Building A Wine Cellar

Hey, Jon, fancy seeing you in these parts! Knowing (or presuming, at least) that you are a denizen of the Bay Area, temperature control won't be too much of a concern for you. You can probably get a fairly constant 60°F or so I'd wager. Purists will tell you that wine ages better (and slower) at 50-55°F, but I know of quite a few people who cellar wines at 60-65°F and they seem to do just fine. If you intend to put away wines for 30+ years you should probably invest in refrigeration to get you down into the 50s, but for 5-10 years most wines won't mind the higher temperatures much. The big thing is to avoid rapid temperature swings and temperatures above 70°F. The moisture is even less of a concern since you want a fairly high humidity environment. The one problem with very high humidity is losing your labels to mold, but unless you have standing water in your basement that's not likely to be a concern. You should choose racking that keeps your bottles off the floor, though.

HTH Mark Lipton

Jon,

I'd suggest a trip to a local bookstore for a copy of "How and Why To build a Wine Cellar," by Richard M Gold, Ph.D - no ISBN on my copy. I believe that it is/was "self-published." It's filled with good advice and a bit of step-by

-step. Local library might well have a copy, however Phoenix Library did not, and my original copy was packed away, after my move. I found a 2nd copy at Borders. At the time, it was the only copy in town. I still have the original, in some box, someplace.

Equipment specs, unless there's a later version than the 2nd Edition, are a bit dated, but that should not be a problem, should you elect to go active, rather than passive.

Using most of the info, I did a passive in CO, that worked fine for many years. I wanted to review this book's material, when I built an active cellar in AZ. That's how impressed I was by this little book.

Hunt

snipped-for-privacy@hunt.com (Hunt) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news2.newsguy.com:

Amazon shows ISBN 0967159806; published by Sandhill Publishers, July 1,

I would also recommend this book. If you have the proper place for a passive wine cellar, this book will give you the information you need and clear away any misconceptions about insulation, etc. BTW: I have the 3rd edition (2000), and it lists Mr. Gold's telephone number as 4135490841. Good book! Dick R.

Thanks. This is possibly a later editon (mine was 2nd), and there was no publisher data. I also notice that I paid US$25.99 for my "second" copy. One day I'll open a box, and find my "first" copy. I'll probably "gift" that - maybe to the friend, who is storing about 10 cases in my already filled cellar!

Hunt

Third editon, eh Dick? I'd be interested to see how many additions were made. My guess is that my first copy was 1st edition, and the copy in my library now is 2nd, with no phone #, no publisher data, and no ISBN. Glad that Dr Gold has continued to publish this little tome. I'd recommend it for anyone contemplating the construction of a cellar, passive, or active.

Thanks for the info, Hunt

Thanks. I'll check out all these references.