On Jul 14, 1:36�am, "Dark Helmet" > wrote:
> Hello all. �5+ years ago I was an occasional poster and constant lurker on
> this NG, but 4 years in northern Ohio, the land of no wine drinkers, left my
> wine hobby/habit/obsession out in the cold. �I now live in the Fresno area
> and have been happily pursuing my passion again. �Being 1.5 hours from Paso
> Robles and 2-4 hours from many of the best California areas has been quite
> exhilarating. Paso Robles has been a real treat and a journey of discovery
> of some incredible wines I simply would have missed otherwise. �There is
> some truly incredible "stuff" coming out of this area, and prices tend to be
> lower as the name just isn't as marketable yet. �Lucky for me.
>
> This new area though, leaves me with a real issue. �Since I do not have a
> basement, as most CA houses do not, I now own a large Vinotemp, which fits
> nicely into a space in my dining room. �I think it was a 550 unit, and has
> around 300 bottles in it currently. �Bottles range from Bordeaux to Rhone to
> Down Under to CA mainly. �Two things worry me about this set-up:
>
> 1. �Power outages - The temperatures during the summer in Fresno hit around
> 100F daily. �I know with the wine mass in there, I have some time during an
> extended outage, but I'm not sure how long.
>
> 2. �Cooling Unit malfunction - This worries me the most. �If the cooling
> unit dies, I have no clue what to do. �The whole cooler sits about 6 inches
> from the wall, which leaves no room to service the unit and moving it would
> be impossible with 300+ bottles inside. �Not to mention I have no idea if
> anyone could service it or if I would just have to replace the cooling
> unit - but I fear that is not a short process.
>
> So, I'm looking for someone smarter than me out there who relies on a unit
> like I do - how are you prepared for the above situations? � is there a
> simple way to repair a cooling unit? �Do you keep a spare as backup? �I can
> see having a 3rd party wine storage facility on backup, but I cant see how
> to get the wine there in an emergency. �I have seriously thought about
> digging a cellar in my backyard, but it's not really feasible at the moment,
> and might be difficult anyways given the small-ish yard, housing covenants,
> and potential cost.
>
> Just looking for some general feedback.
>
> Thanks all and glad to see a lot of old familar names still posting here.
>
> Dark Helmet (I'm still leary of using anything close to my real name on
> Usenet)

Probably not an issue in the short run but there's always the dry ice
back-up when things go wrong for a long time as in a total mechanical
failure. As an aside, I was involved in a wine distributorship in
Ohio and sold a lot of wine in Northern Ohio especially in Toledo,
Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown so perhaps you were either in a really
small town or you didn't hook up with the right people but there are
some really serious wine folks up there. Dr. Frank Komorowski of
Bellevue has one of the largest private collections in America housed
in a former bank building in Bellevue.