What was your “Epiphany” wine? 
Historically my frame of reference has been homemade Italian red wine. Shortly after joining the Wine Enthusiast, I had the pleasure of joining our team at a famous New York steakhouse for dinner and a bottle of PETRUS was opened and I was mesmerized!

What is the most memorable Wine Cellar you have built?
I built a 1,300-bottle wine cellar complete with racking, artwork, custom doors and cooling. I was elated when I heard these words from the happy owner: “It exceeded all of my expectations, and I can’t help but smile each time I enter the room.”

What is your favorite Wine Storage Product and why?
Of course I love custom racking! The building environment for wine excites me! I especially enjoy creating a cellar that reflects the homeowner’s style and taste.

How do you store your wine?
My Eurocave is 12 years old and in mint condition. I am so proud to sell our products and I am reminded of this each and every time I walk up to my unit.

If you had to give 1 wine storage tip, what would it be?
It will taste better if you store it right and storing it right will change your life and passion for wine.

What have you drank lately that wowed you?
I adore big reds, particularly from California, but I make it a priority to be wowed each time I drink wine !

Announcing our new series: Meet our Wine Storage Consultants. First up, is Marshall Tilden. Marshall has been at Wine Enthusiast for over 6 years. You may recognize him as the star in many of our product videos. Marshall also has a great blog called Westchester Wine Guy, it’s worth a read!

What was your “Epiphany” wine?
I actually have two of them…and both were from the same vintage. The first was a 1996 Gevrey Chambertin that I had at Spark’s Steakhouse in NYC. Never had I experienced a wine with such texture and intense flavor. The other was the 1996 Jordan Alexander Valley Cab which was one of the best California wines I can remember tasting to date.

What is the most memorable Wine Cellar you have built?
It is actually a Wine Cellar that is currently under construction. It is going to be a 10,000 bottle cellar for the new R’evolution Restaurant located in the Royal Sonesta Hotel in the heart of New Orleans. This is Rick Tramonto’s latest venture and the cellar should be nothing short of spectacular.

What is your favorite Wine Storage Product and why?
As I think you will find this same answer from most of our Wine Storage Consultants, it would have to be the EuroCave line of Wine Cellars. Quite simply they provide the best storage climate for properly aging your wines when considering all the enemies of wine (temperature fluctuation, humidity, light and vibration). They are also super quiet and last forever, plus the flexible shelving system allows you to store any size bottle…literally!

How do you store your wine?
EuroCave Performance 283…I have about 180-200 bottles including a 6 Liter of ’04 Chateau Tabolt and a 3 Liter of ’04 Oracle’s Miner.

If you had to give 1 wine storage tip, what would it be?
Not all wine is meant for aging. So make sure you do your research and drink your young wines early and give only those better bottles the time they need to fully evolve.

What have you drank lately that wowed you?
My latest obsession is the 2007 Donnachiara Taurasi DOCG. I am totally amazed by the complexity and versatility of the Aglianico grape. I also thought the 2008 Rodney Strong Alexander Valley Cab was possibly the best value of the vintage.

Follow Marshall on Twitter @WE_Marshall !

10. They offer a wide selection of sizes, options and price points to suit everyone’s needs.

9. All units are manufactured in Europe with both cooling and heating equipment that is built to last and have been for 30+ years.

8. You have outgrown your smaller wine refrigerator and need to step up to something that can really age some of your finer wines.

7. They look fabulous and will be the focal point of your dining room or bar area.

6. With their protective doors and super absorbent rubber compressor shock absorbers, they provide the most protective storage environment from harmful light and vibration.

5. Your neighbor just got one and you need to show him that you can hang!

4. The adjustable shelving system allows you to store ANY size bottle and gives you the option to bulk store for increased capacity, or to use only rolling shelves if you decide stacking bottles is just not for you.

3. It will be going in your garage and it is the only unit that can withstand those extreme hot and/or cold temperatures.

2.  You have lost enough bottles due to improper storage climate and you need a unit that can maintain the best temperature and humidity for ideal long term storage conditions.

1. Because EuroCave is simply the best !

As always, you can contact any of our experienced Wine Storage Consultants at 800-377-3330 for a full wine cellar consultation.

If you’re still considering the dual temp option, let’s take it one step further. How much of you’re unit do you need dedicated for service? Some dual temps are split in half, so you can use half for storage of all wines and the other half for service of (usually) whites. If you and your wine drinking contingency are big white wine drinkers, this probably makes sense. But if white wine consumption plays a smaller role in your house, then you may want to look for one that has just a small compartment for service, and not half of an entire unit.

So if you are someone who entertains frequently or finds that wines just don’t last more than a year or so in your wine cabinet, then a dual zone unit with service temp capabilities is right up your alley. However, if you are laying wines down for the long haul and aren’t really looking to utilize a service option, then sticking with a one temp unit may be a better choice. Remember, you can always stash a few bottles of white wine in your fridge to get them to drinking temperature. As for reds, by the time you open up a bottle, use a decanter and swirl it around a few times in the glass, it will come up to service temperature quicker than you may think.

