Offsite Wine Storage

[Mike Kerr]

Traditional offsite wine cellar storage is hard to come by (at least in my neck of the woods). I have seen some self-storage units touting climate control, and some advertising wine storage in above-ground facilities at 55F/70%RH.

Has anybody used these facilities before?

I'm fairly happy with my current storage solution of my basement closet, but should I need it, my options are limited (as much as I'd like to build a real cellar down there...). I figure it's good to do some research on it for down the road, or even in case someone else is looking for a similar solution.

Mike.

[Moses Botbol]

I am familiar with Acker in NJ's storage. Imagine going into a Home Depot that is all pallets of wine. You can drive your car right in and load/unload. I think they charge per pallet and it's around $400 a year.

There is a storage facility in Boston, but it is now on a wait list.

Things to consider are: Do you need 24 hour access? Do you need a "locker" or will a pallet do? Do you need storage within a short drive to your house? Do you live in state that allows shipments?

My basement is hardly professional storage, but being in the Northeast, I have had wines in there 10 years that are drinking splendid. I keep everything in OWC for now. If you are happy with the conditions you, I would leave it at that. Port is pretty hearty, but when something is so passionable, going the extra yard is par for the course.

If you do buy a fridge, don't throw away the OWC's. There could be a time where you want to sell something and not having the OWC will hurt your price.

[Andy Velebil]

Mike,
I use offsite, above ground, storage that is temp and humidity controlled. The main reason being that not many houses in my area have basements, mine included. I've been very happy with them so far, as they are only a wine storage and nothing else. Although my old locker also had a regular non-wine storage as part of the facility. The only down side is the drive and having to deal with the hours they are open. But a little pre-planning is all that's necessary. The plus side is I don't have to worry about being tempted to open something before its time. The old out of sight, out of mind thingy.

I do have a smaller cooler at my house I keep "death row" stuff in. The kinda stuff that can be drunk anytime I want. i keep a mix of young and old stuff, Port and dry wines, that way if I need a last minute bottle I have some choices to choose from without having to try and get to my offsite storage.

The other plus side is my offsite will accept shipments for me and hold them until I can get there to put them in my lockers. I've only had to use that once, as I normally ship to my moms work where someone is always there, it's secure, and their office is about as warm as the South Pole in winter. But she retires in less than a year, so my offsite will be taking a lot of deliveries soon.