Cellar diary

[uncle tom]

August 24th

Took the works van on a trip down to Rosebery's saleroom in south London - noted the new emission zone signing, ready for October, but not covered up, which was a bit confusing. Can't help feeling that Khan's London is putting up big signs saying 'go away - we want to be alone' - not sure this is going to play out well, long term.

So much scope for breaking rules accidentally when driving around London now, with cameras everywhere, ready and willing to punish accidental misdemeanours. Three to four decades ago I saw London driving as a pleasurable challenge - now it's just miserable.

Got to Rosebery's and was relieved to find they had some off-street parking space. Just as well I took a supply of wine boxes, my winnings, all 83 bottles, were loose in mesh baskets. I also picked up a weird lot of framed sheets of stamps a few lots after the wine. Dating from the 1980s, these mint stamps had a face value of £82, but were knocked down to me on the opening bid of £10 - does the rule still apply that post offices have to swap mint stamps for cash on request still apply? If not, my correspondence will be decorative, going forward..

Detoured on the way back to Stacey's saleroom in Rayleigh where I'd picked up a dozen bottles on a shot to nothing bid. A couple of moderately interesting old LBVs covered the bid, the rest just basic quaffing. Arriving I drove into the car park past a line of people waiting for Covid jabs, only to find the only way out was to reverse back past said people, carefully, and reverse back into a busy road - never fun in a van.

My stash from Rosebery's looked very eclectic, most bottles appearing unique, and mostly with very badly decayed labels. First bottle out when I got home was the least promising - a non vintage French rose that looked about 50 years old. The cork just had the classic 'mis en bouteille' etc wording. I wondered if it might be at the sweet end of the scale, and able to survive the years, but no. The wine had not turned to vinegar though.

Next up from the stash a riesling shaped bottle with remnants of German gothic lettering, now in the fridge. As back up, a bottle of Haut Plaisance '70 - slight seepage evident, but good colour.

Port-wise, the Malvedos '86 was young and rich, the Calem '85 had less VA than some I've had, but not free of it; and along the way I've quaffed a Fonseca '03 LBV and half a bottle of FUR - I'll probably decant the GC70 tomorrow.

What needs doing in the cellar? A couple more cases need to be inducted - I aim to induct 162 bottles of VP over any period of 12 months. My next target will probably be a case of Croft Roeda '80, that got hastily dumped into a rack a couple of years ago, after it's owc started to fall apart when moved.

[winesecretary]

I induct all accumulated wine every time I vist my cellar, it is literally my first job that weekend. Otherwise it never happens. [I fear it may be too late for this learned experience to help Tom...]

[uncle tom]

I induct all accumulated wine every time I vist my cellar,

By induct, I mean bring vintage port previously classified as kindergarten (too young to drink) or ladies in waiting (old enough, but not yet serviced) into current drinking..

[uncle tom]

August 26th

I decided that rather than wax over the failing replacement cork on the Dow 45, I’d re-cork it a second time.

A while now since I last re-corked anything, so time to dig out my various tools.

I have two French made floor standing corking machines. This might sound greedy, but after discovering five years ago that the design couldn’t handle magnums, but that with a little re-engineering one could, I bought a second off eBay, with the intention of doing just that.

The bottle to be re-corked sits on a platform attached to a vertical shaft, which runs inside a spring to support the platform. By cutting down the shaft and changing the spring, a taller bottle could be accommodated.

Since then however, the need to re-cork a magnum has yet to recur, so it remains ‘a round tuit’.

Removing the old cork required some care, as I could see it was minded to drop into the bottle. I carefully caught it with a simple Screwpull and gently drew the slightly dropped cork back to it's proper position at the top of the bottle.

Then removing the screw from its frame, I wound the spiral right through the cork and gently eased it out. The cork fragmented however, and only about 90% emerged.

Time to deploy my other instruments. First out a fisherman’s penknife, which has a flat hooked scraping tool. I’m not sure what indignity this is supposed to inflict on some poor unsuspecting fish, but it is very good at removing remnants of cork stuck to the side of the neck.

