Three Vintage Cellars custom wine cellar projects were recently featured in Wine Spectator magazine. You can click that link to see the original article; in this post we are focusing on the details of one of the cellars. Click the photos for larger versions.

The Gilliland wine cellar in San Diego, built in 2009, was designed to be the focal point of the dining room. This is a small wine cellar, holding only 750 bottles or so, but it has a lot of personality. To create the space for the wine cellar, a bump-out was added to the wall. You can see the framing for this addition below:

This framing allowed for about 80 square feet of wine cellar space. After constructing the addition, the entire area was sealed, vapor-barriered and insulated to maintain temperature and prevent moisture build-up (you can read more about building a wine cellar on the main site).

The Gilliland cellar was outfitted with wine racks and display shelving, including a display area on the left side that isn’t shown in Wine Spectator:

There is also adjustable shelving for large-format bottles in the center of the room (you can also see a Rogar Estate bottle opener in the foreground; there is a 10% off coupon for these openers available on the Vintage Cellars Facebook, Twitter and email newsletter right now!):

The cellar is outfitted with insulated glass doors framed by a stone facade and opens into the dining room.

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Small wine cellars can pack a surprising amount of wine and interesting features into a minimal space. This cellar, designed to enhance the owner’s enjoyment of their collection rather than to store investment wines, is a perfect example of how a small wine cellar can be a big enhancement to a home.

Ready to think about your own custom wine cellar project? Check out more Vintage Cellars custom wine cellars and call us for a free quote and design assistance.

Vintage Cellars was delighted to be featured in Wine Spectator’s November 30th issue (on sale now). The article featured Vintage Cellars wine cellar projects in Escondido and San Diego, one of which is pictured above in high resolution. More from the article (click for larger images):

More about the Gilliland wine cellar, including additional images.




You can pick up a copy at your favorite newsstand or wine shop to read more about these and other featured wine cellars. The article was split into sections on small, medium and large wine cellars, so it is worth a read for collectors of any scale.
For more photos of custom wine cellars, flip through the slideshows on our custom wine cellar design page. Thinking of building your own? We offer free design consultations and can work with you from sketches to finishing touches.

Aging a bottle of wine has a very distinct, qualitative effect on the contents. But it’s a very unpredictable effect. This leaves wine aficionados in a rough place–you don’t want to spend the time and the money aging a nice bottle of wine, only to open it up and find out that: a) you didn’t wait long enough, b.) you waited too long, or c.) it wasn’t a good candidate for aging anyway. Although wine aging is imprecise, there are some clues that can help you, like some psychic detective who figures out the crime in advance, determine the right bottles to cellar.

Sugar content and alcohol: A high percentage of sugar and alcohol slows the aging process, keeping the wine chemicals from reacting too fast and becoming unbalanced, or worse, turning to vinegar.

Tannins: Highly tannic wines are generally great candidates for aging. Tannins are phenolic compounds present in the skin, seeds, and stems of grapes (and thus, usually only in red wines). You know the wine you’re drinking is tannic when it gives your mouth a dry, puckering sensation that can be very unpleasant. But as tannins age, they bind to each other, losing their astringent quality and making the wine supple and smooth. They also bind to other compounds in the wine, changing their chemistry and giving the wine new, complex flavors.

Structure: Tannins don’t mean good aging by themselves. They need the proper acidity and fruitinesss to back them up.  Having great tannins or wonderful fruitiness alone isn’t enough. A wine that will age gracefully needs to have a backbone–or “structure” to it that will keep the wine from deteriorating into muddiness as it ages. A wine with good structure should have tannins backed up by distinct acidity and concentrated, nuanced fruit flavors.

Varietals that age well:

Riesling: A wonderful candidate for aging. A good Riesling can go on improving, growing rounder in flavor, virtually forever.

Cabernet Sauvignon: Cabs from Bordeaux, California, and many other places have the bold richness needed to age well. When determining whether a Cab will develop delicious secondary and tertiary flavors, ask yourself if it has the structure, tannins, and richness of fruit needed to hold up to years of aging.

Chardonnay: It depends. A rich, buttery Chardonnay doesn’t have the structure to age well and will fall apart within a few years. But acidic Chardonnays with rich mineral tastes can very well improve with aging.

Fortified wine: Port, Madeira and the like age wonderfully because their high quantities of sugar and alcohol act to slow down the aging process, meaning that they can open well after even hundreds of years.

Pinot Noir: Professional opinions vary. Many experts think that the taste of a young Pinot is so great that you shouldn’t hang on to one for more than five years. But others hold that a well-aged Pinot is the holy grail of the wine world. This grape, so unpredictable on the vine, is unpredictable in the cellar too.

