What factor has had the largest affect on your Port cellaring habits?

[Roy Hersh]

Besides sheer economics, what are some of the other key factors for you? How do you see your cellaring dynamics changing?

[Gerwin de Graaf]

The birth of my two sons in 2005 and 2007 has led me to stocking up on those two vintages. And it also fired up my port-passion some more (before I was more a still wine collector) so now I have a collection of about 200 bottles of VP (the majority of which is 2005 and 2007) and about 250 bottles of Port in total (about 30-35% of my total collection of wines).

[Ronald Wortel]

The fact that my cellar is some 5000km away from where I am has a very strong effect on my Port Drinking Habit. That, in turn, has a not to be neglected impact on my Port Cellaring Habit.

[Marc Sherwin]

Except for rare weeks, the pace at which I can empty the bottles is faster than the pace I can find bottles worth buying...

[Glenn E.]

Economics is of course the #1 factor, but the #2 factor is storage space. I don't have a walk-in cellar; I have 2 full-size wine refrigerators and 1 half-size wine refrigerator. The half-size refrigerator stores our limited selection of ageable wine while the 2 full-size refrigerators store my Port. That limits me to a maximum of about 350 bottles in the current configuration and CellarTracker indicates that I have... 350. I could probably squeeze in a few more bottles with some careful re-arranging, but that's about it. Purchasing rate is limited to consumption rate at this point.

[Al B.]

I was thinking about this thread the other day, but it took me some time to find it - I can't believe how long ago it was posted!

My port cellaring habits are driven by my drinking habits. I like to drink mature port and also enjoy the occasional antique. I reckon my sweet spot is about 35-45 years after the vintage.

So my cellaring habits have been driven by economics - I can't afford to only buy VP that is already that old! I need to buy it young(er) and then cellar it. I've bought lots of port from the 80s recently and plan to keep that for 10-15 years before starting to make a dent in it. That was relatively cheap to buy compared to port from the '70s or new releases and is also decent drinking today if I run short of 35-45 year old stuff.

Storage space is an irritation, but not really a problem since there are some reputable companies who offer off-site professional storage. It adds to the cost of storing wine, but works out to be around 75p ($1) per bottle per year and is cheaper than trying to build my own cellar at home.

[Roy Hersh]

Alex,

ALL of your wine is off-site storage?

[Al B.]

Alex,

ALL of your wine is off-site storage?

I have a wine cabinet at home that holds 150-200 bottles. Other than that, everything is offsite. That's pretty much what Andy does too, from what I understand.

In the fall of each year, I plan what I want to drink the following year. This will be about 80 bottles representing a mix of ages of port with a handful of wines that are really young and one or two that are really old. Most will be in the 25-45 year range. I then get the planned wines out of storage around the end of the year and put them into my cabinet. During the year I'll drink mostly what I planned and run down the cabinet by 80 bottles or so. Given the cabinet holds about 160 bottles, there is always some flexibility.

But when the children have left home, I might indulge myself and convert one of their rooms into a walk in wine-store.

[Roel B]

Alex,

ALL of your wine is off-site storage?

I have a wine cabinet at home that holds 150-200 bottles. Other than that, everything is offsite.

...

I might indulge myself and convert one of their rooms into a walk in wine-store.

[/quote]

Sounds familiar. I've got a few cabinets, just bought another one last week. No off-site storage as the cabinets have (somewhat) better economics and it's all within reach. I get about 180 bottles into a EUR 1100 cabinet, Liebherr, which uses about 140kWh annually. Based on a 10-year lifespan this amounts to around EUR 0,80 per bottle per year. I can't get external storage for anything less than EUR 1 per bottle/year.

However, the cabinets have their limits. Space is a premium, storing full cases is not easy and getting the a bottle in the bottom-back row can be a hassle . Which limits the amount of wines that I can cellar and forces me to make difficult choices.

I have contemplated (and I still am) about dedicating part of a pretty much unused room for a walk-in wine store. Taking just 3m2 of floor space provides 7 cubic meters of storage space, equivalent to approximately 15 180-bottle cabinets. And the price of a single cabinet easily covers an efficient split inverter airconditioner, a door and some drywall. Which leaves only the insulation.

Is there someone here who has experience with such an in-door construction? How much insulation did you use? I'm also wondering about the energy usage of a setup like this. Simple back-of-the envelope calculations based on 26 m2 of wall/floor/roof, a heat loss factor of 0,2W/m2K (10cm solid plate PIR insulation) and an average temperature difference of 8 degrees between in- and outside of the room gives about 50 watts of inbound heat that we need to take out. With an efficient airco we should be able to do this with less than 25W of energy. Which is pretty good. But I would love to hear some real-life figures.

Roel.