What constitutes a 'big' cellar? (quantity of bottles)

WINE TALK
21

The use of the word “big” is a bit subjective but still in comparrison across the board i would think most oeople who might walk into a 1000 bottle cellar would say " wow, thats big!" Sure plenty of people on this board may have bigger but 1000 bottles of wine in a cellar is a lot of bottles and probably money too. Im building a 1000 bottle cellar right now with an inventory of about 350. 350 bottles seems like a lot to me and i hope to never reach max capacity.

22

I voted 10,000.
We just watched a show on public TV last weekend about a home in West Hartford (on the same street as the governor’s mansion) with a 10,000 bottle cellar. It just so happens the house is on the market for $5 million right now, so my wife showed me the real estate listing with all the pictures including the cellar.
During the show the lady of the house (the money comes from her family) talked about having Julia Child and Jacques Pepin over for a dinner party and Todd English did the cooking.
The husband opened a bottle of 1986 Krug Clos du Mesnil (1988 was a better year) to share with the show’s hostess, along with a bowl of potato chips.

23

If the supposition is that big is really “too big”, then the correct answer, alluded to above with respect to bicycles, is one more bottle than my current cellar size. If the opposite is true (that is, a big cellar is a good thing), then one fewer than what I have would be the correct answer.

fred

24

That reminds me of a story. Two men were golfing one day, but had to stop,
because two women were ahead and playing slowly. One man peers closely and
says in hushed tone, “Hey, we cannot play through them. One woman is my wife
and the other is my mistress.” His golf partner peers also, and exclaims, “What
a small world. Me, too.”

25

Big to me is a 1000.

Takes a long time to drink through 1000 bottles, especially since most of us replenish at a rate that is comparable or perhaps even more than consumption.

I wonder how many of us really need more than that?

26

For me the key factors that inform the size of your cellar are: what average age you like to drink your wines, how many bottles per year you drink and do you buy young vintages and cellar them, or buy old vintages at auction. A big cellar for someone who likes to drink young wines might be 500 bottles, whereas a big cellar for someone who prefers to drink really old wine with known provenance that they age themselves might be 8000 bottles.

If you buy young wines and age them yourself then you need to have a larger inventory compared to buying aged wines at auction. For example assume average consumption age of 20 years for reds and 6-8 years for whites. If you consume about 240 bottles per year, with a mix of 180 reds and 60 whites, then you would need about the following cellar size:

Reds: 20 X 180 = 3600
Whites: 7 X 60 = 420

Total would be ~4000 bottles, which is about a 16 year supply of wine. The trick is to buy more than your average consumption during the early years as you build your cellar, then taper to buying less than you consume once your cellar reaches the desired capacity. This is my simplistic way to approach the question.

27

You will. The seven cases of wine stacked in my bedroom pretending to be a dresser speak to that.
image.jpeg

28

A big cellar is really 40,000+. 10,000 is a piker in my area of the country. (I am not even in Texas where things are always bigger. ) There are more than several with that size cellar. I am far below the piker cutoff. A big cellar to me is the size I have presently. Any larger and I am going to have to work to drink them.

29

It so isn’t about need!

I’ve said before on this board that many of us derive pleasure from the buying, the storing, the organizing, the sorting, the viewing, and yes, just the having. I know I do. I don’t much care if I have more than I’ll ever drink. Most of my wine is age worthy and if my stepson doesn’t care about wine, someone else who survives us will.

Those who don’t collect (and I’m willing to admit I’m a collector as well as a drinker) will never get it. For instance, I think one baseball card is more than anyone needs…

30

YES! [welldone.gif]

31

Was not a criticism or judgment. Gosh knows that I have many more of other things, including art, than I really need!

32

LOL, that dog is pissed, it has no wall space!

33

Not taken as such! [cheers.gif]

In my house, we often say “need is funny word…”

34

Don’t worry, she has more than enough places to curl up.
image.jpeg

35

I was thinking 25,000+ as truly big. I think up to 10,000 is a nice cellar although I’m nowhere near that number.

36

Agreed, except on the baseball card thing.

37

English?? Are u sure it wasn’t Todd French?

38

And I do think that your consumption pattern plays a big part in how big your cellar should or could be.

I seem to recall our own Charlie Fu posting once that he only drinks on the weekends. For me, wine is a part of my dinner, so more often than not, I’m consuming something on a daily basis.

I don’t know how big Charlie’s cellar is, but I’m willing to bet I have more bottles in mine because I have a higher “utilization” rate.

Two other factors that come into play are how much you value provenance and what you typically buy and drink. Again, for me, I like Italian wines and believe provenance is key, so I don’t have as much of an interest in buying older vintages at auction. As a result, I’ve had to lay down a lot of Barolo and Brunello because the stuff takes time to come around.

OTOH, if your tastes run to mailing list Pinot Noirs from California, you probably don’t need as large of a cellar because you are in effect reloading every year with the next offer.

39



O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.

40

Nice guard dog. I bet for a clump of bacon I could walk off with a case without worry of being bitten. Maybe licked to death though - she looks pretty friendly.

I’m in the same boat as you other 400 bottle guys. My wife thinks I’m nuts too… that is, until she was in the cellar with me and I showed her the 3 cases of JJ Prum from various years ('83 to '06) filling one Danby and the other 3 cases of '07 JJ Prum still in boxes. Then it wasn’t quite so bad. [basic-smile.gif] However, I’m in the process of selling off 4 cases to get down under 400 bottles. At the pace we drink wine, that’s about 3 to 4 years worth. The problem is some of it won’t be ready for much longer than that. I think she’s starting to get it. As long as I have enough wine she likes I won’t be tarred and feathered.