See full version: The World s Best Wine Cellars: For Billionaires And Maybe For You Too
At first glance, not a whole lot. To see the connection, you would have to look at their wine cellars, designed and painstakingly built by Revel Custom Wine Cellars, which someone familiar with the company described to me as “the Bentley of wine cellars.” (Revel will emphatically not reveal customer names, but I have other sources vouching for these high-powered wine owners).
“We manufacture a proprietary form of wine cellar cabinetry, based on two patented innovations: sliding drawers and rotating lazy Susans specifically designed to hold wine bottles and wooden wine cases. Everything we do is custom.” here
“My thought at the time was that I would just go out and buy it. But after finding that there was nothing similar on the market, I set about designing a new ‘system’ for wine, but it is really more akin to kitchen cabinetry than wine racks. The result was very satisfying. There really hasn't been much change in the way wine is stored in cellars for a couple of hundred years. Our approach truly changes the way one appreciates his or her collection. Besides being so much more functional and intuitive, it has the added benefit of displaying wine bottles visibly, so the collector can see the bottles and read the labels at a glance, instead of looking at a matrix of unidentified bottle tops.” here
It still packs a punch with features, including a compressor cooling technology (allowing you to adjust the temperature between 41 to 64 degrees), an auto-lock for the stainless steel door, and a digital control panel to monitor the unit's temperature and interior LED lights. Better yet, the wine fridge keeps your bottles cool while maintaining a quiet operation, thanks to a vibration-free system. more
Backlit with three different color options, one of which helps to reduce bacteria and mold [links]
Price is accessible to new collectors
If you plan on building the wine cellar into cabinetry, consider this dual-zone model complete with a front vent, beechwood racks, a touch screen and more.
This 30,000-acre Wyoming cattle ranch recently debuted The Farm, a food-and-drink dimension with a distillery, brewery, restaurant and state-of-the-art cellar. Gretchen Allen, the head sommelier, hopes to grow the subterranean space to 100,000 bottles. It’s an ode to Bordeaux wines, as evidenced by one of the most extensive collections of First Growth wines from all five houses, along with an array of covetable large-format bottlings. [links]
Bern’s Steakhouse, a member of Wine Enthusiast‘s Restaurant Hall of Fame, opened in 1956 and has a loyal following for its lauded wine collection. The focus at the Tampa restaurant is on France and California, and the cellar includes rarities like an 1845 Château Gruaud Larose. Diners can check out more than 200 options by the glass to pair with the restaurant’s prized plates, from Chateaubriand carpaccio and duck confit to Osetra caviar and foie gras a la plancha. more
Inspired by the grand cellars of Bordeaux, this space was built in 1874 behind Monte Carlo’s famed Hôtel de Paris. Once completed, the cellar’s combined surface area reached more than 16,000 square feet. Guests can taste through the selection at either the onsite, Michelin-starred restaurants, or a private dining experience in the cellars. Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Princess Grace celebrated their 20th anniversary there. more
Located in a historic 18th-century mansion, this lavish hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, houses the Caribbean’s first five-star restaurant, an accolade enhanced only by its colossal wine collection. Owner Enrico Garzaroli has curated the selection for decades. It showcases more than 5,000 wineries from 20 countries. Rarities include an 1865 Château Lafite and a 1727 Rüdesheimer Apostelwein. here
Some of the world’s newest and most historic properties boast impressive cellars that are outdone only by the wines themselves, like 2000 Pétrus and 1845 Château Gruaud Larose.
Antoine Alciatore opened this New Orleans restaurant in 1840, where he helped lay the groundwork for French Creole cuisine. While the venue’s original wine collection was lost during Hurricane Katrina, the team has built it up again in staggering ways. It’s housed in a 165-foot wine “alley” with an emphasis on French finds.
These restaurants are famous for their awarded chefs and their world-class menus. But the secret to these establishments—the subterranean secret—is in their cellars. There, collections of thousands (and thousands) of wines with a value of millions (and millions) of dollars can be discovered. These cellars are altars to “the grape,” from the pre-Roman caves at Don Alfonso 1890 in Sant’Agata, Italy, to the “secret” stores at 21 in New York. [links]
Here, AD presents an exclusive excursion into the world’s most awesome cellars. more