Syrah: Most Syrahs age well, but only up to a limit–about 10 years.

Merlot: Merlot is a very forgiving wine. Many bottles taste great young, but will still benefit from some time in the cellar. So Merlot is a great varietal to experiment with–try a variety of ages and see what suits your tastes.

Zinfandel: Like Cabernet Sauvignon, many Zinfandels have the potential to age to greatness.

Old Italian wines: Yes, they’ve already been aging, so you might say they don’t count, but these wines can make a valuable addition to your cellar. Italian wines from the 50s and 60s age wonderfully because they were made by farmers with primitive equipment. Their wines ended up very high in tannins, making them great aging candidates.

Varietals that don’t:

Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and most Rosés: They don’t have the structure necessary for good aging.

Wines under $15: They’re made to drink now.

Champagne: Though some champagnes can age well, becoming rounder, softer, and less bubbly over time, most are not meant to. If you’re holding on to a 20-year old bottle from your wedding, you probably won’t like it.

Why age at all?

You may have heard that since most wine nowadays is drunk within 48 hours of purchase, winemakers are starting to cater to the customer who plans to open the bottle right away. There is some truth to this statement–some winemakers, for example, are tending to harvest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes when they are very ripe–almost too ripe. This results in a wine that is high in fruit, acid and tannins, meaning that you can drink it younger, but not necessarily that it tastes good. Wines like this lack the subtlety and grace of a “true” Cabernet Sauvignon, which has a richness of background flavors that makes drinking it anything but a one-note experience.

Wines that have the foundational flavors to age well–a balance of tannins, acids, fruit, sugar, and alcohol, will develop secondary and even tertiary flavors, meaning that the wine will keep surprising the palate with new tastes and aromas from the first sniff to the end of the bottle. These flavors, which can remind the drinker of smoke, leather, figs, soil, or a thousand other subtle smells and tastes, make the drinking of a properly aged bottle a completely unique experience.

Hints for wine collectors:

No one can predict the perfect age at which a wine should be opened.  If you want to come as close to perfect as possible, the best thing to do is buy a case of wine at a time, and open a bottle every so often to gauge how it’s coming along. And don’t think of it as a waste–it’s an entertaining an educational experience to see how the flavors change as a particular vintage matures. Alternatively, you can look online to find people who have opened the vintage you’re holding on to, and see what they thought of it. This is the best way to determine the right age.

Be sure to keep tabs on the ages of the wines in your cellar. Remember that there’s no use aging wines if you’re just going to let them turn to vinegar in a forgotten corner. Keep tags on your bottles’ necks so that you can read the label without disturbing the contents, and keep a detailed record of everything in your winery, whether on paper or digitally. Don’t forget to include tasting notes when you finally open the bottle.

Masaharu Morimoto, the chef perhaps best known for his grim-faced determination on Food Network’s Iron Chef and Iron Chef America, has recently opened up a new restaurant in the Napa Valley.  This latest venture, called Morimoto Napa, is the most recent in a long list of well -respected restaurants in New York, Philadelphia, Florida, Mumbai, and Tokyo.  Morimoto is known worldwide for his innovative style and gorgeous, artistic presentations, and his work has earned him a Michelin star (for his Tokyo restaurant, Morimoto XEX).

Morimoto Napa seems to be delivering.  Napa restaurant-goers rave over unique dishes with playful names, such as “Duck Duck Goose” (a medley of duck preparations and frozen foie gras) and Sea Urchin Carbonara (uni, undon noodles, smoked bacon and crispy shallots).  The sushi menu is, of course, extensive, with fresh ingredients flown in from Japan.  Appropriately, most of the non-sushi ingredients are grown locally.  Many recent visitors have even had the pleasure of glimpsing the Iron Chef as he expedites in the kitchen, poses for photos with fans, or even shows off his impressive knife skills behind the sushi bar.

Of course, as a Napa Valley restaurant, Morimoto Napa’s wine list can’t disappoint.  And it doesn’t–about 200 local wines are featured, with lots of the sauvignon blancs, chardonnays, rosés, rieslings and the like that are needed to pair perfectly with sushi.  It also has a wide variety of deep, rich reds that pair perfectly with the straight-from-Japan Waygu beef that Morimoto serves here.  For non-winos, there is a great sake list, and rumor has it that Morimoto will soon be brewing his own beer on-site.

But in our opinion, the best thing about Morimoto Napa is that it’s the new workplace of Max Walder, the son of the owner, Gene, here at Vintage Cellars.  Congratulations, Max!  We wish you the best in your new life of creating fabulous dishes in one of the world’s premiere wine regions.

