Annika Mengisen
Generally, wine cellars must be kept at around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and at 70% relative humidity. Koder even gathers information from clients about their current and probably future tastes in wine in order to select the proper storage equipment and capacity.
People forget that at any given time, 90% of your inventory should be in the process of aging, Koger points out. To have a workable collection with a quality representation of different types of wine, Donald says around 2,000 bottles should do the trick, but he's seen cellars store up to 35,000. Wine Trends also offers custom high-tech inventory-management solutions to catalog and keep track of your wines. Its cellars range from $30,000 to $250,000; on average, its clients spend around $50,000. Tuscan Wine Cellars construct old-world wine cellars designed to have the look and feel of a century-old room, characterized by brick, stone, wrought iron and vaulted ceilings. It uses reclaimed antique brick and timber imported form Europe, along with European artisans who often hail from a second or third generation of craftsmen. Its cellars range from $50,000 to $200,000. In contrast, some-high quality cellars are made entirely of metal. What really adds value, says Koder, are extras, such as a separate dining area with a warmer temperature.The Grapevine Spreads
High rises, hotels and resorts are also seeing the need for wine amenities to attract residents. The Ritz-Carlton is opening a Dallas location on Aug. 15, 2007, which will include a wine cellar in Fearing's, the hotel's restaurant. "Many people who will use the restaurant will be local to Dallas and really wine savvy," says Bonnie Crail, director of PR of Ritz-Carlton. "Selecting a wine is as exciting for our diners as selecting a menu item." All 511 acres of Vineyard Estates in Charlottesville, Va., are devoted to the wine lifestyle. Residents have their own plots of land to make and grow wine right alongside the Kluge Estate Winery. Tuscan Wine Cellars has completed projects for luxury town-house complexes in which each resident has a separate cubby in the community cellar. "You just started hearing more about this sort of thing in the last three years," says Donald, who notes that cellars are also in high demand in resort areas such as Aspen and Park City, Utah. The wine-storage trend has even spread into such industries as food, says Norrgard. Fresh Direct, for example, provides cold storage for its customers' selections in the lobbies of luxury condos. |
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