Oct 22 2011
Why Wineries Use Wine Cellars
My most recent research involves a look into the use of wine caves at wineries. I’m intrigued by their design and use. It wasn’t long ago I visited a winery South of San Francisco (Yep, they are both north and south of the city by the bay), for a wedding that was actually held in the wine caves. The actual part that was used for the wedding was a little dumbed down, meaning it wasn’t super cold and humid. It was clearly used for events only and not for actually storing wine in that particular section, but it was still an awesome site.
I’m finding that wine making information, when it comes to actually owning a winery, is difficult to come by online. Typing in “why do wineries use wine cellars” provides little information beyond a simple wikipedia article. I think I’ll have to network my way around people who are actually in the wine production industry to get a better idea. I think networking is a huge part of being in the wine industry- You either need to know how to network or be a viticulture genius (which I am not!).
Looking through the information I have found so far on why a winery would choose to use a wine cellar, the benefits are pretty obvious. Temperature levels are much easier to maintain underground. If you bury and insulate the cellar enough, it hardly matters if it’s too cold or too warm outside. The cellar will maintain ideal temperatures for aging the wine. Can you imagine the cost involved in aging wine if a winery had to use an electric wine cooler for each part of the aging process? It would take thousands of wine coolers and virtually eliminate profitability. Especially considering a winery can product 5000 to 7500 bottles of wine per acre. A typical 50 bottle thermoelectric wine cooler costs around one-thousand dollars to purchase, and that doesn’t take into account any long-term operating costs.
The wine cellar will also easily maintain high humidity levels, which is important for properly aging the wine in its younger years. The wine obviously won’t be exposed to any UV rays, which can damage the wine. And the most obvious benefit, which had totally slipped my mind at first, is space. Wineries can dig out cellars and store the wine under facilities on property they already own instead of purchasing more land, which may not even be an option for them. Aging wine can involve hundreds to thousands of large oak barrels, which need to go somewhere. If a winery invests in a wine cellar then they know they have a reliable place to store their wine from vintage to vintage instead of looking for off site storage or having to buy more land, which involves higher costs either way.