Pinky wrote:
> My own belief is that temperature contol is the most important. The debate
> about corks and other closures is much more difficult! But, that being said,
> if you have a "real cellar" underground then temperature changes are so much
> slower and the wine is so much happier with that sort of regime.
> One can obviously build and maintain a strictly temperature controlled
> cellar but that is not at all necesary.
>
> About 35 year ago I had a pub in Somerset in England. My cellar was quite
> small for a pub but it had a small stream -- well a spring higher up in the
> garden, which ran through my celllar all year round.
> In hot summers I could guarrentee that my draught beer would be the coolest
> in the village and the taps in th ebar woul "frost" up without any
> artificial cooling. My quite small stock of wines was stored there also and
> I never had problems with them.
> The rreal problem with aging is not quite all a matter of the actual
> temperature but rather a wide fluctuation in tempersature. Of couse one can
> add humity control and if you are maintaining artificial temperature control
> then you must similarly maintain humidity control as well. But temperature
> control by natural means is ( IMHO) a n inexpensive and probably the best
> way off doing it.
> When you look how long wine has been made then you must believe in natural
> processes and storage.
>
> Sorry -- one of my "high horses"

Your pub cellar sounds great! If you don't mind my asking, how did you
keep molds and mildew from springing up in the cellar? I'd like to put
a wine cellar in my cellar (yes, real in-the-ground, dirt floor in
portions), but it's quite musty down there. Any tips?

Woods