November 25, 2011

Wine Cellar

We're trying to increase the frequency of posts to two per week by making a regular food and wine post.

Aya's father is always very generous with his wine cellar, sharing amazing bottles with his lucky guests. On a recent visit we found his cellar in disarray.  Keith was happy to take on the task of cleaning and reorganizing it.

Before:
Some cases of new arrivals on the floor and in the wood box on the left. The rack on the right contains some real treasures. They were precariously suspended by only the neck and heel with no support between. Japan, as you may recall, is known for earthquakes.

After (1):
Moved the flat wooden boxes up to the shelf. These are all mid-range wines, from Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and New Zealand. We put them high up for easy, regular access.

The bottom shelf has older bottles and jars of ume-shu (plum liqueur).

After(2):
After much searching, we ended up with the strongest, most practical shelves we could find. From Ikea. Sigh. They fit nicely under the staircase. The short shelves are for champagnes and other treasures that will be kept for a long time. The two towers on the right have Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhône wines, most worth keeping for a decade or so.

Here are some of the special wines in the collection. Keith learned about most of them in his International Sommelier Guild courses, but had never seen them in person.


We have had Barolo before, but when we opened this one we finally understood what all the fuss is about.

















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