Taste | By Paul Gregutt
Aging With Grace
For wine worth saving, consider a second home
PREV
|
 KEVIN P. CASEY As is the case at other commercial wine lockers, wine kept at Seattle Wine Storage is in a secure room where the temperature is carefully controlled. |
PERHAPS A DEDICATED wine cellar is simply not in the cards for you — home too small, budget too small, kids too small — or wine collection too big.
Perhaps those fancy home-storage units (profiled in Pacific this past September) don't quite fit the bill, either.
Or maybe you are moving temporarily, or embarking on a major remodel (my condolences). In any event, what are you going to do with all that wine?
Until fairly recently, you didn't have very good options. Home wine-cooling units are fine for small amounts of wine that will be kept for a fairly brief time, but remember that they can lose power, leak or malfunction. Some outdoor (garage) models are designed to maintain constant temperature by heating as well as cooling; a potential problem if something goes haywire and turns up the heat in the middle of August.
Today more and more people are collecting and cellaring wine. Fine wines are expensive and fragile, and they need optimal storage conditions for aging. The need for a new service — off-site wine storage — has inspired several Seattle entrepreneurs in recent years.
Elliott Avenue Wine Storage
Size: 6,700 square feet
Address: 1405 Elliott Ave. W., Suite F
Rental options: Padlocked storage units will hold from 10 to 85 cases; some have racks.
Features: "Wine Banking" — monitored security 24/7 for fire and entry.
Information: Call Gary Gudgel at 206-217-0383 or e-mail info@elliottavenuewinestorage.com.
Esquin Wine Storage
Size: 4,000 square feet
Address: 2700 Fourth Ave. S.
Rental options: 510 padlocked storage units hold from 9 to 110 cases; walk-in (200-plus-case) lockers are also available. Temperature and humidity controls are maintained to ideal ranges.
Features: Open seven days a week; part of Esquin's retail operation, with which it shares staff. Both are watched by a monitored security system. A second security system is dedicated to the storage area. Access is tightly controlled via sign-in, sign-out and signature cards on file.
Information: Call Chuck LeFevre at 206-682-7374 or e-mail wine@esquin.com.
Seattle Wine Storage
Size: 15,000 square feet
Address: 122 Terry Ave. N. (at Denny)
Rental options: Individual wine lockers will hold from 6 cases to 48. Larger walk-in cellars and pallet storage are also available. Short-term rentals are welcome.
Features: The subterranean location provides extra security and climate control; no exposed exterior walls, doors or windows above grade. Clients are welcome to use a spacious, comfortable lounge area for tasting events, formal or informal.
Information: Call Chuck Miller at 206-628-4802 or e-mail info@seattlewinestorage.biz.
For modest fees (usually paid quarterly) they offer secure, climate-controlled lockers. Additional services — wine receiving, cataloguing, cellar evaluation and management — are also available.
To ensure that your wines remain in top condition, the storage place you select should have professional-grade temperature and humidity controls. Wines need protection against exposure to light and vibration. Well-designed storage lockers allow for good airflow and adequate light, but never expose bottles to direct sunlight or extended periods of bright incandescent light.
Good questions to ask: How secure is the facility? Who has access? How is access controlled? Who besides me has a key to my locker? Is there easy parking, close enough to conveniently load and unload cases of wine? When will I be able to get in? When is it closed? Does it offer any other amenities, or is it simply a storage place? Most importantly, does this seem like the sort of place I will want to spend time in?
Chuck Miller is a self-described "ex-road warrior" who began thinking about starting a wine-storage business in the early 1990s. He teamed up with Jay Schiering (of McCarthy & Schiering Wine Merchants) and opened the original Seattle Wine Storage in 1995. Besides their many storage options, Miller and Schiering offer clients services such as wine receiving and cataloguing, wine appraisal and wine-cellar management. But they seem most proud of their 1,100-square-foot lounge, which includes a pool table, comfortable sofas, a wine library and tasting facilities.
The room is cool and spacious, with burnished old plank floors and oriental carpets; the walls are decorated with posters of rock musicians, and wi-fi has recently been added. In essence it's a clubhouse for wine collectors, and many of their 400-plus customers meet there regularly to share bottles and conduct tastings of prestigious, collectible wines.
Many clients, Miller explains, have cellars at home and use the locker for storing wines they do not intend to open anytime soon. Some may have temporarily moved out of town and need a secure place to hold their wines until they return. Others simply have so much wine — measured in hundreds, even thousands of cases — that home storage is not an option. In fact, several restaurants keep their extensive cellar holdings on the premises, which feature a public space for sorting, unpacking and repacking wines.
Paul Gregutt writes the Wednesday wine column for The Seattle Times and covers Northwest wine for the Wine Enthusiast magazine. Write to him at wine@seattletimes.com. Kevin Casey is a freelance photographer.
|
Back to top