Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Cellar Door

Lenn and Neil, among others, have decided to put their racks on public display. I’m usually a little on the shy side but in this context I figured I’d jump right into the mix.

I keep the majority of my wine stash in a Vinotheque wine cabinet with double-deep racking, along with temp and humidity control, which holds just shy of 300 bottles when stuffed to the gills – which it perpetually is. More often than not, the only way to make space for something new is to drink something old. Not a bad situation, I suppose, though I’d love to have more space, dangerous as that would be.

Why the Vinotheque? At the time of purchase, I lived in an old apartment. The space had lots of character but quite narrow doorways. I knew I wanted something that would hold at least 250 bottles, a smaller unit wouldn’t have done me any good, and this was the only one on the market with a narrow enough profile to fit in the front door of the building. Not the ideal decision making parameter but hey, I just wanted to keep my wine happy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice rack, dude. what's your organizing system - cellar tracker type of thing? what region is most prevalent in your cellar?

David McDuff said...

Yo Brooklyn!
I do use Cellar Tracker to keep track (no pun intended) of what's in my cellar. As for region, I'd say California Cabs, Rhone reds and Bordeaux, all present in decent numbers, are holdovers from my shopping habits of about ten years ago. Since then, the trend has really turned to German Rieslings, red and white Burgundy, Loire reds and whites, and Piedmont reds, along with a smattering of Tuscan stuff and, of course, a reasonably wide variety of mostly old world things for daily tasting.

If I had more space, there might be more diversity. But then again, there might just be more depth within the same general categories.

Dr. Debs said...

Nice rack! I love how wine cellars are mini archaeological digs of our own wine buying and consumption habits. First, the Cali Cabs layer, then the Rhones, then the...

Thanks for showing us!

Anonymous said...

Nice rack my friend...and I always like seeing one that is fully stacked...I mean stocked. ;)

As you may know...I'm a huge fan of German riesling...but I think I only have ONE in my cellar right now.

I used CT too...though I'm not always great about removing things once i drink them...not top of mind I guess.

David McDuff said...

Debs,
You're absolutely right. My problem is keeping things in certain categories from fossilizing before I get to them. Wanna fly to Philly for a Cali Cab tasting?

Lenn,
Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean about using CT. I seem to be able to keep up with tracking consumed bottles but I sometimes struggle to enter new acquisitions. As for German Riesling, one bottle just won't do. There aren't too many other wines, particularly at what are often still good price points, that will reward cellaring quite so well.

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