Keeping bottles of fine vino, whether for investment or pleasure, is finicky business. It demands stringency and stability in an environment to thereby breed vivacity and excitement – over a month, a year, or a decade. Such storage isn’t for its own sake, after all. One must be able to inspect (or remove) bottles with ease to entertain and educate the curious – so it’s not just a matter of filling a dank basement and throwing away the key. You could do much better – take a leaf from the pages of Texan architecture firm Clayton Korte. They’ve recently unveiled a private wine cellar – with space for some 4,000 odd bottles – that’s dug from solid limestone in Texan hill country.
Being hewn from natural limestone has its benefits. The cave acts as a natural cellar for the alcohol, with metres of solid stone and concrete acting as buffer against the passing of the seasons, whilst moderating the temperature within (around 12 to 15 degrees Celsius, with supplemental cooling). Extracting said limestone (boulders from which now decorate the entrance to the wine cellar) proved to be quite the feat since builders had to essentially tunnel into the side of a hill. The result is worth it though – plenty of elbow room to house, as we said, a luxurious collection of 4,000 bottles, as well as accompanying tasting room, bar space and toilet.
For more of Clayton Korte’s architecture.
Images by Casey Dunn.
