Hey all,
Longtime lurker, first time poster. Glad to be a part of the community.
In the coming months we’re making a move from Los Angeles to Raleigh, NC - where, based on my initial research, I can’t seem to find a dedicated wine-storage facility. Even if we choose to build a cellar in our new place that won’t be at the top of my wife’s move-in priorities so I’m sure i’ll need at least a temporary solution.
I’ve been doing some research and have found a few generic self-storage facilities that advertise climate controlled wine storage lockers. However, in my mind I have a hard time imagining that the same facility where one would throw boxes of junk and old golf clubs to actually have lockers that are kept at a constant ~60 degrees. Anyone have experience with this type of storage company - Public Storage, Extra Space, etc?
I would never store wine I care at all about in one of those units. Often they are “climate controlled” but still way too hot for wine especially here in NC. Bee Safe storage has wine lockers and while not in the Triangle proper is your best bet for offsite relatively close to Raleigh. My friend stores his wine at the one in Greensboro.
Will your place have a basement? It would probably be fine passive for awhile in the fall.
I live in Raleigh, but store at Cork Vault in Charlotte. Not a good long term solution, but it helps me keep my hands of the wine I’m trying to age long term. I have to go to Charlotte every few months for business, so I pick up / drop off as necessary. Cork Vault accepts deliveries, which is helpful.
As much as I get the emotional reaction, I assume you can find out what temperature those storage lockers are kept at, and you could verify it yourself easily with a thermometer.
It’s probably not the most perfect, but I wouldn’t just rule it out because the idea seems weird. Give or take depending on what types of wines you’re storing and for how long, how much it costs, and what the alternative is.
Welcome !
I had dedicated wine storage at an Extra Space near me for a few years. It was maybe 500 sq. ft. of space within the larger building, with well-insulated walls, a separate cooling system, and it’s own secure entrance right next to the office. There were lockers in a variety of sizes, from maybe 2x2x2 ft to 6x8x8 ft. I found the temp to be a fairly constant 55-56 degrees using a simple analog min-max thermometer in my locker. My biggest concern was there wasn’t any power backup in the event of an extended outage (which we see occasionally).
Interestingly, when I look now, it appears most of the Extra Space facilities no longer offer wine storage. I see only one in the greater Houston area.
I’ve stored wine in lockers in the separate wine storage sections of two different self-storage facilities and haven’t had any issues with temperature control.
Find out where the local fine dining establishments with good wine lists store their wine for aging. I found an underground place where I’m two stories down, that is/was popular with a couple of the cities best places. It’s passive, but is chilly enough that one has to wear a sweater to go putter around in the unit. A bunch of units on my level are all wine collectors so every now and then we bump into each other and chat.
When a generic storage facility says climate controlled, they simply mean the facility is heated in the winter and/or air conditioned in the summer. Heated means kept above freezing, and in the summer, I guarantee the A/C isn’t set at 68 degrees, let alone 55. This is opposed to the metal sheds on a concrete slab you see in rural areas, which have no temperature control.
Some generic facilities offer a small section of dedicated wine storage with appropriate temps of under 60. If you can find one in your area, go for it. But otherwise, you are likely to have better passive temperatures in your house if you have the space.
Thanks for all the feedback. One of the facilities offers both climate controlled AND units that are speciically marketed as wine storage (https://www.extraspace.com/storage/facilities/us/north_carolina/raleigh/1000000135/). I’ll check in directly on the specs and check out the cooling functionality before making a decision - and if not, plenty of other great ideas as pointed out.
Thanks
Brandon, I remember contacting that place when I was looking around the area. They had none when I called but one did come up within a month when they rang me back. They were too small for my needs but may work for yours. Again check out the Bee Safe locations which are reasonably close and know they have larger lockers. My friends has over 1,000 bottles at his locker.
BTW, If you put a cellar in ping me as we did that and it has worked flawlessly. I’ve put a few in during my years and have learned a few things along the way. Good luck with the move.
What months are we talking about? I would assume that say November through March is different from say May through September.
If it is say Nov - March, will you have a basement? Will it be heated and can you make a space in the basement cool? How many bottles are we talking about?
You should take John up on his offer. His advice to me when building my cellar was invaluable.
I’ve never used any of the local wine storage places, but would be interested in your experience. Please report back!
For many restaurants, the special wines would be in open racks, near the dining-room ceiling lights, for diners to view, but high enough to be out of easy reach. 
True for many places, but there are a couple places near us which have aspirations (and won a Michelin star) and since our area is so hot, they had to get clever about storage. It’s really strange to have an underground facility in our area, I wonder if the building was repurposed from something else. It’s pretty vast.
They don’t charge anything extra for the sub basement units either, but sometimes there can be a wait.
I’ll repeat my often given, and self ignored, counsel: its easy to get into storage units. Hard to unwind the trade. I would be better off economically not storing wine that isn’t appreciating, and just buy older stuff on the ‘spot’ market since its so easy now, compared to a generation ago. I hope collectors think about this carefully.
It’s true. For Bordeaux especially it no longer makes a lot of sense to own and store your own wine. The stuff basically doesn’t appreciate and is widely available on the secondary market for backfilling.
There are almost no basements in the Raleigh area and even if you had one it wouldn’t be fit for passive storage.
I’ve toured a couple of generic climate controlled units and they’re not great and they’re not cheap.
I know nothing about Raleigh, but if there are urban wineries or custom crush facilities, they may be able to point you to storage options or let you store at their site.
Not everyone looks at the cellaring decision solely through the lens of economics! I don’t for sure. I can certainly say that pretty much every bottle of bdx in my cellar has appreciated significantly. But then I started with he 1995 vintage, different if you are starting out today of course.
Also access to older bottles that have been properly stored does rather depend on where you live too.
I agree with you Brodie. For me, provenance is important. And at $2 per btl/yr for storage, I would much rather just buy EP or retail and let them age. I’m not aging $20 bottles, so the incremental cost per btl of storage is not that meaningful, and it buys me peace of mind. Buying aged wine with the same provenanc is definitely not cheaper than buying now and storing. I’ve priced aged bottles with perfect provenance and they are a far, far cry from the same wine at EP pricing with storage costs rolled in.