After you’ve spent time working with one of our Wine Storage Consultants to design the perfect wine cellar for your space, the next step is to choose a suitable contractor to handle the job. It is important to find someone who has ample expertise in building wine cellars. Here is a list of questions, courtesy of John Seitz, our Master Cellar Builder, which serves as a great road map on your journey:

1. How many climate controlled wine rooms have you built and can I talk to some of your clients?
You want someone that has experience with the issues involved with a climate controlled room. It is one thing to build a deck or remodel a kitchen, but another to correctly build a climate-controlled room.

2. What materials will you use for the vapor & moisture barriers? How will you install this material?
The product used to create these very important barriers is just as important as the installation. The right products installed incorrectly are just as bad for you as the wrong products.

3. Do you know why the barriers are required and what happens if they are not installed correctly?
This question may be a stretch for your average contractor but one never knows. If he/she does know the reasons behind the barriers, then they probably know how to do the work correctly.

4. Does the refrigeration equipment that you are installing make noise and does it exhaust hot air?
Most of the self-contained units are noisy and exhaust hot air. It is not a good sign if your person does not know this or tries to convince you that they do not.

5. What is the process for repairing the refrigeration equipment if it fails?
You do not want equipment that has to be returned to the manufacturer for service. This is a huge hassle and could leave you with no refrigeration in your wine room for weeks.

6. Does your refrigeration equipment increase the humidity in the room without any additional equipment?
This is a tricky question and will really show if your guy knows anything about the equipment and climate-controlled rooms. Most refrigeration does not increase humidity unless you add a humidifier.

7. Does your insurance cover the repairs if mold develops?
Mold will develop if the wine room is not constructed correctly. Your contractor should have insurance that will cover the cost of the repair if the room develops mold.

8. Are you building the racks yourself or buying kits?
How the racks are built is up to you. The idea behind the question is to make sure that there are no surprises.

9. What kind of door are you installing?
The door needs to be exterior grade with weather stripping and a threshold. If your guy does not know this, beware.

10. How much does a bottle of wine weigh?
This might be another trick question but think about it. You are asking them to build a room designed specifically to hold one thing – wine bottles. Is it too much to ask that they know some basic details? Additionally, they might not build the racks correctly if they do not know the weight of the bottles.

The specific answers to these questions are important but so is the contractors’ response. If they get defensive and shifty with their answers, beware. On the other hand, it is not necessarily a bad thing if they admit to some lack of knowledge.

For more advice on building your cellar, complete this form or call one of our wine storage consultants at 800.377.3330

Cheers!

What are the special benefits of an N’Finity unit?

As a restaurateur, wine retailer or wine maker you will be able to provide proper and convenient wine service for your customers with a unit designed to fit your needs.

•    The N’finity cellars allow easy access to wines by simply sliding out one of the many included rolling shelves to find a customer’s selection
•    The front vented technology enables you to place the unit in a corner of the restaurant, on your selling floor or in any storage room without occupying important floor space.
•    Smooth, elegant, blue interior lighting will add to the ambiance of your space, rather than taking away from it.
•    Reversible doors mean you’ll find an N’Finity unit that is perfect for your space
•    Two-zone digital temperature control gives you flexibility with storage and service temperatures for both reds and whites.

About 2 weeks ago, a client of mine in the NY metropolitan area was handling a major corporate event party. Unfortunately, they ran out of Chardonnay within the first hour of the event! Because of the dual temperature zones, the sommelier was able to re-stock the N’Finity’s top (cooler) compartment and chill the whites down to 44 degrees, making them ready-to-serve by the time the main course was out. A major fiasco avoided! The flexibility this unit has brought to that establishment has been huge.

Myself and the team are so happy to have this custom-built, dream wine service unit to offer, with many happy customers already putting them to great use. Any questions? Give us a call at 800.377.3330

Our customer, Neal, took advantage of our Designer Series Kits, giving his cellar a personal touch with the efficiency of kit racking.

Neal had this to say about his new cellar:

“My basement has changed since installing the wine cellar.  It has gone from a place of storage to an oasis of tranquility you enter to get away from the crap stored in a basement.  The terra cotta colors matching the tiles of the floor give a clean yet rustic look.  the racking makes it fun to work on filling it with frequent runs to the wine store or vineyards.  Organizing it is a joy also,  with its various compartments for cases or single slots for more individual bottle purchases.”

If you are interested in building a cellar like this or of a different style, simply call us at 800.377.3330 and one of our wine storage consultants will be happy to help!

Collecting wine doesn’t sound difficult, but I’ve made plenty of boneheaded decisions over the past 20-plus years. Just when I think I’ve started to figure it out, I realize my cellar is so far from where I want it to be that I want to give up and send it all off to auction. Here are some of the seemingly contradictory things I’ve learned along the way.
Good storage conditions are vital. When I first started collecting wine, I lived in a garden apartment with basement storage. Then I lived in a first-floor apartment and kept my wine in an interior closet or my parents’ basement. I have only a few bottles left from those early days, but when I open one up, it is invariably disappointing. In retrospect, I wasted several hundred dollars on Bordeaux, not to mention all of the costs I’ve incurred holding it since then. If you can’t provide proper storage, don’t buy the wine.

