Is anybody out there running out of cellar space?

[Roy Hersh]

What to do about this dilemma?

[Glenn E.]

I wish I were only running out of cellar space - that would imply that I still had some space left!

I ran out months ago. Costco has ArteVino by Eurocave on sale this month, though, so I've been examining the den to see if I can cram another full-size wine fridge in there.

[Eric Ifune]

I was getting critical for awhile. I've made a deliberate effort to drink down my cellar and haven't bought any table wine for the past 2-3 years. I'm in a much better position now, but still have a ways to go before I'm where I'd like to be.

[Eric Menchen]

cellar.jpg (80.78 KiB) Viewed 2507 times

It looks a little crowded, but the reality is:
1) I haven't built the shelves in the beer section yet, which some of those cases will move to.
2) I haven't bought/built the rack for half bottles yet, which will go to the right there in the photo
3) There is also space in a rack on the right, not pictured.
So I have space at the moment, but the 2011s are coming!

[Peter W. Meek]

I have just the opposite problem: I'm getting too much excess space.

After having several (dozens) of good bottles slip past their prime, and after reading that 90% of wines are intended to be drunk with five years of bottling (not really age-worthy), I have begun concentrating on ready-to-drink wines in quantities that I can expect to drink within their life-spans. Now I have a nice temperature and humidity-controlled cellar which was designed to hold nearly 200 cases, with less than 500 bottles in it.

I don't rate the cooling system as failure-proof nor do I have any back-up system, so I can't safely (or legitimately) offer to store someone else's expensive wines.

Oh, well, it still looks nice.

[Andy Velebil]

I have just the opposite problem: I'm getting too much excess space.

Well, time to start buying. We can help with that you know

[Andy Velebil]

Yes, and why I am drinking down a bit and concentrating more on certain specific things. Well, that was the plan until the 2011's came along. But hopefully next year things will get back on track...I hope.

[Marc J.]

I'm also completely out of cellar space. Going forward, I'm planning on enjoying what I have for awhile and in the process consume a chunk of bottles which will give me some room for new purchases. That's the plan, we'll see how it goes!

[Daniel Jewesbury]

Ahh, a great argument in this thread for the reasonable and reliable cellaring services that we have access to here in the UK! Do I want to be responsible for creating the perfect conditions for all my 2011s for the next few decades? Certainly not, let someone else figure it out...!

[Miguel Simoes]

Yes.
It is great in that it forces me to focus and prioritize cellaring space.
My plan is to drink through the least good stuff I have and make room for wine worth the effort.

[Al B.]

It is an interesting question. I ran out of cellar space some time ago but simply passed the problem over to a handful of specialist storage companies. Right now I am trying to (and failing to) drink more than I buy so that I don't end up leaving a large collection of bottles to my children (unless they suddenly start to show an interest in fine port). But I am consoling myself with the fact that if it hadn't been for the 2011 vintage I would have succeeded in having fewer bottles at the end of the year than I started with.

But even the external storage companies seem to be struggling for space. When Berry Brothers built their state-of-the-art storage warehouse in Basingstoke they anticipated it would take 15-20 years before it was full. It took about 5 years and now the vision is to run a series of specialist storage warehouse.

Bonhams ran out of space at EDH for their wine auctions and built their own facility in North London, but EDH is full again. London City Bond keep acquiring new warehouses in the old docks they occupy. Seckfords have acquired a new storage location. Octavian have quietly added new storage capacity that is not in their Corsham mine.

It seems that it is not just a problem for us on our domestic scale. We are passing that problem on to our external storage companies. Are we just not drinking enough? Are producers making port more quickly than we can drink it?

[Andy Velebil]

Are we just not drinking enough? Are producers making port more quickly than we can drink it?

Yes. Can you make them stop for about 2-3 years so we can drink down and make more room?

[Richard Henderson]

I do not know if this adage is still true, but when I first bought a climate controlled storage unit , a wardrobe shaped Vinotemp 700 bottle in 1990 , the advice from some wine magazine said get a unit that holds 3x what you think you will need.
That proved to be true, as we filled it and we had wine in closets and on the floor. So the next walk in Vinotemp unit held 1800 bottles and we discovered that we never filled it up. When we moved to a new home in 2003 we built in a walk in room that holds 2000, but we never have filled it up.
We have averaged around 1400-1600 bottles. I now believe that each person, or couple as in our case, reaches a natural rhythm that some math genius could develop a formula which takes into account an annual number of bottles purchased and drunk or given as gifs etc. I estimate that we have about 400 in and 400 out annually, and the inventory of around 1500 bottles stays constant . This amount has remained relatively constant for 20 years. We don't think about it, it just happens naturally. The proportion of port , Sauternes, Bordeaux, California Italian etc. remain relatively constant. I think you could also take into account life expectancy and the number of bottles you have , and if you needed to be 200 years old to drink all of it, maybe you are buying wine for some other reason! If you live in an ever expanding wine universe, and have 5-10,000 bottles, I suspect a little OCD!

[Bradley Bogdan]

I don't rate the cooling system as failure-proof nor do I have any back-up system, so I can't safely (or legitimately) offer to store someone else's expensive wines.

Oh, well, it still looks nice.

Sounds like you just need more Madeira then!

[Moses Botbol]

My cellar has unlimited space, but not very elegant.

[Tom Archer]

When my father alive, we lived in a moderately large house. One room was called 'the library'

Why? - Because it was the only room in the house that my mother was able to prevent my father from filling with books. At the time of his death, there were nearly 5000 to sort through..

In my house, for 'books' read 'bottles'...

[Roy Hersh]

So for those running out of space, what are your plans to rectify that for the future?

[Glenn E.]

The previously mentioned ArteVino was supposed to arrive today, but the snow threw them off so I have to wait a week. That will give me 50% more space, which should keep me going for a while.

[Miguel Simoes]

Current plan is to drink through the youngish or not so great VP to make room for properly old and good stuff.
Being out of cellar space actually has helped bring discipline to my buying/drinking.
So tempting to just jump on a good deal otherwise!

[John Danza]

I primarily store in three temp/humidity controlled units in my house, but had filled them up. I now rent a storage locker at a place in downtown Chicago that I use for long-term storage, the stuff I don't want to touch for 5-10 years or more. That freed up some room in the units for shorter term stuff, which I'm working on filling (to my wife's chagrin). I like the off-site storage idea for this stuff because it keeps me from succumbing to the urge to open bottled before I should.