Netscape Forum Poll: How do you keep your wine?

[Robin Garr]

This week's Netscape/CompuServe WineLovers Community poll is a simple one, aiming to sketch a picture of the ways we store our wine. Simple wine rack? Dark closet? Passive cellar? Or the whole works with a free-standing cooler or built-in wine cellar? Fill in the ballot, then see how your response compares with wine lovers around the world.

<B>Click here to vote or to check the results</b>
(No need to register or log in); then post your comments on Netscape or to this thread as you wish.

Primarily in a storage facility, which I guess would classify as "other", but I also have a EuroCave that holds about 100 bottles and about another 100 or so bottles in my basement passively stored. I have begun to strenuously resist the temptation to buy and 'am currently attempting to "enjoy" my way through my vinous treasures! Tom V

A lesson in California real estate law ... don't get an under-the-counter wine cooler as it is considered a fixture and can't move with you unless the buyer lets it go ... which mine didn't.

Now, I'm left with a dark central closet into which I placed a couple of cheapie wine racks for about 96 bottles which I bought for $15.00 each at Cost Plus World Market. The stupid thing is that bottles beyond a certain diameter don't fit into the rack so I also have a couple of cardboard wine cases turned on their sides to accommodate the fat ones!

Two walk-in wine cellars with a/c units and a small refrigerator here.

I don't keep it...I just let it sit there temporarily until I can't resist opening and consuming it.

I have a small wine chiller unit wherein I keep a few bottles of white and rose wines for consumption whenever I wish. Otherwise all my wine is stuck in a converted closet in our quietest bedroom, in an antique metal wine cage ripped from the back wall of a country bistro in France.

There is a hasp to lock the cage....but I only use a lock whenever certain wine geeks come over.

The wine lives with me, so it enjoys the same conditions I do---albeit I do give it a quiet place.

I'm a novice and am somewhat monetarily challenged, so I've just got a small wine cooler to store wines I plan on drinking relatively soon [within a couple months]. My brother has a much large wine fridge capable of holding upwards of 1000 bottles, so I store wines there I don't intend on drinking for a while.

I found this mysterious round room in the basement; the consensus seems to be it might have been a cistern at one time. Anyway, it's dark and cool and seems to work fine. No electronics of any description involved. There isn't even a lightbulb in there.

I could check just about all the boxes off I've got 4 wine coolers of various sizes, near term drinkers in freestanding racks, nooks and crannies of our fridge filled up, and I just realized that our cedar closet maintains a 57-59deg temperature in the winter so I've piled a bunch of stuff in there. I can't wait to move out of this apartment and get a real house so we can have a proper cellar...which of course will lead to mass purchases.

walk in wine cellar.

I checked off passive cellar but I also have a small wine fridge too. I keep my long term (more than 2 years) ageables in the fridge. The rest I keep in the passive cellar which slowly varies from a low (right now) of about 45 F to high of about 70 F. We have cool summers here and the wine is only above 65 F for about 6 to 8 weeks. I have not had any problems with any wine aging too quickly in this passive cellar. Someday I will get around to insulating it a bit better to cut down on the extremes in temperature at midwinter and midsummer.

For years, my storage medium was the bottom of the coat closet. In my opinion, it worked remarkably well, even with all of the moving we did back then.

However, a few years ago, I bought an old refrigerator and set the thermostat for about 60F. That keeps it from getting too hot in the summer, though there's nothing but insulation from keeping things from getting cold in the winter. Temp has dipped below 50F in this cold winter.

Not a problem, say I, as that is just my long term storage. I got lucky and found a 48 bottle standalone at Goodwill for $80, and that's where I keep my ready-to-drink wine. Well, that, and the bottom of the coat closet...

I have a Eurocave with maximum storage of 260 bottles but right now only have about 200 in it due to some sliding shelves for 12 bottles each. Still have many boxes in the dining room area and a couple in the living room. I probably have enough wine on hand to last me for at least three years if I didn't buy any more but I keep buying! I am trying to concentrate on wines that I know I will enjoy and be more discriminate. I would like to buy four to six of the same wine more often to try over several years and less scattershot purchases of one or two bottles at a time.

I don't keep it...I just let it sit there temporarily until I can't resist opening and consuming it.

I have a small wine chiller unit wherein I keep a few bottles of white and rose wines for consumption whenever I wish. Otherwise all my wine is stuck in a converted closet in our quietest bedroom, in an antique metal wine cage ripped from the back wall of a country bistro in France.

There is a hasp to lock the cage....but I only use a lock whenever certain wine geeks come over.

The wine lives with me, so it enjoys the same conditions I do---albeit I do give it a quiet place.

Hoke, you surprise me. Or by "converted closet" do you mean an extensive warren containing thousands of bottles? Perhaps you're just being a bit coy.

Mark Lipton

Walk in wine cellar in the basement, with a/c unit, racking for about 700 bottles so far.

I have a Eurocave with maximum storage of 260 bottles but right now only have about 200 in it due to some sliding shelves for 12 bottles each. Still have many boxes in the dining room area and a couple in the living room. I probably have enough wine on hand to last me for at least three years if I didn't buy any more but I keep buying! I am trying to concentrate on wines that I know I will enjoy and be more discriminate. I would like to buy four to six of the same wine more often to try over several years and less scattershot purchases of one or two bottles at a time.

JC: Are we some kind of vino-twins. I don't have a Eurocave, but...