Regarding Los Angeles prices – the one closest to my house is no frills and pretty poor hours, but it’s $240/year for 12 cases; the one closest to my work is $216.67/MONTH for 50 - 100 bottles (and prices will rise soon, but I can get grandfathered in if I join now [no thanks]). I’ve found that the less frills and more limited hours are less money (surprise) and the ones that promote a social element rather than just passive storage are more.
There isn’t local offsite storage in my area. So I’m paying for a facility to do intake and even pickup in some cases. The also have an ability to login and see my inventory. I’m sure that’s the reason for the extra expense. If there was local offsite I’d use it while I’m building out my cellar.
That is pretty normal all around SoCal. Less fee, less hours. Usually open 6-8 hours a day and not on Sunday. Higher fees, more services and extras. Often more access whether it be hours or individual entry. Sometimes they offer more concierge services and inventory control. Sometimes more social events. Often providing room for client hosted events.
Unless, you buy used ones. My investment in 2 Eurocaves was about $2000 and they have been running well for 8 years with no downtime. I can store about 450 bottles in them.
lots of good advice here. It’s a myth to store white different from red. Colder just leads to slower maturation. I keep my cellar at 50.
Very true, Lawrence. Of course, buying used has it’s own hazards, but they are often worth it, as in your case.
As someone who also recently (less than 2 years ago) started this hobby, I say keep your current wine fridge to store the “next in line” for drinking bottles and then go for off-site storage for the remainder. Or buy a used Le Cache or equivalent. It mainly comes down to spending the first six months to determine what your needs are really going to be:
Building a cellar or investing in an expensive wine system at home could be the least expensive and most convenient way to go in the long term. But you don’t even know yet how committed you will be to this hobby or how many bottles you really want to collect. Newbies like us buy too much wine too quickly and our tastes change, leaving us with tons of wine we don’t want to drink. And not enough room to store the wines we do drink. By adopting a go-slow approach, you also ensure that you don’t decide end up with 1000 bottles without reason. Up-front costs are also way less in this approach. Why invest $5k into something you don’t know you want to do. You might instead want to use that money on acquiring wine to taste. A lot of people on this site who spend 5 figures on wine yearly consider this pocket change, but maybe you do not.
Many on this site would also recommend buying 2-3x more storage than you anticipate needing, but you can always do that later when you are better integrated into the hobby. By getting too much space too quickly, you are sure to fill it regardless of your actual need. Maybe you are the person that wants to have a 1000+ bottle wine cellar and spend $20k a year on wine. No problem. But maybe you are like me and want to limit yourself to around 200 bottles at any given time. I won’t have the deep library of aged wines like the 1000+ bottle person, but this does free up cash for other things.
Lots of good advice above. Converting a room or even better - basement space to a cellar is more flexible than a wine fridge. If no home cellar, I do recommend a sizeable wine fridge to augment off-site storage. Having to go to storage for a single bottle is a nuisance. As my cellar has grown in variety as well as size it has become increasingly challenging to have all the is ready for drinking now on hand without a trip to off site storage. Suggest a 500 bottle unite as a good start. It will fill up faster than you think.
I prefer off-site. (I live in Manhattan but I don’t think I would build a cellar even if I had room)
I like the inventory service, and I like not having to worry about the mechanics of the process. They get picked up and magically appear on my inventory.
The down side is instant access. Also, with offsite you can’t stand there admiring your collection while rubbing one out. Although, admittedly, I haven’t asked them if I could.
The Eurocave investment paid off for me. If you have some expensive bottles, I would suggest it. Also, I started small and probably could have gotten a bigger. My objective was quality of the model over quantity. It may be better to get lessor quality of eurocave and fit more bottles. I really had qualms about buying an expensive wine fridge but I’m glad I did. I am already out of space since I am storing a specific vintage for future drinking as the vintage is starting to sell out.
It not easy to buy used items, as it is difficult to move these size items without professionals that are already included in the cost when new. Good luck. Storing in house in wine racks may be thee best bet if you keep your house in the 60s.
This monster hurricane looming over my shoulder down here in Florida is precisely why 95% of my stuff is in protected, off-site storage. I will lose power the minutes winds crest 75 mph. We lost power for 9-10 days due to Hurricane Charlie. And boy would I love to have a walk-in at my house. I even have the perfect spaces for it. Oh well…
Best wishes for safety, Robert. We will be thinking of you and yours.
No small factor for some of us.
Generator seems like it would be necessary for bigger cellars. Mine has a gas one which runs off our gas line for pretty seamless uninterrupted power but the space is also ~62F in summer anyways so even if power was somehow lost it Wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Are there any Berserkers that are in the off-site storage business?
I do both—long term off site and a home walk in cellar. I have deliveries only to my office as there are too many stories of managers of off-site facilities helping themselves to client wines. Mine does not accept deliveries.
Chuck Miller, I believe.
Yes, for 25 years.
When I lived in Seattle, I did both onsite and offsite. My offsite was with Seattle Wine Storage, Chuck’s place, and I used the very cost effective pallet storage option for wines that I didn’t need to access for several years.
I’ve looked into it (servicing the Los Angeles South Bay area, and I now understand why the area is under-served).