Ideal storage conditions aren’t necessary. Although the wines I purchased back in the 1980s haven’t held up, by the early 1990s I had a house with a cellar that was better suited to storing wine. In the deepest, darkest corner, away from the furnace and hot-water heater, I framed out a small space and thoroughly insulated it. Wines that I stored in this passive cellar continue to show well. Even though the temperatures ranged from approximately 50–65 degrees over the course of the year, they changed slowly, and the wines evolved harmoniously. For the past 10 years, my wines have been stored at 55 degrees or less, and their development has slowed even further—I’ve sometimes been surprised to find a wine relatively unevolved.

Buy wines that will age. Don’t stock the cellar with wines that have short life spans. Stick to wines with track records for aging: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Barolo, vintage Port and (some) California Cabernets. Feel free to gamble around the fringes with new wine regions or styles—New Zealand Pinot Noir, South African reds—but understand that those are high-risk bottles that may not always pan out. Having tried a few, I know that not every hot new California Chardonnay is the next Corton-Charlemagne, nor have my Long Island Merlots aged like top Pomerols.

Buy wines that you like. On the other hand, there’s no point in buying wines that will age if you don’t like them. The problem with buying what you like is that if you are anything like me, your tastes will change over time. So buy what you like—but do so judiciously. I find that I am drinking through wines acquired during my “California phase” as quickly as I can, and am now cellaring more wines from France, Germany and Italy. Still, be careful….

Don’t buy too much of a particular wine or wine style. Not only may your tastes change, wines do not age indefinitely. During the late ’90s, I really enjoyed the Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays coming from cool regions of Sonoma, but I overbought. Now I’m stuck with some tired, butterscotchy Chards and $50 Pinots good only for making expensive coq au vin.

Buy enough of a wine so you can follow its evolution. The British authors I found myself reading when I was just getting into collecting were big proponents of this, sometimes even advocating the purchase of twice what you wanted, so you could send half to auction and drink the remaining wine “for free.” A fine idea, if you can be sure the wine will appreciate enough in value to make this work, and that you’ll enjoy drinking the same wine repeatedly over the years. It’s true that I’ve learned a lot by following the evolution of my various ’86 Bordeaux, but you needn’t buy case lots to accomplish this. Three or six bottles will suffice.

Don’t assume that only expensive wines age well. The days of those ’86 Bordeaux I purchased on release for under $15 per bottle may be over, but savvy shoppers can still find ageworthy wines for under $40. Look to some of the best cru bourgeois from top vintages, such as 2005, for wines that will improve up to 10 or 15 years.

Buy only from the best vintages. Conventional wisdom is that these are the wines that will age the best and the longest, and may increase in value the most. Passing on buying 1990 Bordeaux futures because they looked expensive coming after the 1989s has to rank as one of my bigger blunders. Does anyone who has tasted them side by side prefer the ’89 Leoville Barton to the ’90? Guess which one I have. That said, see the next piece of advice.

There’s always another vintage. Unless you are buying to commemorate a specific year, don’t get hung up on any “vintage of the century” hype. So despite my regret for not having bought 1990 Bordeaux, it’s not as if other worthwhile years didn’t come along. The ’95s and ’96s are doing fine, as are the ’98s from the Right Bank. More recently, the hype over the 2000s was memorable, but the 2005s are super wines, too. Even the ’06 and ’08 vintages offer some nice surprises. In warm regions, vintage choice tends to be less important, so if you miss out one year, don’t worry; another will be along in 12 short months.

Follow these simple rules, and soon you’ll have a cellar like a pro.

For more articles from Wine Enthusiast magazine visit WineMag.com

1. Change the charcoal filters annually. This filter is located on the back wall in the interior upper left of the cabinet and regulates any dust or odor from entering the cabinet.  To replace this carbon filter, simply pop it out w/ your fingers or a butter knife and insert the new filter.  If not done routinely, frost or ice build up may occur on the back walls, along with a greater fluctuation in temperature. It is crucial to replace the filters as we don’t want to interrupt the natural occurrence inside of your Eurocave.  Eurocave charcoal filters can be purchased from Wine Enthusiast.  They are individually wrapped and have an unlimited shelf life if unopened.  I recommend purchasing a 4-pack, which essentially gives you one filter for free.

2. Dust the condenser every 6 months. The condenser is the “wire racks” located on the back of the unit.

3. If needed, you also can carry out a complete cleaning of your Eurocave Cabinet.  If you’ve neglected to do the above steps you may need to conduct a full cleaning. Simply unload your Eurocave and use water and a gentle cleaning agent.

Any questions? Call us at 800.377.3330