Recently after a long day shooting wine cabinet education videos, selling cooling units and putting the finishing touches on some wine cellar designs, we needed a refresher course on why we are in this crazy business. In an after hours discussion of the business, new cooling units on the market and recent wine trends, we broke out 3 wines from the Vintage Cellars wine room.

We started with a 1999 Altagracia Araujo Estate Napa Valley Red. It was amazing that after 10 years in our wine cellar, it could still use a few more. We tasted and discussed the elegance of this wine. Plump, sweet, pure black currant fruit and black cherry are a few terms we threw around. A long complex finished followed with a hint of licorice.

The second bottle had 10 more years of proper aging, 1989 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. Intense dark fruit forward aromas from the moment it was poured into the decanter. This vintage had a fantastic nose of plum, raspberry and tobacco. The final grade: this wine is full of Bordeaux magic and this is why you age and store wine properly.

The last was a palate turner to a Spanish dessert wine, Alvear Solera 1927 Pedro Ximenez. The dark amber color almost maple syrup appearance stands out upon first pour. We discussed different ways to use this wine including poured over fresh berries and vanilla ice cream. It’s like crème brulee in a bottle topped with candied Bavarian nuts.

Yes, this is why the Vintage Cellars crew spends hours everyday talking wine and wine storage. If you store wine properly, great wine experiences will follow.

jake

Yesterday, the Vintage Cellars gang got to enjoy some great wine and great people at the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival. This annual event attracts over 8,000 restaurateurs and wine experts who cater to more than 8,000 thousand hungry foodies with unlimited samples.  Held at the gorgeous Embarcadero Park North, which overlooks San Diego Bay, yesterday’s event was the high point of a five-day culinary festival.  One hundred seventy wineries and spirit producers and 70 of San Diego’s award-winning fine dining restaurants offered tastes to food lovers from around the world.  For anyone who loves food and wine, the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival is truly a can’t-miss festival, and one of the best events offered in San Diego.

Gene, Jake and Chris had a successful day connecting with new clients and socializing with a crowd that loves wine as much as they do.  Gene said, “This is a great event and the venue is incredible.  I’m pretty amazed that there are so many wine enthusiasts here.”  Indeed, the Vintage Cellars booth was full all day as interested wine lovers checked out some of Vintage Cellars’ past projects and imagined themselves seated on chairs made from vintage wine barrels, enjoying a perfectly aged bottle from their private cellars.

But the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival wasn’t all work and no play for the Vintage Cellars crew.  Beyond getting a chance to interact with new clients, they had a great time tasting wine and sampling great food.  Jake especially loved the wines offered by Ahnfeldt Winery, a Napa Valley winery that grows five vineyards of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes.  As for me, choosing a favorite wine was too tough to call, but two food standouts were an herb gnocchi from Anthology and a surprisingly delicious tempura-battered cheesecake dessert taco from Blue Point.

If you didn’t make it to the San Diego Wine and Food Festival this year, mark it in your 2010 calendar today.  The Vintage Cellars gang had a great time drinking, eating, and showing off their work to the foodies and wine aficionados of San Diego.  One customer, admiring Vintage Cellars’ past projects portfolio, remarked, “You know, the cellars they build are not just a place to keep your wine.  They are a shrine for your wine.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Wine is not just an alcoholic drink poured into a glass, it’s a lifestyle.  Yachting is also a lifestyle that often runs parallel with the wine lifestyle.  One can only assume that people who own 100 foot yachts may have custom wine cellars in their home.  I wanted to bring them together… 

 After engineering a seaworthy wine cellar at the beginning of 2009 (on a 124 foot yacht), I wanted to see if there was a marketplace to design and build wine cellars on “mega” yachts.  It took some education on my part, but I believe the term “mega” yacht or “super” yacht means the vessel is over 68 feet in length.  So I headed to the biggest boat show in the United States.

 I attended the Ft. Lauderdale Boat and Yacht show down in sunny Florida.  I wanted to educate myself on the industry and discuss the idea of designing wine cellars on really big boats.  I suspected that most yachts had wine cabinets and after discussing the idea with builders, designers and naval architects, I was right.  To my surprise, many industry experts have never even considered putting a wine room, or wine cellar, on a yacht.  Sure, it is commonplace for a nice high end Eurocave or Sub Zero to be located in the galley or entertainment room. 

 I think the future is bright bringing the wine cellar industry and the yacht industry together…  I’ll keep you posted.

 

jake

The Stan Story

Stan’s basement was a room fit for lawn equipment, a ladder and boxes filled with holiday decorations, but hardly a place to properly cellar over 2500 bottles of wine.  Wine is a delicate matter here at Vintage Cellars and cellaring wine at an improper temperature in an uncontrolled environment just doesn’t sit well on our palates. 

