Where do you store your Port?

[Derek T.]

Another thread made me think of this question. We all seem to have different strategies for storing our wine and port and I thought it might be useful to share ideas and good and bad experiences.

My own storage strategy is as follows:

Long Term - 6 packs and 12 bottle cases intended for long term storage are shipped off to Seckford Wines to be held in their temperature controlled storage facility.

Home I have 2 Fridgidair Wine Coolers (cost around £300 each)with a total capacity of 110 bottles. I only use these for port and there is very rarely more than 6 empty spaces. Around 50% of the bottles in these coolers are candidates for opening at any time (e.g. Smith Woodhouse 83). The other 50% are a combination of "Museum" bottles (e.g. Fonseca 30 Yr Old tawny bottled in 1976) and VP's that I have less than 6 bottles but are in the "Special Occassion" category (e.g. Graham's 1963 and my Nacionals). I would be interested to hear any views on long term storage of these more valuable wines in this kind of storage unit.

I also have a bedroom cupboard that I use to store dry reds. It normally has around 100 bottles in it but has a capacity of 200 so also serves as temporary overspill if Alex makes me buy too much port when my coolers are full.

Temporary Storage I have access to a "real" cellar in my Sisters shop which I use to hold cases that are destined to end up at Seckford Wines for long term storage. The cellar/shop are not secure enough to leave valuable cases in for the long term

Other Options I currently have some port sitting in Tom's cellar awaiting collection. Alex also provides me with short term storage for joint impulse purchases on frequent occassions - thanks to both

It would be interesting to read others strategies or any comments or advice you have on mine.

Derek

[Andy Velebil]

I have a 50 bottle unit at home that I keep the ready-to-drink-now stuff in. I wish I had the room to get a larger unit for the house, but I have no room to put such a large piece.

The rest of my stuff is at an off-site storage facility not too far from my house. It is temp and humidity controlled at 55 degrees and 70% humidity. The plus side to off-site storage is it keeps me from those little impulses I get to open something before its time. Allowing my babies to sleep in perfect conditions for many years...until their demise!!!

The only draw back is sometimes you have to plan ahead to pick up bottles, as it is a secure facility and they close after 6 or 7pm.

As for retailers, most here in the states will hold your bottles for free at their store until the hot summer months have ended and it is cold enough to ship. A real plus, since it's too hot to ship from about May to early November here in Southern California.

[Richard Henderson]

I have a walk in "cellar" which has been insulated with some high tech foam with a large Breezaire unit. I had it built into this house by a fellow wine drinking buddy contractor. It holds circa 2000 bottles. The port , about 25 cases, has its own place in the cellar. It is a beautiful room with Spanish tile, Italian mosaics and wooden racks and paneling and recessed lighting, a fine solid door with an etched grape motif.

This is the "dream" unit.

We previously had a Vinotemp 700 which held about 600 bottles in an oak finish armoir cabinet.

We later at an old house converted a detached garage into a study and within it put a walk in oak finish Vinotemp which held about 2000 bottles.

I can see that the advantage of off site storage is that you can't get to it as easily but it is so nice to have in house. The risk is burgalry/theft/vandalism or power failure or failure of the Breezaire unit .

[Philip Harvey]

Glad you raised this Derek as I spend a lot of time fretting about this one.

We live in quite a small house with three children, one au pair and no cellar, so space is at a premium and a big 'Eurocave' type wine cabinet is out of the question (apparently). So I have installed six storage 'cubes' under the stairs, each holding four lots of six bottles (total capacity 144 bottles) and this is where I keep my wines for current drinking (reds, whites, port etc). I keep my Madeira at the office as the temperature there is pretty constant and it's more robust.

My max/min thermometer under the stairs shows a temperature range of between 12C to +22C for the last two years, so probably just inside the acceptable range for temporary storage, but not for long-term development.

I have another 1,000 or so bottles (Riesling, Claret, Port... you name it) held in the temperature controlled reserves of whoever I bought the from. J&B use Octavian, the Wine Society have their own storage facility as do many of the independants and I have some odds and ends at Vinotheque (part of LCB) in Burton-on-Trent.

This arrangement suits me very well until I want to draw a case from reserves because I don't necessarily want to drink the entire case over twelve months and I don't want the balance to cook under the stairs over the summer.

So my strategy over the next few years will be to:

1. Transfer as much as possible to Vinotheque in Burton-on-Trent who do allow withdrawals a bottle or two at a time; and

2. Buy a house with a cellar.

[Derek T.]

.....We live in quite a small house with three children, one au pair and no cellar

This is the most interesting revalation so far and worthy of a thread all of its own - I have a hard enough time persuading Jo that we need wine coolers in the house

Derek

[Derek T.]

Great stuff guys - please keep it coming

Roy, I think you should be organising a trip for all of us to visit Richard's house 8)

Derek

[Guest]

Up until about two weeks ago, I had my wine in a passive cellar room in my basement. Temperature was pretty consistent although I found that the humidity varied.

I had the racks divided into two sections - "drink now" and "hold." Then I basically arranged the wines in each section roughly by varietals from lightest to darkest (whites then reds).

The racks made for a nice presentation, and I put wine tags on each which included vintage, producer, any special designation (i.e. "Reserve"), any professional scores (i.e. "WS92") and the drinking window as calculated by Eric Levine's CellarTracker (i.e. "06-08"). BTW, I list all my wines in cellartracker, and just jot the date I pulled the wine from the cellar on the wine tag, and hold on to the tags until I have time to remove the wine from my cellartracker database. Perhaps a little labor intensive, but it's really nice to be able to browse through my wines and select a wine for dinner or a gift sitting at my computer without having to go rummage around downstairs to find something.

