What Seems Reasonable to Us......

Watched a home reno or sale program in which they showed the potential buyers a 'wine cellar' that consisted of a rec room that had a couple of wall mounted racks with a couple of cases in total in a non-temperature regulated space.

Wonder what they would think about the majority of the people that hang out here.....?

I expect that most people have some sort of space set aside for a cellar, whether in stand alone refrigerator sized wine coolers, or passive insulated basement spaces.

I also expect that any 'normal' person that saw what many here probably have in terms of space dedicated to this hobby, would figure we were all daft!

[David M. Bueker]

People (non-wine people) who see my basement cellar, utilitarian as it is are stunned that anyone would do such a thing.

People (non-wine people) who see my basement cellar, utilitarian as it is are stunned that anyone would do such a thing.

I found the same thing with my old cellar, which used Silverwoods Dairy wire and wood milk bottle crates stacked on their side. I don't think it has as much to do with how basic or fancy a cellar happens to be, but rather how anyone could want to have so many bottles.

When I watched that renovation show and they said upon seeing a total of a case or so of wine on the wall "Wine Cellar!" I laughed out loud!

I've seen luxury cellars - they don't hold any more wine than ours do, they are just created using fancy shapes and veneers - 'show' cellars. I did legal work for a large developer and so got to see a lot of these luxury houses - one chap ordered his new cellar to be filled with wine approved by...you guessed it, Robert Parker (they basically ordered up anything that got a 90 or better RP score). Then when he moved in with his new multi-thousand bottle cellar, complete with large table and chairs, he apparently found it too cold to entertain in it so he turned the cooling system off so it would come to normal room temperature.......

[Jenise]

Oh man, so silly. But remember how we used to occasionally get newbies here who just "invested" in like 20 bottles of wine and were looking for advice on a cooler that holds 48? They obviously thought they'd hit the big time. Wine on a wall in a rec room--ouch.

[David M. Bueker]

My first wine cooler held 72 bottles. I thought I was set.

When I was starting out I kept several cases of wine stacked up in a small closet in my garden apartment. When I bought my condo one of the requirements was that it have an underground basement. I walled off 1/4 of that, thoroughly insulated it, and that's my current wine room.

-Paul W.