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How to create a Wine Cellar
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A personal wine cellar offers many advantages once it has been set up and stocked.
There is the convenience of having a selection of wines on hand ready for any occasion that might arise. There are the savings resulting from bulk purchases and buying when sales are being held or immediately after a vintage has been released. And there is the personal satisfaction of collecting and consuming fine and unusual examples of a beverage that is one of life's great pleasures.
The wines of Italy can multiply those pleasures, because the country produces an unmatched range of wines. Some are made from grape varieties that are cultivated in every major producing country and others are made from varieties to found nowhere but Italy. They ring all the changes between bone-dry and honey-sweet and reflect all of the colors of the oenological rainbow. The scents, which can be subtle or provocative, are never neutral. As for variety, some Italian wines are aristocratic and imposing, to be drunk and compared with the finest made anywhere, and others are as spontaneous and breezy as the people who make them.
Wines Fit for Any Foods
The many varieties of Italian wines make them ideal companions for Italian cuisine and for the cooking, traditional or innovative, of any other country. Just as important, the wines offer good value, with prices that are still among the most reasonable on the market. And in laying down an Italian wine cellar, it is important to concentrate on wines that can be stored for extended periods of time.
The Longest-Lasting Italian Wines
SUBSTANTIAL RED WINES
Native "Nebbiolo" and "Sangiovese" are the leading grape varieties in this group. "Nebbiolo" yields the austere Barolo and the gracious Barbaresco, Piedmont's premier wines. It is also used in making formidable Gattinara from the same region and the sturdy wines, especially the Sfurzat, of the Valtellina in Lombardy. "Sangiovese" originated in Tuscany and is the base upon which the region's reputation for superb red wines is built. In addition to Brunello di Montalcino, which is known worldwide for its great longevity, "Sangiovese" yields Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Chianti Classico Riserva.
The Veneto's Amarone, made from partly dried grapes, is a big wine with the power to last. Other substantial reds are Campania's Turasi, Umbria's Torgiano Rosso Riserva and Tuscany's Carmignano. Aglianico del Vulture from Basilicata, well-made Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from the Apennines, barrel-aged Barbera from Piedmont and the Umbrian Sagrantino di Montefalco can also be laid down with every assurance that they will improve with age.
Througout Italy, wine-makers are turning out world-class red wines from "imported" varieties, especially "Cabernet Sauvignon." No cellar would be complete without at least a few examples of this group, which can stand comparison with the finest output of other major producing countries. Because of their quality and their limited production, they tend to be costly, although not in comparison with their foreign rivals. Usually made with the grapes of a single vineyard, these proprietary wines are produced outside the traditional categories. They may be the product of a single variety, native as well as "imported" or a blend of two or more types. It all depends upon the vintner's intention and imagination.
SUBSTANTIAL WHITE WINES
Worthy candidates for a cellar, since they age well for two to five years or occasionally longer, include Piedmont's rediscovered Arneris, Tuscany's Pomino and Campania's Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo. Most dry whites are made for consumption with a year or two of harvest but, among them, Piedmont's Gavi and Tuscany's Montecarlo Bianco and Vernaccia di San Gimignano display good staying power in favorable vintages.
Italian wine-makers are also producing substantial proprietary wines that can be aged from moderate to extended periods. The "Pinot Noir" and "Blanc", "Chardonnay" and "Sauvignon Blanc" varieties, alone or in blends, are extensively employed in these wines, which are now often fined in wood or even barrel-fermented. Like the red "vini di tavola", they will soon be enrolled in a new category of regulated wines, following the reform of the DOC laws recently voted by the Italian Parliament.
SPARKLING WINES
Spumanti, as sparklers are called in Italy, can be laid down in a cellar, although they will not improve appreciably with the passage of time. They can just as easily be kept in a refrigerator, ready for consumption whenever the occasion arises. Dry Italian sparkling wines, made by the classical bottle-fermentation method and from the traditional "Pinot" and "Chardonnay" grapes, now match the levels of quality of their better-known rivals north of the Alps. And they don't cost as much. The principal centers of production are Piedmont, the Oltrepo` Pavese and Franciacorta districts of Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige.
DESSERT WINES
The extraordinary range of Italian dessert wines goes from red to white, from sweet to dry and from bubbly to still. Albana Passito is an unusually rich example when its grapes are influenced by "noble rot". The Passito from Pantelleria is also justly famous. so are the Reciotos of Valpolicella and Soave. In Tuscany, however, it is Vin Santo that is found in virtually every home. As for the cluster of islands off the northeastern tip of Sicily, one would expect to find a predominance of the superbly scented Malvasia delle Lipari. Yet even with those and myriads of other fine Italian dessert wines to choose from, the sweet Marsala remains the king of them all. A veritable Methuselah when it comes to aging, it also has the generosity to require little or no attention at all once it has been quietly laid down in a proper cellar.
