a lot of frustration. Thanks!

[winecollector]

I had similar problems when moving into a townhouse three years ago. I started out with keeping my wine in the garage, and constantly kept an eye on the temperature. During an extreme cold spell, it was necessary to move the wine out of there, and into another part of the house. I was considering buying either one of those Eurocaves or a whispercool unit, but instead took a small storage room behind my garage and made it my wine cellar by partioning the room in half. It's well enough insulated not to drop below 55 degrees in the winter, and don't get warmer that 65 degrees in the summer. In addition, I have central air and a heating duct that I can open or close going into that room, so I can adjust the temperature some if necessary. Hope this helps some.

If all else fails and you can't do something like this, possibly consider buying a Eurocave or something comparable. If you don't have room for one, aaa...... ever consider moving, or putting on an addition?

[hotwine]

Any cool dark place will do, especially if you're not planning on long-term storage. I used a closet in the guest bedroom for several years, but didn't try to keep any particular wines longer than about six months. Rackage can be whatever is handy, to keep the bottles on their sides. I've used college-style bookcases (planks set on stacked bricks) and cardboard boxes; sometimes the boxes would get so old they'd fall apart. It really doesn't matter what you use, as long as it keeps your wines cool, dark and quiet.