Creative ideas on wine relocating?

WINE TALK
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Hey guys,
I know, could’ve posted this in the wine maker’s section. But, I thought this should be an open call out.

Here is the situation:

I am moving 12 full barrels to my new location in January. This new location has a cave below the house. This cave has about 10 stairs between the entrance and the barrel storage area of the cave.

Initial possible solutions:
Use one of the wooden bungs that the barrels come with to seal the wine off. Use an ancient anchoring system with rope to shimmy the wines down the stairs after creating a partial ramp. (FYI, this was the traditionally used method)

Place empty barrels inside cave. Place full barrels at top of stairs and siphon into empty barrels. *Someone gave me the idea of using an inert gas to fill into the empty barrel at the same time for protection.

I am leaning towards the siphoning option.

PS This would be a snap with a pump. But, I’m trying to get around it.

Cheers

2

How steep are the stairs? and do you mean 10 steps or ten flights of stairs? Couldnt you just build a ramp and use a large enough dolly to bring them down?

3

Refrigerator dolly would be my choice also, the ones with the ratchet straps.

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There are about 10 stairs total. I’m thinking it would be a quick ramp ride with all that weight. Let me see if I can post a pic:

View from inside barrel storage room towards stairs

This set of holes (covered up a bit) are for the metal anchors used with rope to shimmy barrels down.

Thanks for the suggestions…

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Ray, I have no idea how much a full barrel weighs, but I have hauled refrigerators down several flights of stairs by myself with the appliance dolly I suggested. You just tighten the straps around it, lock them down and go slow. You won’t need a ramp as there are small wheels down the back the rails. If there’s a will there’s a way. I will gladly help you if you pay my airfare neener

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Based on my calcs (I am not ITB, so I’d look for someone else to confirm) a barrel is probably close to 500 lb. Thats a lot to put on a dolly if you’re not experienced with using one. I’d go with the siphon.

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Hey Ryan,
thats what I have as well for the weight. I have used dollies since I was 14. However, never with something of that shape. The issue is also I care more about the contents in this case than I ever did with a washer.


Joe, good point about the wheels. But, it still can be a costly way to do it. No deal on the plane tix by the way. :wink:

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I’d lean towards the traditional method in the absence of a compelling reason to avoid it. There must be folks in your neighborhood who have done this before.

-Al

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My management decision would be to delegate and hire a professional moving company that has experience with appliance dolly’s. If they can deliver a Sub Zero refrig, they certainly can relocate a 500lb barrel of wine without much fuss.

I would supervise, but would have those with prof. moving experience bring them downstairs. But then again, I have a tendency of delegating tasks to others.

I don’t think I would siphon the wine…very time consuming and probably not cost effective.

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Hey Alan,
it seems to be the easiest option. I’m looking into that option to see if anyone has any experience with using (experienced) movers.

Al, when I get back to NSG, I will try to clear out the holes at the tops of the stairs to see if the anchors are still in place.
I can’t seem to find any diagrams for using the anchor method. I’m sure I can find a few older guys in NSG that would tell me it’s a cinch, that they did it all the time in the 60s or something. But, it would be nice to find people that actually still do this method, it would also be my preference.

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Having just had a new refrigerator installed, I think full wine barrels probably weight a lot more. A refrigerator is basically a hollow shell with some insulation and a relatively small compressor or two. The lone guy who delivered mine easily tipped the old one and the new one on and off a hand truck. And on the refrigerators small rollers it easily slipped into the wall. I don’t see doing that with a full barrel!

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Whatever approach you take, just make damn sure your insurance covers you if anything goes wrong…

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Ah, the discussion moves from the blog comments onto the board.

I like the inert gas idea. It seems like the idea is to avoid racking the wine before you would do it otherwise. The inert gas would certainly help with that, but I’m sure you would still get some oxygen contact that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Probably in transferring the lees.

I would try to find a way to move the barrels while full. Why risk the unknown consequences of premature oxygen introduction? I think the first choice is to see if there are movers/people about who have experience with this. Second option would be to find something that’s going to keep the barrel from getting out of control. Securing it to the winch of a towtruck or some such heavy vehicle before sliding it down a ramp should do the trick (a fine idea from Chris). But you’re also going to want a bunch of strong guys over there to hold it if anything should give.

14

Don’t kill yourself Ray. Get a hose long enough to fill barrels in place down below, and gravity rack.

Moving full barrels down 10 steps would be more work (and extremely dangerous) than it’s worth.

Good luck.

15

Do what’s best for the wine, Ray. Sacrifice yourself if need be. neener

16

A lone guy cannot deliver/install a full size Sub Zero Fridge… their 48 in. side by side is 406 lbs on the low side and almost 600 lbs on the high side, depending on what model is selected…

I have personally seen multiple men transfer one of these up a flight and a half of stairs (w/ a corner) in order to install this on a second floor. If they can get it UP a flight and a half, I bet the proper moving company can get those barrel’s of wine down those steps in an appropriate manner.

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My guess is that, in the old method, the barrels were rolled down the stairs. The anchors probably held two very long ropes that were wrapped once or twice around each end of the barrel. Maybe needed three or four guys on each rope to slowly let it out as the barrel rolled from stair to stair.

If you need to stand the barrels on end, make sure you get the six guys to help you do that before they leave. [bye.gif]

I agree that it would be a very quick trip to the bottom for one man and a dolly on a ramp. [oops.gif]

Whatever method is chosen, I would suggest practising with a barrel of water before risking the good stuff!!

Of course, you’d then have to figure out how to get the barrel of water out of the cellar. [swoon.gif]

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Alan – One guy delivered my 22-cubic foot, 253-pound Bosch and took away a similarly sized old Amana without help (admittedly without stairs). Whatever a 48" Sub Zero weighs (what do they do – add in lead plates?), my point is that moving an ordinary refrigerator isn’t on a par with moving Ray’s full barrels. (The sheer bulk of the Sub Zeros complicates things, too.)

A better analogy is a piano, which definitely takes more than one person.

Which I guess goes to the ultimate point – on which we agree, I think – which is that with enough muscle power, the barrels can be moved without siphoning.

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Sub-Zeros have two compressors rather than one…more metal of a heavier guage instead of plastic. Plus, they are top heavy owing to the fact the compressors are on top of the unit instead of the bottom like most fridges.

I’d get a good mover.

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