Wine storage lets you board your Bordeaux

The 10,000-square-foot space in a historic 85-year-old warehouse offers self-storage lockers or cases neatly stacked on shelves with a computerized inventory, said operations manager Shaul Shemish. The minimum charge is $80 monthly or $1.85 per case per month; most collectors store 200 bottles.

East Bank Wine Storage in Chicago grew out of a self-storage business. John Serratelli began storing 5,000 bottles there when he moved from a house with a cellar to a high-rise apartment building. The retired Dow Chemical executive preferred that the extra space in his Lake Shore Drive apartment go for a library and a bigger kitchen.

“It’s become much easier in recent years to find quality storage facilities,” he said. “Before that, you pretty much had to build your own, if you have a large house.

Even in markets with more space like California, collectors are concerned about humidity and temperature. Wine stored above 70 degrees ages quicker and can spoil. Humidity levels more than 80 percent can bring mold, while not enough humidity can cause the cork to dry out; exposure to oxygen also spoils wine.

“People are worried that it’s too hot,” said Paul Buonocore, manager of the 3½-year-old Presidio Wine Bunkers in San Francisco.

Private collectors, restaurants and vineyards deposit bottles in the ammunition bunker of the former Army base for its natural temperature control, he said.

Collectors use storage for various reasons. Jean Rawitt turned to the Wine Cellarage during a move. She and her husband keep about 15 cases in two refrigerated storage units in their apartment on Manhattan’s East Side, but they couldn’t squeeze in another three cases. They put those in storage.

“It’s a self-perpetuating activity,” said Rawitt, a fundraiser. “I think the more you learn, the more you want.”

Wine has increasingly become a part of American popular culture, said Sergio Esposito, owner of Italian Wine Merchants, a Manhattan wine store whose partners include restaurant superstars Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich.

“The United States is all about new wealth and the status that it brings,” he said. “Wine has become an investment.”

Impact Databank’s 2006 report on the U.S. wine market, published by M. Shanken Communications, shows a 45 percent increase in wine consumption over 30 years. Per capita, Americans in 1975 drank 2.18 gallons of wine compared with 3.17 gallons in 2005.

“These may appear to be small shifts, but they indicate profound changes in the American lifestyle,” said Matthews of Wine Spectator, also published by M. Shanken.

David Chan, a concertmaster for the Metropolitan Opera, started collecting five years ago after his father-in-law gave him his prized bottles, including a 1982 Chateau Cheval Blanc and 1981 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, celebrated Bordeaux vintages.

Now with 1,000 bottles, he’s out of room in his two-bedroom apartment, home to a wife and 15-month-old daughter. He also worried about backup power when he travels for performances during the summer, and stores about 850 bottles with Neubohn.

Experts say backup generators to ensure a constant temperature are important, as is security, in storing wine.

Robert Sleigh, vice president of Sotheby’s wine department in New York, recommends storage space be free of light and vibration, and temperature be kept at a constant 50 to 55 degrees, with 70 percent to 90 percent humidity.

“Even if you have air conditioning, you can’t keep a wine in a normal house environment, which fluctuates between 60 and 75 degrees. It has to be constant,” Sleigh said. “You can’t just think it’ll be fine in a cupboard somewhere. That just doesn’t work.”

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