The Basement Wine Cellar

The other night called for a good red wine. I went to our wine cellar, which happens to be in our finished basement. "Wine cellar" is a polite way to express the tough neighborhood where our wines live. We keep the wines on open wire racks or on bookshelves that aren't busy with books. The wine has to swing with the basement's ambient temperature, which amazingly does not vary greatly over the four seasons. We don't turn the bottles, or keep them a desirable storage angle. In short, most oenophiles would find our benign neglect appalling.

I wasn't mindful of any of these concerns when I looked for the right red for the evening. The choice? A California Cabernet Sauvignon that was a Christmas gift. California wines aren't always my first choice, but there was enough complexity and 14.% oomph to make the selection appealing. The glass of wine that evening didn't change my mind about Napa or Sonoma cabernets: I'm selectively wild about them. However, it took the edge off a tough night, and for that I was grateful.