Storing Wine: A Cellar Master Shares His Expertise

When a wine collection begins to overflow a wine fridge or a collector begins to invest in high-end vintages, professional wine storage may be just the answer. These humidity and temperature controlled warehouses can store even delicate wines and offer ease of access to their clientele. These wine facilities are a phenomenon of the past decade and a half.

“Wine as a commodity has exploded in the last few years. It’s a growing market. People are becoming more educated.,” says Tony Leventhal, manager and cellar master of Vintage Wine Warehouse in Queens, New York. “It started in United States, with the arrival of real bread in the mid 80s. Then real beer came in the late 80s. Then came real coffee in the mid90s and then a real cigar boom. And, now people are graduating to wine.”

Leventhal senses a refining of the American palette has taken place. There is a move away from convenience and the ordinary in food and drink. “People are actually becoming more refined about food, and the natural extension of that, of course, is wine.” They also are investing in wine as collectors, but they are also enjoying the vintages they select. However, as those bottle accumulate, proper storage becomes a problem.

Vintage Wine Warehouse opened at its first location in 1985 in a city where real estate and therefore storage possibilities are a premium. “In Manhattan, of course, apartments are small. There’s no place to keep your collection,” says Leventhal. That was when Morrell and Company, a fine wine shop in New York City, decided to create a central wine storage facility since none existed in the city. “I think that first year there were 500 cases at Vintage Wine Warehouse,” Leventhal says. “Currently, it is somewhere teetering somewhere around 20,000.... It’s a huge catalogue library of wine that belongs to private collectors.” Now, New York has 14 other professional wine storage facilities located throughout the metro area.