A cellar is the ultimate accessory for those who want their wine collection to be taken seriously. OLIVER STYLES looks at the options available
A cellar is the ultimate accessory for those who want their wine collection to be taken seriously. OLIVER STYLES looks at the options available
Cellars are as individual as their keepers. Depending on one’s approach to wine, they can range from the purely functional to the more ostentatious. There are no real restrictions on size and space, but if you want to store a decent number of bottles, you’ll need a room that provides the appropriate volume. Most cellar designers enjoy the challenge of space, but do not expect them to work miracles in a cupboard-sized coal-shute.
Many modern houses have basements or cooler rooms, such as pantries and utility rooms, that can be easily converted to hold several hundred bottles. As long as the cellar doesn’t get too hot or the temperature doesn’t change suddenly, your treasures will not be undrinkable when you come to open them.
The first part of the process is to consider what kind of a wine-keeper you are.
‘I see my market as threefold,’ says Sebastian Riley-Smith of cellar maker Smith & Taylor. ‘There are the real wine lovers, there are those who buy for investment, and then there are those who I call the
Written by Oliver Styles
