Cellars Books

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition

Richard Gold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Source 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

If you are planning to build or are building a wine cellar you need this book, it is the source. Dr. Gold draws on his experiences and research in building his own cellar and offers clear explanations as to the "why's" and concise specifications for the "how's". I bought edition 3 for myself and my contractor to guide the construction of my passive cellar that has maintained a steady 54 degrees thru its first winter and 60 degrees thru the summer.
Picked up edition 4 to see what's new - updates on newest construction materials and new information on sourcing wines and wine info thru the internet.

Go passive design! Excellent information. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Richard Gold's book is the consummate cellar dweller's guide to designing and building a wine cellar for the home. Through detailed examinations of wall sections, insulation, cooling units, moisture and temperature control and other considerations, Gold evaluates a variety of techniques and technologies applying analysis and personal experience to highlight the most promising strategies. His generally noninterventionist approach to cellar design is a refreshing alternative to the propositions of the cooling unit manufacturers, reinforcing the importance of proper design and superinsulation strategies - which hold the promise of improved reliability as well as reduced dependence upon your local energy company. Needs some additional editing, but definitely a recommended read for anyone contemplating construction of a new home cellar.

Home Wine Cellar

Perry Sims

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not really a "Complete Guide" 2 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Parts of the book were helpful and the photos were interesting. However, aside from asthetics, the critical issues in building a cellar are the vapor barrier, insulation and cooling system. It would have been helpful to have more technical advice or at least technical advice that was easier to follow. For example, an explanation of why the vapor barrier must be on the outside everywhere (to keep condensation away from the insulation) would be more helpful than just a bald statement that it should be. The diagrams are clear as far as they go, but the explanation on how to put a vapor barrier up and insulate a ceiling is confusing in the absence of an explanation of the purpose of the vapor barrier. For example, if you have wires, pipes and ventilation ducts in your basement ceiling as most people do, what is the best approach? Should you drop the ceiling and then install a vapor barrier followed by insulation or is there something else you can do? Likewise, a discussion of the pros and cons of using a glass vs. solid door, whether to have electrical outlets inside and if so how many and why, whether to place the light switch inside the room or out, and a discussion of how to properly ventilate the cooling unit to optimize operational efficiency all would have been helpful. Finally, since the author is in the business, I would assume that he uses particular brands of cooling units and has specific recommenations regarding size, makes and models--all of that would have been useful information.

To be fair, I did a lot of research and nobody seems to be able to write clearly on this subject and there is a lot of conflicting information on various aspects of design and construction. Still, now that I've been through the construction process, it seems that someone with expertise should be able to write a sufficiently detailed publication to give a novice or a novice working with a general contractor who isn't a wine cellar pro an understanding of the critical elements of design and construction to help them anticipate the issues involved in building a cellar. The book falls short in that regard.

I agree with the reviewer above that this book could have been half as long. As someone who was already inclined to build a cellar, I was already familiar enough with wine to know how to serve it. I wasn't looking for a contractor's advice on that subject. What I was looking for was detailed information on planning/design issues and construction methods. The information in this book that I found helpful on those topics was less than complete and was limited to about a dozen pages.

Editorial Review:

Finally, the most informative, fully illustrated, step-by-step guide to designing and building your own home wine cellar! This beautifully photographed and illustrated full-color book covers all of the details of locating and preparing the right construction area. It includes the latest designs, as well as up-to-date racking and organization styles and techniques. Perhaps most important, this book addresses all the thorny challenges of temperature and humidity control—just where most home wine cellars fail. Having a wine cellar is a hot trend among homeowners, and contractors throughout the country are including them in new construction. This copiously illustrated “hammer and nails” book is by far the best DIY guide available.

Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting

Peter D. Meltzer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Peter D. Meltzer, Wine Spectator's auction correspondent for morethan twenty years, is the foremost authority on wine collecting. His book offers expert guidance for beginners and connoisseurs alike."
--Marvin R. Shanken, Editor and Publisher, Wine Spectator

"Peter Meltzer is an authoritative journalist, savvy collector,and urbane restaurant and wine list critic; he makes theideal companion and counselor for wine collectors."
--Michael Batterberry, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Food Arts

"Keys to the Cellar is fascinating, informative, and easy to read; with this book, you will truly understand the ins and outsof buying wines for your personal cellar."
--Kevin Zraly, educator and author of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course

A true wine-lover who knows the value of a well-aged bottle, Peter Meltzer both celebrates and demystifies wine collecting in Keys to the Cellar. His appreciation of fine wine flavors every page as he gives you a practical approach to building a collection that fits your preferences, your lifestyle, and your budget. You'll find information on:
* Buying and selling wine at auction, including valuable insider tips
* Bidding at online wine auctions
* Using the Web to calculate a wine's true value or locate a hard-to-find bottle
* Making the best use of fine wine merchants
* Storing and enjoying your wine--both every day and over the long term


As a bonus, this guide includes a user-friendly Wine Spectator auction index, an invaluable tool for researching the "going rate" for more than 500 top auctioned wines. Whether you are just getting started or want to enhance your collection, this is a book you'll savor again and again--like your favorite fine wines.

