The art of storing wine: the underground wine cellar
It’s the dream of every wine lover: having a space dedicated to keeping the bottles at their best. Because taking care of the wine in the best way means tasting it in all its organoleptic splendour without losing even the slightest part of its characteristics. If you have read our article on tips for storing wine at home, you are already at a good point; however, today we take it a bit further and we dream together talking about underground wine cellars.
Keep the wine at its best
It is worth reminding the basic rules for the perfect preservation of your precious wine bottles:
- keep them away from sources of light and heat;
- pay attention to the humidity level, which must be between 65% and 70%;
- the bottles should be stored in a horizontal or slightly inclined position and on special anti-vibration shelves.
By following these three simple steps you will be able to keep your wines always at the top of their qualities of taste, aroma and unique characteristics.
Underground wine cellar
Especially if we buy fine wine with peculiar characteristics such as our best natural wines can be, it is really worth investing in a special space that respects all the above rules, making sure our favourite bottles are kept in the best possible environment; the characteristics of this kind of environment should be:
- Preferably underground (at least 4 meters below ground level)
- Low light, even better if no light at all
- Fixed humidity (between 65 and 70%)
- Steady temperature (between 11° and 14° C)
- Terracotta, clay or gravel floor
- Proper ventilation despite being underground
The ideal environment would be a classic wine cellar, but not everyone is lucky enough to have such a space.
How to solve this problem? If you don’t have the right space for storing wines, the right solution is…creating it.
There is a type of intervention that can be designed and put into practice with an investment that is certainly not tiny, but feasible in the name of preserving good wine: the underground wine cellar.
The underground wine cellar is a space created under your house’s level and specially designed for storing wine; one of his most beloved and coveted forms is the underground spiral wine cellar, a space with a spiral staircase which is accessed by a trap door in the ground and which presents the shelves for the bottles all around the central passage. Other types are the oval one, with a comfortable central space dedicated to tasting, or the more common rectangular one.
An underground wine cellar is not only the best solution to preserve your wines because it respects all the necessary characteristics, but it is also a spectacular solution to impress your guests before surprising them with your best bottle.
How much does a spiral wine cellar cost?
Undoubtedly the underground wine cellar, especially in its spiral meaning, is a solution of great impact and appeal … but how much does it cost?
We could say that the economic side is equally impactful, even if in another kind of way: the average prices for the creation and installation of an underground wine cellar range from £15,000 to £70,000. But if you settle for less, you can find different home solutions on the market, for example, boxes designed for storing wines for a few hundred pounds.
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