Hoping to get advice from the New Yorkers on this board. I’m trying to choose a location for offsite storage and need some feedback on the companies I’m considering. I looked at the prior threads, but they’ve been dormant for awhile and things may have changed. I have about 6-8 cases to start with most bottles between $30-$150 in value. I don’t anticipate having more than 10-13 cases in storage at any one time. Additionally, I will probably be moving out of the area in the next 2-3 years so would need wherever I put the bottles in storage to help with the move. The places I’ve looked at are Domaine, Wine Cellerage, Vintage Wine Warehouse, Chelsea Wine Vault (full at the moment), and Manhattan Wine Company. I think I’m leaning towards one of the first 3. Vintage Wine Warehouse is the cheapest of the bunch, but somebody posted on a thread they had a bad experience without elaborating. Any recent experiences or advice with regards to any of these companies would be much appreciated. Thanks
Have you checked Chelsea wine vault recently? They just raised their prices 25% so they might have lost some customers.
No. I emailed them about 2 months ago. Is their price in range with the other facilities or much more?
There are a bunch of earlier threads on the same topic:
I have a 20-case locker at Chelsea Wine Storage. It’s conveniently in Manhattan, but pretty expensive on a per-case basis: $4.50 a case a month or so.
I have more at New York Wine Storage in Long Island City, which I think is $1.75 a case a month now. I’ve stored there for more than 20 years.
I also discovered last summer that my floor at Manhattan Mini-Storage on West 44th is now air conditioned. I put in a minimum-maximum thermometer and found it stayed at 65-68 all last summer – perfectly fine for mid-term storage as far as I’m concerned – and way, way cheaper on a cubic foot basis than any wine storage. I’ve been using that for overflow.
More, especially now
I have always loved River Valley in Westchester. Apart from the fact they are extremely responsive, have back-ups on back ups, they are easy to deal with.
But the most important is that they inspect wine when it comes in and e mails me when there is a problem. One such e mail, when a case of Lafite '82 came in leaking saved me the cost of several years of storage.
Wow, that’s great. Domaine tells me when a box comes in, and the condition of the box, but not even what’s in the box, much less the condition of the bottles.
I am using Manhattan Wine Company for a year with no issues. They are in Clifton NJ which is helpful if you purchase from retailers in NYC . They have a retail store in NY on West 28th Street that you can pick up storage from or drop off with no charge.
I’ve had a great experience with MWC and highly recommend them.
Whatever you decide on, make sure to look into the total cost for everything - not just monthly cost for storage. Ask for the total cost for them to receive delivery of a case and add to your storage. Ask for the total cost for them to arrange a case to be delivered or picked up.
I recently left an otherwise fine storage facility due to changes in the way they bill. They stopped accepting shipments without forcing me to pay for a new cardboard box (regardless of the status of the cardboard box it arrived in) in addition to paying for the labor to transfer the bottles into these new boxes. They stopped delivering to me without making me buy yet another of their boxes.
I’ve been with Vintage Wine Warehouse for over a year and have not had an issue with them. They accept my wines for me no problem and when I go to NYC I just swing by and pick up my wines which they’ll nicely keep up front for me. No complaints from my end!
I checked out a few places a couple of years ago and settled on MWC. Their prices are reasonable and fairly all inclusive. They charge for pickup and delivery and some minimal labor from time to time. Their staff is comprised of people who are actually into wine – not just guys who work at a warehouse. You can get at your wine a shipped to their facility in NJ. If the purveyor won’t ship TO NJ, you can have it sent to their Chelsea address. They also have a retail store in Chelsea that has a good selection (off the beaten path) and they’ll send stuff from store to storage or vice-versa for free (great option if you live near Chelsea). They too check everything as it comes in. The email up dates when they receive an inbound shipment are useful because, especially with futures, stuff arrives well after I order/pay and I have completely forgotten what I had bought a few months later. It’s like, hey, free wine!
Let me know if you want to go with them and I’ll give you Don’s contact info. He is very responsive even at off hours.
This sounds very familiar.
Highly Recommend MWC
I have under 20 cases of wine in offsite storage. An air-conditioned locker at
Manhattan Mini-Storage would cost at least $80 per month and hence not
be economical, for me.
Thanks for all the comments. I’ve been able to eliminate a few from the advice. Seems like people are pretty happy with MWC. When you get wine pulled from storage how much inventory time do they typically charge you? They say they can handle 10 mixed cases an hour so wondering if they really hold to the $5 prorated inventory time amount.
Ben - MWC has been great about following through with all the charges they delineated up front with no surprises so far. I can’t comment on their charges for pulling a case for delivery since I never do this. However, I can say they’re fantastic for pick ups in Clifton: $0 to pull a mixed case for pick up.
I’ve been at Vintage Wine Warehouse and have been happy with them.
-DR
I just had a case delivered from MWC and had a case picked up as well. I admit this is somewhat inefficient because it’s a flat $20 for up to 5 cases. Anyway, they charged me:
$0 to pull the mixed case
$20 to deliver the case
(no additional charge to pick up)
$5 to inventory the inbound case ($50/hr x 0.1 hr – yes they did stick to the 0.1 hr)
$5 for a lay-flat box.
I get charged for boxes from time to time and haven’t really paid attention to when. I vaguely recall being charged for fewer boxes than I have cases stored there but am too lazy to check.
My only complaint is that they were supposed to come by around 9 am and it was closer to 10, 10:30 by the time the guy showed up.
I’ve been using Domaine at their Edison NJ warehouse for many years and very happy. Excellent customer service, they pull or enter bottles for me with little notice required and they have an online inventory of all my bottles that I can use to arrange for transfer as needed. Prices vary based on the quantity of bottles stored. Ask for Michael or Patrick.
I’ve been with Wine Cellarage for over 10 years and I’ve always been happy with them. They satisfy your criteria.