A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine (Vintage)

Jay Mcinerney

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Those who find most wine writing hopelessly recondite will eagerly quaff novelist Jay McInerney's A Hedonist in the Cellar, a collection of his essays originally published in House & Garden. Whether talking about a California chardonnay ("like a Ginsu blade concealed in a peach"); the wines of the Cote Rotie ("like Fitzgerald, [its] reputation was almost moribund at mid-century"); or the super Valpolicellas of Italian vintner Giuseppe Quintarelli ("his [wines] should be opened only in the presence of gods and stinky cheeses"), McInerney brings a novelist's gift and idiosyncratic wit to his personal investigations, which touch on the Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, the "forgotten whites" of Bordeaux, new developments in the wines of Chile and Argentina, spirits like Armagnac and artisinal champagnes, and much more. McInerney is a stimulating appreciator, so readers poring through his essays happily absorb viniculture and modus operandi, among other technical matters. In essays like "Translating German Labels" and "How to Impress Your Sommelier," they’re also prepped in buying and ordering. A wide-ranging tour of the wine world in sum, Hedonist is for all wine lovers, who will find in it much of what's been missing from so much other wine and food writing: the wit to do it well. --Arthur Boehm

Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage

Tina Skinner, Melissa Cardona

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This is a great coffee table book 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful pictures, it gives you plenty of things to talk about and think about if you are planning a wine cellar. This book does not give a lot of details on why things are done the way they are - it is more of an idea book. I've read a few other books on the details of wine cellar construction, so I already knew why things are done as they are in many of the pictures.

This book gave me tons of ideas and helped me spark my creative juices.

Troy

Editorial Review:

This thorough and inspiring book provides a vicarious tour of the best in wine bottle storage. Visit more than 100 absolutely stunning, private wine cellars in over 200 beautiful color photographs. Peruse racking systems, tasting tables, and artful touches, created by leading wine cellar designers, including Paul Wyatt, Kathleen Valentini, Gary LaRose, and Doug Smith. Additionally, this is a guidebook to wine cellars in some of the world's most renowned hotels and restaurants, where private parties can reserve a table and dine amidst coveted vintages. The book also visits handsome displays in restaurants that showcase wine programs to customers. The result is thousands of wonderful ideas for wine storage and display. This is the first work of its kind, making it an invaluable guide for architects, designers, and discerning homeowners and restaurateurs.

The Best Cellar

Jeff Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Stuff for the Wine Lover Unorganized or Not 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As most of my friends and family know, I love wine. I most partial to the Cabs, BUT if the mood and food call for it I like a Shiraz too. However, they also know I'm too busy to keep anything in any kind of order. This book is great. Offering insight to collectors and how to keep inventory. I am now proud of collection and more importantly I know what's in it. The Best Cellar is smart, funny, and great for any wine lover from a 'perfectionist' to a 'wannabe'.

Practical but off-putting 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Beyond the valuable practical advice offered in this book, particularly in using Excel to organize a wine collection, and helpful delineation of wine collector "types", I was put off by the obvious focus on über expensive wines and the sexist nature of many of the comments and stories.

Editorial Review:

If it happens in a wine cellar, Jeff Smith has done it. As owner-operator of Carte du Vin, the country's leading wine cellar management company, Smith knows his wine. In THE BEST CELLAR, he lays out step-by-step advice on how to buy and sell, how to maintain your collection, and how to prepare a Carte du Vin wine cellar inventory. A must-have book for wine lovers, his adventures in the wine trade make for an insightful and riotously funny read.

The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook: Wine and Recipes to Celebrate Every Season's Harvest

Jack Cakebread, Dolores Cakebread, Brian Streeter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

For Cooks--and for California Dreamin' 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

By Bill Marsano. If you haven't heard of Jack and Dolores Cakebread it's probably because their wine is so fine it's always on allocation--there's not enough to go around, so the annual production is allocated to customers and restaurateurs who supported the Cakebreads when they founded their family winery in Napa in 1973. Still, you can get a taste of the Cakebreads and their way of life through this handsome book, written with their resident chef, Brian Streeter. One guiding principle here is the seasons: They dictate life at the winery, and so the recipes are seasonal as well. Another guiding principle is "Napa style"--the kind of relaxed elegance the area has become known and envied for. It's simple, stylish and superb. The recipes are clearly presented one to a page in legible type, and they come from many sources. Of course one expects Hispanic and Italian dishes--the Spanish discovered the place and the Italians were among the first to grow wine there. But the Cakebreads have cast their net wide to cover most of the Mediterranean basin--southern France, Morocco, Greece are also included--and there are Pacific Rim and Asian influences as well. And just for lagniappe, there are several recipes contributed by guest chefs at the Cakebreads' annual American Harvest Workshop. After a few pages of this you are going to have a powerful inclination to get yourself out to Napa. You could do worse. --Bill Marsano is a James Beard award-winning writer on wines, food and travel.

