Do you store your wine glasses in your cellar?

WINE TALK
1

A buddy of mine told me you should not store your wine glasses in your wine cellar, but I can’t think of a single good reason to support that.

Do you keep your stems in your cellar?

If not, why not?

I have a space in the cellar where they would make a lot of sense, so I’m trying to determine if there’s any good reason not to.

2

Not me. I keep my glasses in my kitchen since that’s where I use them. I can’t think of a good reason to keep them in my cellar.

3

No. I can’t think of a good reason to keep them in the cellar.

4

If for example you have a wine room/cellar with a tasting area I can’t see any reason why keeping glasses in it would be a problem. I think if it is convenient for you to have glasses in your cellar, go for it.

5

Ken and John, for my purposes, the cellar is the best place to keep them from a storage perspective.

I’m just trying to figure out if there’s a good reason not to keep them in there.

Thanks Matt. I think so too, but wasn’t sure if I was missing something.

6

Humidity musty growth ?

7

Hi Ned :slight_smile:

That’s the only thing I can think of that may be an issue, just not sure how big an issue it would really be. I’ll probably leave 5 or 6 stems in there for a few weeks untouched, and see if any issues come up.

8

Cold, musty stemware sounds like a bad idea. What possible good comes of it?

9

I have stored extra glasses in a hanging rack in my cellar for years. Never noticed any musty smell. Maybe in a cardboard box would not be a good idea.

George

10

My wine glasses are in my China cabinet which is just around the corner from the kitchen.

11

no, not in the wine cellar (8-12°C, 75-80% hum.) - I would always have to clean them before using.
BTW: what should I do in the cellar with them, I never taste there …

I have a cardboard in the living room with several dozens glasses of different kind - and a huge box with additional 54-60 glasses for tastings … the latter is stored in a part of the cellar where it is neither that cool nor that humid.

12

Jorge, Depends on how humid your cellar is & how sensitive your nose is.
With mine, I can smell it from here ! [wow.gif]

13

Some reasons that keeping glasses in the cellar is bad:

  1. No reason to leave the cellar, assuming one has an opener there, as well. (It could also lead to wanting to install a sink or urinal and really never have to leave the cellar.)

  2. Too much temptation to pop and pour. It makes one not want to wait for decanting/air/Audouzing to have a chance to work it’s magic.

  3. Excess walking. Keeping glasses in the cellar means going down to the cellar to get a bottle and glasses. That part is fine. But, then, after one walks back to the living quarters, one must then clean and dry the glasses and then go to the cellar for no good reason other than to put the glasses back, which can lead to excess pop and pour temptation.

3a) Carrying a glass full of wine and three bottles as one returns from the cellar is harder to do than carrying up four bottles - it could affect one’s tasting flow.

  1. Keeping all the proper stemware in the cellar takes up valuable space that could otherwise have been used for more wine storage.

We live rurally and have a saying about safety and firearms: don’t keep the bullets in the same drawer as the gun. Same goes for glasses and wine bottles. [cheers.gif]

14

I keep mine in my Stem Cellar. You don’t have one?

15

No, we simply installed the Riedel stem inventory/tracker cabinet in the pantry of our decanter salon.

We also consider the Vinum Extreme line to be ‘single use.’ So, we put our stemware into our official Riedel stemware crusher after using them once.

You know what that famous oenophile Heraclitus said, “You can never drink out of the same stemware twice.”

We are Heraclitus literalists.

The Riedel Man comes by each Monday morning in the pre-dawn hours and re-stocks the cabinet from outside.

16

I store mine outside my cellar, but a good friend of mine has kept the bulk of his stemware in his active cellar for decades and I’ve never noticed a problem.

17

Jorge- We have a rack right outside our cellar and also one inside of it. I keep glasses in both and have never noticed any difference or see any reason why you wouldn’t want to keep them there unless your cellar is not close to where you do the majority of drinking and entertaining.

18

No. Bad reasons: mold, native yeasts, brett, secondary fermentation…oops, Glass-es!
Still, mold, spiders, mice, pillbugs, other bugs (and think of the doo that comes from them), dust, fiberglass threads, radon, moisture, bugs (once there is one, there are others close behind). Unless you have a dishwasher in the cellar, you’ll have to take them UPstairs to clean them, possible leading to more breakage as you whack one against a door frame or clinking together.

Good reasons? No good reason, so that must make the reasons all bad (see above)

19

I was thinking about that but in my state there is a ban on stem cellar research so I didn’t get very far.

20

Odd that this came up because I will be building a couple of shelves in my cellar this week to hold openers, a couple of glasses and a decanter or two. My thoughts are that I go to the cellar knowing what bottle I am going to open, open it and pour a small glass, decant if needed. leave glass and decanter in the cellar if it needs to open a bit.

I cannot imagine storing all of my stemware there, but a few would be nice.