 When Stan and I first met, we had to immediately attack some issues:  time and wine!  He was moving in soon and had to transfer his collection.  We needed to work fast but we needed to think about both the present and the future.  We needed to build out, properly vapor barrier, insulate and cool the wine cellar.  Elevate the racks and create a raised wood floor in case the basement area ever retained water.  We needed a custom wine cellar design that could handle a collection of Bordeaux, Barolos, California Cabs, Oregon Pinots, 750’s, magnums, double magnums, cases and growing/changing every year.  There were plumbing pipes that needed access, a rear door entering a crawl space and electrical lines everywhere.  After several revisions and conversations, the former basement was Stan’s (and his wine’s) new favorite room.

 “Vintage Cellars did this project on time and within my budget.  It’s now my favorite room in the house”.  S.G.

A Wine Cellar on a Yacht:

In late 2008, Vintage Cellars was contacted about building a wine cellar on a 124-foot motor yacht. After several meetings with the captain & the owner, we decided to take out an existing steam shower (just outside of the rec room) and create a temperature controlled wine room.

After the contract was awarded, there were still many issues and obstacles to over come:

• What is behind the steam shower?
• How are we going to insulate, vapor barrier and prepare the room properly (since the soon to be wine cellar was on the lowest deck down a narrow spiral staircase)?
• How are the bottles going to remain stable in a wine cellar on a yacht that encounters rough seas?
• Where do we get cooling equipment for a yacht with European power specs now in dry dock in San Diego?
• How do we maximize the bottle capacity while keeping safety and the highest quality standards in mind?

The Vintage Cellars design team, wine cabinet maker and carpentry team spent the next several weeks developing a design and a plan. Due to the tight space and location on the yacht, we decided to prefabricate an interior shell in our shop. Each wall would be built out of marine grade plywood with each section vapor barriered and insulated properly. Basically, we created a modular wall, floor and ceiling to seal the room. From there, we could line the room with cherry wood to keep the high quality finish consistent with the rest of the yacht.

Cooling… well there was another mountain that we had to climb. With over 20 years experience, Vintage Cellars has developed relationships with companies all over the world. These relationships were crucial for us to secure a ceiling mounted evaporator coil and compressor with enough BTUs to cool the room properly. It took several long discussions with the yacht engineer to create a mounting bracket in the bilge to support the compressor. We finally had the proper cooling for a complete wine cellar.

As the design continued, we tested and retested ways to secure the bottles in high seas. Based on that testing, we decided building individual storage on a 5 degree cant with a horizontal spacer bar at every space. We don’t ever want to test this in action, but we believe the yacht would have to flip on its side for that wine to come out. To maximize the space, and create show storage for large champagne, we developed a horizontal display cabinet on the same 5 degree cant with a face frame to hold the bottle in place. Its amazing what you can come up with when you put your mind to it. Each piece of racking was built in high grade cherry wood with a clear lacquer finish, all to maintain the same look on the yacht.

The carpentry team had to create the look, the pizazz of the cellar. Notice the sky light on the left hand side and the glass door. Each piece was custom built with dual pane thermal insulated glass. The hardware was secured from a marine hardware company specifically to match the rest of the cellar.

All in all, this wine cellar on a yacht was a fabulous success.

Check out a video of this transformation here:

Vintage Cellars is proud to announce two new ways to move toward sustainability in the building industry.  Yes, we have taken wine racking and gone “green”.  As you know, over the past 20 years Vintage Cellars has been the Southern California leader in high end custom hand made wine racking.  Our quality and reputation are unmatched in the industry.  Now, it’s our turn to lead the wine storage industry into the future.

 Recently, Vintage Cellars was presented with a unique opportunity.  In a complete home tear down and rebuild project in Beverly Hills, we took the existing cedar siding on the old home and hand milled new wine racks.  Not a step was skipped in the process.  We worked with the client to design their dream wine cellar, used an existing portion of the old home and built beautiful custom hand made wine racks.  We have the ability in the marketplace to produce a 100% recycled wine rack.

 If you read the previous wine blog, you know Vintage Cellar also designs & builds wine cellars with unique wine racks known as the Vintique Collection.  Vintique wine racks are made from recycled wine barrels and fermentation tanks from the Napa Valley.  The wine barrels and tanks are dismantled and re-engineered into recycled wine racks, individual wine bottle storage, diamond bins, case storage, glass racks, archways and anything you can imagine.

 As you can see, Vintage Cellars is leading wine cellars towards sustainability and green building.  For more information or to learn more about the release of these environmentally friendly recycled wine racks, please call us.