High-end wine storage facilities need to treat the contents within their walls like storage royalty in order to retain customers. The basic tenets of quality wine storage are that temperatures and humidity levels need to be set to exact levels. But now wine connoisseurs are excited about a new trend in wine storage where facilities are offering ramped up services, such as helping customers catalog their wine collections and accepting shipments directly from out-of-town wineries.
One such high-end wine storage facility offering extra services is New York’s WineCare Storage, offering shelf-style storage rather than private lockers. Since wine must be stored at roughly 55 degrees, backup power is provided. The company specializes in pampering amenities such as delivery of wine from storage to a customer’s door within three hours of a request. It also boasts an Internet-based inventory system for a customer’s collection and a certification service that ensures the wine is the year and vintage as indicated on the bottle.
Americans love their wine with U.S. sales topping $30 billion in 2007. And luckily for the storage industry, Americans who love wine also like to keep a lot of it stored on hand. Wine storage facilities fall into three types: wine retailers with on-site storage, general self storage facilities that have some area dedicated to wine, and upscale facilities that specialize only in wine storage and offer the premium services of inventory and shipping. It is the upscale wine facilities that are attracting attention from serious wine collectors.
Some wine distributors will ship directly to a storage facility if a customer asks. Many, however, are picky as to where they will ship to. As with K&L Wine Merchants in Redwood City, Calif., they will only ship to certain quality storage facilities where company owners know the wine will be handled and stored appropriately. They currently ship to five storage facilities, including La Cave Wine Storage with several locations in California, Portland Wine Storage, and Safe Haven Wine Services in Paso Robles, Calif.
Some wine storage facilities offer private tasting rooms, such as Store Wine Storage in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The company also offers its own cataloging system and can deliver wines from the facility to a customer’s house. The facility itself is impressive to see with a modern-style stone and wood design that the company claims can withstand a Category 4 hurricane. Also present is a high-tech security system that uses a biometric system to affirm the identity of a customer via fingerprint.
Amenities aside, there is a reason for all the fuss over proper wine storage and quality storage facilities. Wine needs to be stored in high humidity or else the taste will be spoiled. It should be kept between 55 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit. A higher temperature will age the wine to fast and affect the taste. Wine bottles should not be moved and should be stored in the dark, laying down to keep the cork moist and the air out of the bottle.
Sources Used:
K&L Wine Merchants. 2011.
Passy, Charles. “Just BYOB to These Wine-Storage Facilities.” The Wall Street Journal. 2010.