There are a range of options when considering wine storage solutions, from expensive propositions to "el cheapo" bargain basement finds to free! We all love free.
By Dianne Boate & Robert Meyer
Published: June, 2007
We’ll start by offering the advice of taking advantage of what is closest to home like we did. We have a column of wooden wine cases stacked floor to ceiling in a corner against the kitchen wall. These eight boxes (12x15x15) just fit within our standard apartment ceiling height and they do the job. In this relatively small space we can store 96 bottles.
We recently called The Wine Club in San Francisco to inquire how much the boxes cost and the answer was - free! Midweek they place the boxes outside.
The foggy weather in our San Francisco neighborhood has a lot to do with how we can get away with such simplified storage. Wine is finicky about where it sleeps. Since you have spent good money buying the wine, protecting your investment is a very good idea. Wine wants a cool place, out of sunlight, and a place free of vibration.
Kevin Zraly, author of Windows On The World Complete Wine Course and our newest hero of wine educators, advises that if there is any doubt at all about temperature conditions, to put all wine, red and white, in the refrigerator. He says higher humidity is better than lower; temperature changes are not good for wine and warmer temperatures prematurely age wine.
Watch when you shop for wine. Observe how the bottle looks and how it is stored. Merchants who want to keep a good reputation will take care to store wine properly, but we have seen some bargain places where a shaft of sunlight is shining down from above directly on the wine. In one store down the peninsula, the wine was actually sitting in a window. Horrors!
Be sure to examine the bottle, for it might tell you how it has been stored. A white wine very yellow in color could well be very bad. Red wines with any suggestions of leaks will be indicated by cork damage, never a good thing.
Field trip to the bunkers
Ever on the lookout for interesting things relating to this column, Dianne drove to the Presidio Wine Bunkers. This unique place is the brainchild of Cristo Kassaris. When he heard that the Presidio Trust was looking for tenants - Voila! - He saw the opportunity to establish Presidio Wine Bunkers, a place where anyone can store their wine. The building’s thick concrete walls echo the cave storage system used in France. The website [www.presidiowinebunkers.com] states that the nature-controlled environment is immune to power outages, system breakdowns or attendant negligence. The underground bunkers require no air-conditioning. They provide an ideal wine-aging temperature of 55° to 59° F, humidity from 70 to 79% and minimal light or bottle disturbance, allowing wine to fully mature without the ravages of oxidation.
Wine storage space, enough for 20 cases of wine, can be rented for as little as $40 a month. The cost is for the square footage, not how much you store, said Manager, Paul Buonocore.
When asked what kind of clients utilize this concept, the answer was, private collectors, wine bars, wine clubs, restaurants, sales people and even wineries. They have an outdoor area with tables and umbrellas and a tasting room that can be reserved for private functions. It seems like a good place for an investment, and we know the place won’t burn down.
Dianne Boate is a freelance writer, photographer (Icelandic Summerscapes currently on display at SF’s Balboa Theater) and botanical illustrator (The Soft Side of the Rock exhibit, Alcatraz Island.) Robert Meyer is in France at the Cannes Film Festival putting on a wine party for 1,000 people. They are working on a book titled Are You Ready to Go, Dianne? Since he is there and she is here, obviously she wasn’t.