My purchases in Portugal and some subsequent purchases when I got back prompted me to invest in something better suited for long-term storage.

As fate would have it, a fellow wine enthusiast who is putting in a permanent cellar in his house wanted to part with his two Transtherm Ermitage coolers for a reasonable price.

I've installed both in my basement (having to run a new electrical circuit to the location I wanted to put them of course - there couldn't just already BE one there, right?), and have moved all of my wines into one of the coolers (~230 bottles right now). The temp is 55 degrees with 68% humidity.

The down side of the Transtherm (especially in bulk-storage mode) is that you really can't browse the wines. The bulk shelves are stacked 3 or 4 rows high, so you have to move a lot of wines to get something on the bottom. There are also some sliding shelves that hold 12 bottles (1 row high x 6 bottles wide x 2 bottles deep) and you can see all 12 bottles easily when you slide the shelf out. I'm still playing around with how many sliding shelves vs. how many bulk shelves give me the accessibility I want with the capacity I need.

One of the coolers is almost full - now I just have to fill the other one...

:)

[Roy Hersh]

Roy, I think you should be organising a trip for all of us to visit Richard's house

Huh? You can go visit Richard, while I devise a way to break into Philip Harvey's office. 8)

Seriously, this is a fun thread. NOT NOW, but in the future, we'll do a thread like this and have folks upload pics of their storage, if they'd like.


The ONLY place I keep my wines is at home (honey). I have a small and humble cellar in the basement of our house, where my table wines, Port and Madeira reside. It is cramped and never offers enough room for case storage. It does the job though.

[Andy Velebil]

I have a small and humble cellar in the basement of our house, where my table wines, Port and Madeira reside.

Roy, I'll trade you my "small and humble cellar" for yours, j/k

[Richard Henderson]

We can party here any time, friends! We held a 50th b-day party for a colleague last Sunday. The cellar was a focal point of the festivities.
I come from humble beginnings ( roll violins ) and the lives we lead are the ones you read about in the magazines about being overbooked at work and with civic and church activites, young children being ferried to this practice or that. ... .the wine cellar and the kitchen and the beautiful view from our deck of a beautiful valley are small rewards and respites and refuges in lives that are lived too fast under too much pressure.

[nicos neocleous]

Nice question!

Short term
My humble cellar at home. Nothing too fancy...

Long term
Profesional storage

[/u]

[Andy Velebil]

Richard, I haven't been to Texas in a long long time. I may need to change that in the future Just watch out for Derek...he'll drink all the VP's in your cellar in one sitting

[Roy Hersh]

... whereas Andy prefers the slow approach with two straws and a Mag of VP, while sitting in a dimly lit corner by himself, over the course of a few hours.

[Andy Velebil]

heh heh now, I was not alone...I had Stewart to keep me company (BTW, he had his own straw)

[Derek T.]

Richard,

Just so you know, it is likely that Andy would spit most of the fabulous ports you offer him whilst I would not be so rude and would do my best to swallow the lot 8) only out of politeness off course

Roy, one day I hope to compare your modest cellar with my own - I will be sure to share the results of my findings with the group

Derek

[Richard Henderson]

I would be happy to host an offline. The DFW International Airport is an hour away. I could put many of you up here for the night and there is a Ramada Inn about 5 minutes from here. We could crack an old madeira or two from the 19th century. I am sure many of our locals would attend but a group of 5 or 6 to slowly sip port by the fire after Chef Richard had prepared a meal.....

[Roy Hersh]

Unfortunately, there are over a dozen Forumites who have been downstairs in that wine "closet" but no pictures ... so no evidence.

[Derek T.]

Unfortunately, there are over a dozen Forumites who have been downstairs in that wine "closet" but no pictures ... so no evidence.

Hmm, but how many Forumites have returned from the depths of your cellar, Roy? Should we be sending Andy in with a SWAT team?

Derek

[Raj Patil]

Great thread, I have most in a passive cellar in the suburbs of Chicago. I plan to move them out (denver) here soon to long term offsite storage.

I was using a vinotemp 60 bottle unit at home, then decided to upgrade to a Wine Keeper unit with the upgrade of a Nuvo conditioning unit. I wish I never had, the new unit vibrates the bottles ever so slightly and I would be nervous having bottles stored there for 10-20 years. The unit holds 220 bottles. I will be contacting the manufacturer to see what their response is to the vibration.

Then I just picked up a small 20 bottle unit to put in my office as a reminder that work will pay off for the finer things in life.

[Jay Powers]

I keep everything (mostly Port, but also Tokaji, Madeira, Sauternes, and table wine) in my "basement", which in California means my garage. Fortunately my house is built on a steep hill so most of the garage is actually underground. I live a few blocks from the Pacific so temperature is always moderate (55-65 degrees outside), with a lower actual range inside the "celler" itself. Humidity is typically high due to the presence of the ocean. The car is never kept in the garge (no room with all the port).

I do have a little room in the back of the "cellar" which I intend to convert into an ugly but functional cellar by the simple expediant of adding some closed cell foam insulation. One wall is exterior (underground) and I think temperature fluctuation will be low. So far I have only managed to clean out the crap from it and have gotten no further yet.

Jay