Cellars

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition

New (1998) third edition of the definitive guide to the construction of a home wine cellar. Over 20,000 copies in print. Chapters on temperature, humidity, insulation, construction techniques, bins, refrigeration, newsletter reviews, and much more. An underground classic.

The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris: Fifty Charming and Notable Cavistes

In this guide, you will find everything from establishments that have been serving Paris for a century or two to neighborhood cellars, conventional purveyors, hipster hangouts, and even ventures–as the French publisher says–with no “complexes” whatsoever. Some places have the traditional barrels on the sidewalk, old-fashioned wooden cubbyholes for storing the bottles, creaking floorboards, and shopkeepers in starched white aprons; others have ultramodern decor, sleek and streamlined design, waitstaff in jeans and sneakers. Beyond appearances, each cellar has its own approach, its own philosophy, and producers it swears by. One merchant may carry prestigious luxury vineyards; a second, bargain terroir wines; the third, 100 percent organic vintages; a fourth may offer wines for collectors. This is a cross-section of fifty reputable and distinctive shops and an excellent map for those wishing to navigate the wine merchants of Paris.
 
The notable wines offered by each shop are highlighted, and there are lots of places that serve light meals–or even something more substantial–making The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris a great restaurant guide, too.

Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting

"Peter D. Meltzer, Wine Spectator's auction correspondent for morethan twenty years, is the foremost authority on wine collecting. His book offers expert guidance for beginners and connoisseurs alike."
--Marvin R. Shanken, Editor and Publisher, Wine Spectator

"Peter Meltzer is an authoritative journalist, savvy collector,and urbane restaurant and wine list critic; he makes theideal companion and counselor for wine collectors."
--Michael Batterberry, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Food Arts

"Keys to the Cellar is fascinating, informative, and easy to read; with this book, you will truly understand the ins and outsof buying wines for your personal cellar."
--Kevin Zraly, educator and author of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course

A true wine-lover who knows the value of a well-aged bottle, Peter Meltzer both celebrates and demystifies wine collecting in Keys to the Cellar. His appreciation of fine wine flavors every page as he gives you a practical approach to building a collection that fits your preferences, your lifestyle, and your budget. You'll find information on:
* Buying and selling wine at auction, including valuable insider tips
* Bidding at online wine auctions
* Using the Web to calculate a wine's true value or locate a hard-to-find bottle
* Making the best use of fine wine merchants
* Storing and enjoying your wine--both every day and over the long term


As a bonus, this guide includes a user-friendly Wine Spectator auction index, an invaluable tool for researching the "going rate" for more than 500 top auctioned wines. Whether you are just getting started or want to enhance your collection, this is a book you'll savor again and again--like your favorite fine wines.

Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection

Beer is just a beverage, but wine is an experience. There?s an aura of romance, a hint of the sublime, to bringing a bottle up from your own cellar, carefully drawing out the cork, pouring the wine into a goblet, and taking the first delectable sip.

Now Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines (89,000 copies in print) and a connoisseur well respected in wine circles, shows you how easy it is to have a wine cellar of your own.

But Cellaring Wine is not a home-building project book. In some cases, the would-be wine collector doesn?t have to do much building at all. Rather, Cellaring Wine teaches anyone who loves wine how to create a working system of selecting wines that will age well, know how to lay them down properly, and recognize when they have matured to their full glory and are ready to be savored.

Cox pinpoints the optimum conditions of temperature, light, and humidity for a wine cellar. He walks you through possible locations for your wine cellar ? whether in the basement, an old root cellar, the back of your garage, or even a closet or room in your house ? and what each location requires. He explains when you?ll need a climate-control device (and how much they cost). And he discusses the pros and cons of buying a freestanding unit that is much like a refrigerator.

Then Cox tackles the question that most troubles wine lovers: Which wines will improve with age, and which won?t? This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, since nothing is more disappointing to a wine lover than waiting years to open a bottle of wine only to discover that it was at its peak when it was laid down.

Cox shows you how to keep accurate records so you know at a glance ? without having to hunt through the wine racks ? what you have, where it?s located, and how much to buy so the cellar doesn?t become depleted. And he gives you a crash course in appreciating the fragrance and flavor of a fine wine.Perhaps best of all, Cox gets readers excited about the possibilities of having their own wine cellar. After all, a cellar is not just a storage room, it?s a university where good young wines become great.

Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage

This thorough and inspiring book provides a vicarious tour of the best in wine bottle storage. Visit more than 100 absolutely stunning, private wine cellars in over 200 beautiful color photographs. Peruse racking systems, tasting tables, and artful touches, created by leading wine cellar designers, including Paul Wyatt, Kathleen Valentini, Gary LaRose, and Doug Smith. Additionally, this is a guidebook to wine cellars in some of the world's most renowned hotels and restaurants, where private parties can reserve a table and dine amidst coveted vintages. The book also visits handsome displays in restaurants that showcase wine programs to customers. The result is thousands of wonderful ideas for wine storage and display. This is the first work of its kind, making it an invaluable guide for architects, designers, and discerning homeowners and restaurateurs.

Home Wine Cellar

Wine Cellar Design

Over 300 images of wine cellars immerse you into the stylish and impressive world of today's vintage connoisseur. A wine cellar is becoming a standard feature of today's luxury home. The ability to invest in fine wines, to age them properly, and to have them on hand for entertaining is a luxury more people can afford. This book is packed with ideas and technical information for designing safe, stylish, beautiful wine cellars. Essays by leading designers and a section detailing the proper construction of a wine cellar make this an invaluable reference.

A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine (Vintage)

Those who find most wine writing hopelessly recondite will eagerly quaff novelist Jay McInerney's A Hedonist in the Cellar, a collection of his essays originally published in House & Garden. Whether talking about a California chardonnay ("like a Ginsu blade concealed in a peach"); the wines of the Cote Rotie ("like Fitzgerald, [its] reputation was almost moribund at mid-century"); or the super Valpolicellas of Italian vintner Giuseppe Quintarelli ("his [wines] should be opened only in the presence of gods and stinky cheeses"), McInerney brings a novelist's gift and idiosyncratic wit to his personal investigations, which touch on the Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, the "forgotten whites" of Bordeaux, new developments in the wines of Chile and Argentina, spirits like Armagnac and artisinal champagnes, and much more. McInerney is a stimulating appreciator, so readers poring through his essays happily absorb viniculture and modus operandi, among other technical matters. In essays like "Translating German Labels" and "How to Impress Your Sommelier," they're also prepped in buying and ordering. A wide-ranging tour of the wine world in sum, Hedonist is for all wine lovers, who will find in it much of what's been missing from so much other wine and food writing: the wit to do it well. --Arthur Boehm

In A Hedonist in the Cellar, Jay McInerney gathers more than five years’ worth of essays and continues his exploration of what’s new, what’s enduring, and what’s surprising–giving his palate a complete workout and the reader an indispensable, idiosyncratic guide to a world of almost infinite variety. Filled with delights oenophiles everywhere will savor, this is a collection driven not only by wine itself but also the people who make it. 

An entertaining, irresistible book that is essential for anyone enthralled by the myriad pleasures of wine.

All About Wine Cellars

Discovering Wine: A Refreshingly Unfussy Beginner's Guide to Finding, Tasting, Judging, Storing, Serving, Cellaring, and, Most of All, Discovering Wine

The subtitle says it all: Discovering Wine is, indeed, "a refreshingly unfussy beginner's guide to finding, tasting, judging, storing, serving, cellaring, and, most of all, Discovering Wine." If you thought you'd have to make a spectacle of yourself in public--sniffing corks, gargling bordeaux, etc.--in order to become educated on the subject of wine, relax. Author Joanna Simon makes it clear that even the most retiring persons can learn to judge wine without drawing attention to themselves. Using a combination of pictures and text, Simon describes the steps involved in tasting, serving, and storing wine. She offers suggestions for matching wines with different foods, then takes the reader on a tour of famous vineyards, explaining just what goes into a really fine vintage. Finally, she includes brief descriptions of the best-known wines from wine-growing regions the world over. So if you don't know your Asti from your Madeira, let Joanna Simon set you on the road to knowledge with Discovering Wine.

Discovering Wine has been hailed by new and experienced wine lovers everywhere as the classic, approachable introduction to the luscious world of wine. In this revised and updated edition, Simon addresses the latest wine trends and provides brand-new information on vintages recently established in countries and continents around the globe.

More than 250 full-color photographs, maps, and charts beautifully complement Simon's effervescent approach to the fascinating world of wine, and help to dispel the mystique that so often surrounds the subject. She provides the crucial hints that will help you to become a wine aficionado -- virtually overnight. You will learn how to

• Taste and judge wine like an expert
• Correctly match food and wine
• Follow the newest guidelines for serving and storing your wines
• Discern classic wines from those that emulate them
• Understand the importance and role of grapes
• Know when a particular wine is ready to drink

In addition to demystifying wine, Simon explores famous vineyards and explains how the winemakers use grapes to their most delicious advantage. And after a concise but thorough roundup of today's wine styles, Simon conducts a tour through the wine regions of the world -- from Chianti to Coonawarra, from Médoc to Moldova, and everywhere in between.

As entertaining as it is informative, Discovering Wine is destined to remain the definitive beginner's guide to wine.