+- WineBoard (https://www.wines.com/wineboard)
+-- Forum: RESOURCES AND OTHER STUFF (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-300.html)
+--- Forum: Storage/Cellars/Racking (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-43.html)
+--- Thread: Oversized Bottles (/thread-21689.html)
- RAD - 05-26-2002
AAaaarrrrgggggghhhhhh!<P>Anyone else have this problem? As I mentioned in the previous thread, I am re-inventorying my cellar, which is comprised of 2 EuroCaves (supposedly able to hold 520 bottles, but with several sliding shelves, I can only muster ~390).<P>The problem: slightly nonstandard, high-shouldered bottles. I'm no expert on the history of wine bottles, but of course I'm aware of the various French types (Bordeaux, Rhone, Alsace). Those three are fine. What I have a gripe with is when they start to modify the Bordeaux or Rhone types: with the former, making the punt deeper, and giving it higher shoulders, with the bottle ultimately about one inch higher; with the latter, making the bottom more bulbous.<P>The high-shoulder variant is a problem with some Napa cabs (Caymus Special Select comes to mind) and Aussie shirazes. The latter is less common, but evident in many whites, like Cain's Musque clone sauvignon blanc.<P>A third variant on the Bordeaux is the extra-thick, larger diameter bottles like Chappellet's Pritchard Hill, which comes sans capsule and with a wax-capped cork (another gripe, as it sticks to the teflon worm of my screwpull--but I digress).<P>In a small NYC apartment, shelf space is at a premium! If I cannot fit an entire case on a sliding shelf--these anomalous bottles dictate only 10 or 11 per shelf--it creates an unfortunate domino effect that is making me pull out what little hair I have left!!<P>AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!<P>RAD
- Bucko - 05-26-2002
I did have the problem. Not with my new custom cellar. I stored all of those type bottles in a wine storage locker. No longer, <IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif"> <IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif"> <IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif"><P>I used to write to the producers, complaining about the bottles. No one ever bothered to reply except Adam Lee of Siduri. They don't care -- they listen to marketers who don't have a clue......
- hotwine - 05-26-2002
I have that problem, too. Some of the larger bottles are just wide enough that they hang up when lying horizontally on the EuroCave's sliding shelves. At best, it results in labels being skinned off, and at worst, the confounded shelves won't slide! And if I widen the space for each shelf to accommodate the wider bottles, I'll lose one entire shelf, and thus storage for an entire case!<BR>Bucko, you've gotta tell us about that new cellar. Did you install sliding shelves?
- Bucko - 05-26-2002
Apex Cellars installed it. No frills, just pure storage, 2700 bottles, with the walls and ceiling lined with cedar, the floor covered with wine colored tile. The racking is cedar, made wide enough to fit even the most fat Burgundy bottles, with one section made to fit magnum bottles and Champagne. Purely passive, staying at 62 degrees without the door even being installed yet. It should stay in the 58-60 degree range. R-19 walls, R-36 ceiling, two walls on earth. I have four ceiling lights on a dimmer switch to keep the heat down while I try to drag WW out of there (no small task!).<P>It is all that I will ever need.......
- hotwine - 05-26-2002
Calls to mind a "falcon code" that the fighter jocks sometimes used in radio chatter when they managed to hit their target (instead of us): 109 - Just F... Beautiful!
- winoweenie - 05-26-2002
Buki-mosher. The cellar sounds great but I have a suggestion that I stumbled onto because of my business. The red tile floor makes certan that any slippage of your bottles from your hot lil' fingers will result in Bye-Bye Bottle. I carpeted the floor of my cellar and can honestly say the fuzzy-side-up stuff has saved me 3 or 4 cases over the last 18 years. One out of five dropped bottles break. Just a thought. WW And on your problem Rad, I had my son-in-law put in 40 oversized diamonds that hold 18-20 Mags or Double Mags. The biggest pain in the patootie I find are the producers who make the pear-shaped regular bottles. These suckers have the propensity to fall on the floor all by their very-own-selves out of the diamonds. I too, like Bucko, have complained my tookus off about the odd shaped bottles and have had the same results. The Caymus SS are fine, just slightly longer than normal which doesn't make any difference in my cellar. WW<p>[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 05-26-2002).]
- Thomas - 05-27-2002
RAD, I have the same complaint in our shop. Some bottles are so difficult to store on shelves that we must display one and keep the rest in the box. And when someone buys a mixed case, with one or two of the annoying bottles in the mix, we are forced to cut holes in boxtops for bottle necks to stick out, and on and on...<P>Bucko is correct, the producers have a tendency to listen to marketers and not to pragmatists, and so the bottle problem will go on. In Italy there are more bottle shapes than there are cups of espresso served annually.