Wine storage lets you board your Bordeaux

updated 2:56 p.m. ET Dec. 26, 2006

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - As wine becomes a more popular American hobby, some collectors find they just don’t have enough space to store their cases of Bordeaux and California cabernet.

Americans are drinking more and better wines, experts say, so businesses are offering humidity- and temperature-controlled storage to a crowd of collectors that’s growing in number and sophistication.

“When you start buying wine, it sneaks up on you, and pretty soon you have run out of space,” said Tom Matthews, executive editor of Wine Spectator magazine, the bible for wine enthusiasts.

Business is so good at Fairfield, N.J.,-based LLK Enterprises that, even after it doubled its 10,000 square feet, the facility is full again. LLK, an affiliate of the New York wine shop Acker Merrall & Condit, hopes to triple its space in 2007, said storage director Tim Sharpe.

Customers often come from word of mouth, said Lars Neubohn, president of the 3-year-old Wine Cellarage in the New York borough of the Bronx.

“It’s a niche business, and there’s a lot of trust,” he said, walking past about 80 cases of Chateau Petrus.

Neubohn said he opened the business because the market was underserved and other storage companies weren’t run by “wine people.”

In his storage space, the temperature is set for 55 degrees and misters on the wall keep humidity between 60 percent and 80 percent. Customers monitor their collection through the company’s Web site, and Neubohn coordinates shipments from around the world.

“We’re very much like a bank. About $8 million to $10 million worth of wine is in this room,” he said. “Reputation is very important.”

Many wine storage companies are offshoots of moving companies, self-storage businesses and wine stores.

Guarantee Wine Storage in Jersey City is a division of Moishe’s Moving, a well-known moving company in the New York area. The company began offering wine storage five years ago, adding to its businesses of document, art and data storage.

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