"mrcheerful
.." wrote:


"Fred" wrote in message
...
Ok, moved to this house recently that is really nice, but comes
without a cellar due to flooding in the area (not the house itself).
But what to do with 200+ bottles of reasonably fine wine that needs to
be stored. Drinking up is not an option = waste of money. The obvious
answer is a wine fridge. But they are super large and sturdy and still
only provide limited storage. For my number of bottles they cost
around a 1000 pounds, which I would rather spend on some more wine.

Under stairs cupboard seems to be the answer that everybody
recommends, but we keep shoes in the understairs as well and as
hygienic as we are we would still not want the Chateau Latour (wishful
thinking) to taste of my old trainers 8-(( And cork, as wine lover
will tell you, is no barrier for most smells (including spice and
herbs in the kitchen btw). The last option I can think of is the
garden shed. Now we live in the North where temps don't raise very
high in the summer; I have no problem to allow the temp to reach 20C
or so for a few days/weeks and I have no problem to allow the temp to
go down to about 10C or so. But how to achieve this?

My limited knowledge of thermal insulation indicates that it should be
possible to get somewhere by insulating a compartment of the shed
maybe from the ground to halfway up at the farthest end. That limits
the door heat/cold and also keeps temperature reasonably cold, as the
ground level away from the sun is rather fresh in the first place. But
if I overdo my insulation, then my Chateau Latour starts to pick up
the smell of the insulating material. By and large, wine should be
stored in reasonably ventilated areas. And here is where my wisdom
ends, I cannot insulate against heat yet allow ventilation without
some or another cooling device. Or can I?

Fred



how is it a waste of money to drink it? or is it an investment to resell?
surely consumption of the wine is the only real reason to purchase?


No investment. If I was interested in investing I would only do so
with either wine fridge or really well thought out cellar. It's for my
own pleasure really as certain wines get much better over time. They
don't even have to be expensive, but made to age. I am regularly
buying lesser known wines from France, Spain and the New World that
improves mightily within about five years. Chateau Latour 2000, which
I don't have btw, would go for about maybe 200 pounds a bottle today,
but would not reach its best drinking age before about 2015-2020. In
that sense it would be a waste to drink now as much cheaper wine would
be as nice now and would not need to be opened 24 hours before
drinking or so. But the thing is, wine has to be made to keep these
days as the times are such that most customers do not want to let wine
mature in cellars for years. As I often buy bulk in Calais, I would
even get the storage problem for regular wines, but they would suffer
less from an understairs cupboard of course.

F.