I finally took the big plunge and rented a wine locker. My collection of ageworthy wines had outgrown my small cellar in the basement as well as the two refrigerated wine-storage cabinets in the garage.
I’m not sure how many other wine enthusiasts have a similar problem, but I was amazed when I visited the wine-storage facility nearest me, a place (pictured above) called Fifty Seven Degrees, and discovered that it was chock full.
I was lucky to find an empty locker large enough to meet my needs. I had been toying with the idea of a storage unit for some time, but was reluctant to part with any of my wines. There is a certain comfort in knowing you can lay your hands on any bottle you have whenever you want.
Now I have another sort of comfort, knowing that most of the wines I believe have a future are being kept at a constant temperature of 57 degrees or lower and 70 percent humidity, either in my home cellar or the off-site location.
But best of all I now have a location other than my office to receive wine samples. My fervent hope is that within a few weeks, once the word spreads, all samples will go to Fifty Seven Degrees and my garage will no longer look like a cardboard box factory, or a giant dumpster.
That would be amazing. And to think — at the same time I also get a place to properly store my spillover collectibles. What joy!
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