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Cellaring Advice needed

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Bob Hower

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Cellaring Advice needed

by Bob Hower » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:52 am

I keep my 100 or so bottles in my basement which is about 4 feet below ground surface. I have a simple rack system, the room is dark, and in the winter the temperature fluctuates between 55˚ and 60˚ degrees fahrenheit or so depending on the weather and whether or not the radiator in the adjacent room is on. My concern is that during the warmer months - July and August mostly - the ambient temperature in my wine room gets up into the mid to high 70's, and I suppose in the in-between months it is somewhere inbetween. I like the idea of keeping appropriately made wine for some years to mellow, and I have accumulated 10 or so bottles of Chateauneuf du Pape that I want to take good care of. But I also don't want to be overly uptight about this. I know I could invest in a wine cooler, but I am suspicious of them. It seems to me that no matter how well made they are, there is a compressor in there running a good amount of time and it has to be vibrating the wine at least on some molecular level which can't be good for it. What would you counsel? Thanks.

Bob
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Howie Hart

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by Howie Hart » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:06 am

If the room is well insulated you could simply put in an inexpensive air conditioner for those warmer times. I sometimes go to a home winemaking website where they have a forum devoted to cellar construction. Here's a link:
Winepress Cellar Forum
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David Creighton

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by David Creighton » Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:28 pm

is it a separate room? do you have central air? it seems to me that you might be able to run a duct into the room. you would be turning on the AC during the warmest times and that would automatically cool the wine at those times. of course it it is also the heating system - just be sure you have a way to close it off in winter.
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Jenise

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by Jenise » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:29 pm

Bob Hower wrote:I keep my 100 or so bottles in my basement which is about 4 feet below ground surface. I have a simple rack system, the room is dark, and in the winter the temperature fluctuates between 55˚ and 60˚ degrees fahrenheit or so depending on the weather and whether or not the radiator in the adjacent room is on. My concern is that during the warmer months - July and August mostly - the ambient temperature in my wine room gets up into the mid to high 70's, and I suppose in the in-between months it is somewhere inbetween. I like the idea of keeping appropriately made wine for some years to mellow, and I have accumulated 10 or so bottles of Chateauneuf du Pape that I want to take good care of. But I also don't want to be overly uptight about this. I know I could invest in a wine cooler, but I am suspicious of them. It seems to me that no matter how well made they are, there is a compressor in there running a good amount of time and it has to be vibrating the wine at least on some molecular level which can't be good for it. What would you counsel? Thanks.

Bob


Bob, I know many great collections of valuable bottles that are kept in wine refrigerators, and I've tasted the wine they store. I can assure you, the bottles aren't getting damaged. I suggest you go look at how quietly they run--you're running a far larger risk exposing your wine to summer temps over 70 degrees.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Ian Sutton

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by Ian Sutton » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:25 pm

It sounds like the basic setup is fine - so would look to see what could be done with insulation and ensuring the radiator gets turned off when not needed!

Personally I err on the side of being relaxed on temperatures. I do think the temperature fears are overplayed, but then we've all got an opinion, me included (without the scientific evidence to back it up). Choose your opinion (a bit like trusting politicians :wink: )

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Ian
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OW Holmes

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by OW Holmes » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:06 pm

4 feet below ground level, in Kentucky, is not likely to make it without some help, and high 70's is, at best, going to expedite the aging of your CdP, perhaps to the point that it doesn't mature gracefully or as it should. At worst, it might ruin it. And your mention of wintertime temps which look good, but then you note the heater in the next room, suggesting variations.
You can try to stay passive with a ton of insulation above ground level on the walls and a ton and half above, hoping the floor and lower couple of feet of walls acts as a heat sink and keeps it under 70 during Louisville's hot summers, but I'd start thinking of a wine cooler.
I just bought my first one today. I have a cellar in our Michigan home that is climate controlled (in the summer, without the help, even with a ton of insulation, it got to 70 on the warmest days), and I wanted to have some wine down here in Florida. I bought a Magic Chef from Home Depot after seeing information - on this board - about the unit. It is a fantastic deal, at $299 for the built in model that is said to hold 45 bottles or so, and they had a nifty looking stand alone unit that they claim holds about 40 bottles for $199. As you probably know, these units NEVER hold as much as is claimed.
-OW
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Bob Hower

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by Bob Hower » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:03 am

Thanks to all of you for your advice. In that this space is really little more than what used to be a coal bin, I think the next step to is to try a small window airconditioner and see how it does. Just how important are fluctuations of say 5˚- or even a little more sometimes - in air temperature over a season would you say? Are there scientific studies about aging and temperatures?

Bob
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ClarkDGigHbr

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Re: Cellaring Advice needed

by ClarkDGigHbr » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:40 pm

Bob Hower wrote:Just how important are fluctuations of say 5˚- or even a little more sometimes - in air temperature over a season would you say? Are there scientific studies about aging and temperatures?


These fluctuations are OK, particularly if they occur slowly. I have a VinoTemp system in my garage. In the summer, wine temperature is well controlled around 57F by the cooling unit, and the wines have done just fine in the 9+ years I have owned this. The cooling unit does not run at all for many months during the fall-winter-spring. During this time, the ambient temperature in the garage causes a gradual drop in the wine temperature to 50F for a couple of months. This just means a bottle of wine takes a few additional minutes to come up to optimal drinking temperature when I bring it into the house.

-- Clark

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