My dreams of turning our long back storage room into a bricked wine cellar have revived again with a vengance. When Eric built our current wine holder, I remember thinking "I'll probably never have that much wine" (holds around 55 bottles). Now, almost 100 bottles later, I have them stacked double deep in the side storage compartments of the wine rack, with still a case and a half in the basement ready for my big Christmas party. A problem? Yes, but only in the most glorious way. I have them organised in a manner that always allows me to buy more...with 8 sections in my wine holder, this is my new inventory system:
- Section 1: all whites from wineries visited
(The best line I heard while in Niagara-on-the-Lake last week: "yes, it's good to taste the whites before we move on to the wine".) I agree, thus only have one section for whites. - Section 2: all fruit wines (sweet and dry) from wineries visited
- Section 3: all basic reds (various Cabs, Merlots) from wineries visited
- Section 4: all red varieties (Gamay Noirs, Norton, etc.) from wineries visited
- Section 5: All storebought reds
- Section 6: All wines from our travels, but not necessarily from the winery, ie Maltese wines
- Section 7: All icewines - these are all from wineries we've visited currently, but I'm sure we'll eventually get other icewines too
- Section 8: Aging wine - also currently from just wineries we've visited - these wines we know are currently tasting wonderful, but we know they will get better over the years - they are tagged with their peak years
So two of these lower sections are not necessarily from the actual winery, but a wine cellar will allow me to invest more in this area. For now, space is only letting me pick and choose favourites.
The two side compartments are bulk wines that I've gathered over time and treat as house wines.
Definitely need my wine cellar. I'm starting to fret about the aging wine's exposure to varying temperatures.