Choosing Your Cellar Location
It is always preferable to store wines underground. However, some cellars are better than others for wines, while many are not at all suited to the purpose. Moldy walls, dust and cobwebs may suggest age and mystery to the romantic but, to the wine lover, they are a danger sign because excessive humidity promotes the growth of micro-organisms that can spoil a wine or cause it to age prematurely.
If an above-ground closet is necessary, special wine cabinets with automatic controls for temperature and humidity are also available. While they are expensive, they assure the correct conditions for keeping wines. Greater harm is caused by shifts in temperature rather than a consistent temperature that is either slightly above or below the desired level of 50 to 55 degrees (F). The cellar or closet should be well shilded from light, particularly sunlight, and strong vibrations. Yet most wines are not as delicate as they seem.
Selecting Your Wine Racks
Most wines should be laid down so that the cork will remain moist. If the cork dries out, it will shrink and no longer seal the bottle effectively. In addition, wines, especially reds, need to breathe, which means that they must remain in contact with the cork. With that requirement in mind, the cellar should be equipped with racks rather than shelves. Numerous materials are used in making racks, including hollow cement or ceramic blocks in various shapes and sizes, woods and metals or combinations of some or all of those or other materials. The racks can be custom-made for the space available or modular units can be bought at specialty shops.
Whatever the material used and the design chosen, the racks must be strudy, for a bottle filled with wine weighs up to three pounds. It is best if the rack is made with grooves in which the bottles can be laid with their necks extending beyond the grooves to ensure that they are firmly held in place. Wines can be stored in bins rather than racks, but each bin should contain only bottles of the same wine. Rummaging through a mixed bin can jolt wines, which should not be shaken up any more than necessary.
Organizing Your Collection
A cellar or rack should be divided into sections, each assigned to a different type of wine. General categories, like red or white, dry or sweet, are usually enough. The bottles should be taken from their cartons, wiped with a clean dry cloth and laid down the labels up so that they can be easily read in the rack or bin. Heavy foil capsules, which are to be abandoned in the next several years, should be removed from the necks of bottles before they are stored.
If your collection is large, tags attached to the rack or bin may be useful. In addition, most collectors keep a notebook or diary in which they list the wines in their cellar and enter details that may be helpful in deciding whether to expand or draw down their stocks of wines. Comments on the wines themselves, whether you liked them and why are also well worth noting down. People may swear at the time they are drinking a certain wine that they will never forget it, but they often do.
Monitoring Your Wines
Since every wine keeps its own calendar, it will be at its peak in its own good time, not necessarily when the experts and even the maker (who doesn't know what happens to his wine after it leaves his winery) say it will be. Open a bottle from a bin or group from time to time, taste it, drink it and decide for yourself when it will be fully ready.
Wine is a living creature, with a youth, a maturity and an old age. The middle period, which is the best, can be brief or prolonged. The variation from one type of wine to another depends on many factors. What is certain is that regular tasting is the only way of really knowing when a wine should be drunk. Keeping a wine until it is either senile or deceased is a disaster. Drinking it when it is not quite at its prime is no more than a venial sin.
Establishing Your Preferences
Assembling an Italian Wine cellar is a highly personal business. Some people prefer whites to reds, while others will drink only dry wines. People who entertain a great deal may want to maintain a wide selection including "aperitivo" and dessert wines.
Shopping for Italian Wines
When contemplating a bulk purchase of a wine you do not know, it is a good practice to buy and drink a single bottle before taking the plunge. Buying a complete stock at one time may save money, but it can often lock the buyer into a relatively limited number of categories. Figuratively speaking, a cellar should be in constant motion, with bottles entering and leaving all the time.
In shopping for wines for their cellars, people often select a certain number of wines from each of several price ranges - $10 to $15, $15 to $20 and more than $20 for example - and from each of several types, such as medium whites and full reds. The fact is, impressive numbers of Italian wines of fine quality are available in all of these price ranges.
With that inviting fact in mind, your Italian wine cellar can cost as little or as much as you wish, for even a relatively modest outlay will yield a surprising number of highly desirable wines.
Salute!
Text Copyright 1992 Italian Institute for Foreign Trade/ICE,
Italian Trade Commission, Wine Center
499 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022
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