A wine cellar from scratch

The gardeners at Chateau Bouteiller recently brought to my attention an outbuilding (photo below - the ‘caged’ area was probably where the bull spent the night) that had been sitting empty for a couple of centuries. What to do with it?

“Ha ha”, said I, “How about we start a new wine cellar (or cave as we say in France) from scratch. Let’s face it, the old cave is choc-a-bloc with first growth Bordeaux laid down before the last war”.

So it was agreed that this new out-building would become our ‘new’ wine cellar. Not only being a place to lay down some Burgundies for a few years but also as a venue for friends to store, taste and discuss all things oenophile !

The first decision was storage - after some discussion re racks and the like we decided traditional wooden ‘bins’, diagonal shelving in which the bottles can be stacked naturally were the way forward. This is currently work in progress but we’ve already decided to have an ‘open house’ in December so watch this space.

The area lends itself to it (see the pic. of the cattle feeding troughs below). The old troughs are all around the interior and we’re not sure how to utilize them best. My view is just to clean them up and fill them with ’snacks’ :-) Our Gardener’s view that they might be utilized as spitoons was discussed and dismissed.

So watch this space to find out how the Butler Bureau’s smelly cow shed will be transformed into a ‘cave’ - we’ve already invited people to the grand opening in December so we’re seriously motivated to get it finished soon.

If you have any ideas as to how we can turn this into the best wine-cellar of all leave a comment to let us know. We’ll be publishing the photos as it progresses.