The very idea of a wine cellar conjures up romantic images. A dusty, hidden away room full of old vintages; sign us up for that move to a French country home right now. But while wine cellars are all the rage, regularly included in most new home design requests, if you don’t keep your wine organized they’re not practical. If you’re thinking organizing your wine cellar is a bit too OCD for you, bear with us for a moment.
Why You Need To Organize Your Wine Cellar
While you probably have some wine in your cellar you plan on drinking within the month, wine stored in wine cellars that needs to age is an investment.
Temperature changes and even movement can affect the way the wine ages and by organizing and tracking your wine you’ll know what and where the wine you can drink next week, next month, next year, is without disturbing that Barolo you’re planning on drinking when your first grandchild is born.
How to Organize Your Wine Cellar
First things first, establish a separate “drink now,” wine section for everyday wines. You should keep this close to the door so you won’t disturb the rest of your wine catalog when grabbing a bottle. Organize these ones simply: reds, whites, roses, bubbly, dessert. You may even want to add a ‘good hostess gift’ section to this.
After the “drink now,” section is set you need to organize the need to age wine. There are several ways to do this, adapt a method to your own preferences.
The most basic separation is again by cool whites to robust red wines with bubbly, roses and desserts. This method is for you if wine to drink with a particular meal is the most important to you. You can also break it down by time needed to age if you’re very worried about disturbing particular bottles. Or you can break it down by country or region and sort by producer if you’re most interested in learning about wine regions and histories behind them.
How to Track Your Wine
After you’ve decided on an organization method you may also want to track your wine so you know exactly where it is in your wine cellar. There are a multitude of ways to track your wine. As with the organization, pick the method that will work for you. The easiest method is labels that indicate wine type, drink by date, etc. Our preferred method, though, is to number all the slots in your wine cellar, keep a spreadsheet on your computer that can be easily updated that describes which wine is located in which slot and when it will be ready to drink.
Share your tips for organizing your wine cellar with us on Facebook.