Editorial Review:

When Dolores and Jack Cakebread bought their ranch in 1972, they didn’t know a thing about growing grapes or making wine. Today, Cakebread Cellars is one of Napa Valley’s premier wineries, and its exceptional wines are enjoyed in fine restaurants the world over. In THE CAKEBREAD CELLARS NAPA VALLEY COOKBOOK, Dolores and Jack present more than 120 recipes perfected in the Cakebread kitchen over the past 30 years. Using produce plucked from Dolores’s garden and featuring fresh ingredients from Napa’s artisan food purveyors, the Cakebreads share such seasonal masterpieces as Sea Scallops with Sweet Corn, Roasted Peppers, and Shiitake Mushrooms, and Roast Pork Loin with Apple Brandy and Whole-Grain Mustard Sauce. Best of all, each recipe is paired with a Cakebread wine, making it possible to re-create the idyllic Napa Valley lifestyle at home.

Wine Cellar Design

Tina Skinner

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Editorial Review:

Over 300 images of wine cellars immerse you into the stylish and impressive world of today's vintage connoisseur. A wine cellar is becoming a standard feature of today's luxury home. The ability to invest in fine wines, to age them properly, and to have them on hand for entertaining is a luxury more people can afford. This book is packed with ideas and technical information for designing safe, stylish, beautiful wine cellars. Essays by leading designers and a section detailing the proper construction of a wine cellar make this an invaluable reference.

The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris: Fifty Charming and Notable Cavistes

Pierrick Jegu

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Editorial Review:

In this guide, you will find everything from establishments that have been serving Paris for a century or two to neighborhood cellars, conventional purveyors, hipster hangouts, and even ventures–as the French publisher says–with no “complexes” whatsoever. Some places have the traditional barrels on the sidewalk, old-fashioned wooden cubbyholes for storing the bottles, creaking floorboards, and shopkeepers in starched white aprons; others have ultramodern decor, sleek and streamlined design, waitstaff in jeans and sneakers. Beyond appearances, each cellar has its own approach, its own philosophy, and producers it swears by. One merchant may carry prestigious luxury vineyards; a second, bargain terroir wines; the third, 100 percent organic vintages; a fourth may offer wines for collectors. This is a cross-section of fifty reputable and distinctive shops and an excellent map for those wishing to navigate the wine merchants of Paris.
 
The notable wines offered by each shop are highlighted, and there are lots of places that serve light meals–or even something more substantial–making The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris a great restaurant guide, too.

Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection

Jeff Cox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Beer is just a beverage, but wine is an experience. There?s an aura of romance, a hint of the sublime, to bringing a bottle up from your own cellar, carefully drawing out the cork, pouring the wine into a goblet, and taking the first delectable sip.

Now Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines (89,000 copies in print) and a connoisseur well respected in wine circles, shows you how easy it is to have a wine cellar of your own.

But Cellaring Wine is not a home-building project book. In some cases, the would-be wine collector doesn?t have to do much building at all. Rather, Cellaring Wine teaches anyone who loves wine how to create a working system of selecting wines that will age well, know how to lay them down properly, and recognize when they have matured to their full glory and are ready to be savored.

Cox pinpoints the optimum conditions of temperature, light, and humidity for a wine cellar. He walks you through possible locations for your wine cellar ? whether in the basement, an old root cellar, the back of your garage, or even a closet or room in your house ? and what each location requires. He explains when you?ll need a climate-control device (and how much they cost). And he discusses the pros and cons of buying a freestanding unit that is much like a refrigerator.

Then Cox tackles the question that most troubles wine lovers: Which wines will improve with age, and which won?t? This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, since nothing is more disappointing to a wine lover than waiting years to open a bottle of wine only to discover that it was at its peak when it was laid down.

Cox shows you how to keep accurate records so you know at a glance ? without having to hunt through the wine racks ? what you have, where it?s located, and how much to buy so the cellar doesn?t become depleted. And he gives you a crash course in appreciating the fragrance and flavor of a fine wine.Perhaps best of all, Cox gets readers excited about the possibilities of having their own wine cellar. After all, a cellar is not just a storage room, it?s a university where good young wines become great.