Next I needed to deal with a few crumbs now floating on the surface. For these I use a pair of oversized tweezers, about 12” long overall, which nimbly fish bits of cork out of the wine.

Finally I cleaned round the top of the neck, both inside and out, with a cotton bud soaked in hydrogen peroxide.

I had already selected a vintage quality cork to use as a replacement, which I first sniffed to check for any sign of TCA, and then washed in a tumbler with a sulphur sterilising solution.

The still wet cork popped into the jaws of the corking machine, the bottle was speedily and very professionally re-sealed.

It’s a very satisfying machine to use.

[jdaw1]

a fishermen’s penknife, which has a flat hooked scraping tool. I’m not sure what indignity this is supposed to inflict on some poor unsuspecting fish, but it is very good at removing remnants of cork stuck to the side of the neck.

I want. Please post a link to the type you think optimal.

Separately, how confident are you that the recorking process described does not damage the goods?

[uncle tom]

I want. Please post a link to the type you think optimal.

I bought mine over a decade ago, chunky, classic design and well engineered, with about a dozen attachments, but no obvious maker's name.

Searched Google images: nada - eBay: nada - a fisherman's chandlers with over 100 different folding knives listed: nada..

I went through the Vitorinox site to see if I could spot the blade shape on anything else - but no joy..

Essentially it's a penknife blade, sharp down one side, with a blunt end that has been rolled over to create a small hook about 3/8" wide and about 3/16" deep.

Separately, how confident are you that the recorking process described does not damage the goods?

Very. I re-corked several old bottles before I mastered the art of making the perfect wax seal, and have since drunk most of them. No evident issues at all.

[jdaw1]

Mindful of Cork Questions: Wine Wizard, whence come your corks, and how old are they?

[uncle tom]

Mindful of Cork Questions: Wine Wizard, whence come your corks, and how old are they?

From the little wine supplies shop in Pinhao IIRC

That piece seems a little excited. Cork is a very enduring tannic wood that looks after itself remarkably well. Mine are a few years old now and live in a wooden box in the cellar. They are not dried out, they are not mouldy, they seem absolutely fine. But I soaked it in a sulphur solution just to be on the safe side.

[uncle tom]

August 27th

Whilst traversing Tesco I spied some diced beef on the bargain shelf, still in date but only just. However as beef keeps well past date without issue, I grabbed some - all I needed was some undrinkable red wine to marinate it with.

I looked at my recently acquired stash. A bottle of Fronton - Bellevue La Foret 1978 - leaking and ullaged to low shoulder - seemed a good candidate.

But the wine was lovely - too good to put in the pot - nearer to a Burgundy than Claret in style.

No-one seems to regard Fronton wines as 'investment grade' so you hardly ever see them at auction, but I shall be on the look out for more old specimens now.

The beef remained in the fridge and I enjoyed the wine with a takeaway, followed by a still very young Gould Campbell '70.

[uncle tom]

August 29th

Another case inducted to current drinking - my last case of Croft Roeda '80. I've got quite a bit of this, no superstar, but a reliable mature quaffer.

Seven bottles with level in neck, the others base of neck. I define 'In neck' as being any level that is at least 1/8" (3mm for the metricated) into the neck. If the level is more than half way between the base of neck and cork the level becomes IN+ and less than 3/8" from the base of the cork as IN++ (aka 'High fill')

With her indoors away again I waxed the D45, and while I was at it gave the F63 a dip to save it for another day. Also waxed a Warre '34 - no sign of seepage, but surreptitiously losing nearly 1000mg a year.

A few casual inspections to fill up my sheet prior to filing it - a Harvey's bottled pristine Sandeman '55, a couple of Ferreira '60's with exceptional levels, a rough looking Vargellas '57 with stained selo, but only losing 66mg p.a.; and A Niepoort Garrafeira 1933 - waxed over foil capsule, last checked six years ago. Not sure whether to list the label 'bin soiled' as they were always designed to look that way.

Need to do some more inductions to keep up to speed with the system - will drop into my holding cellar on Tuesday.

[uncle tom]

September 1st

The works van being needed for works biz and my car still awaiting a new alternator (this Friday, hopefully) I delayed venturing over to my holding cellar until today.

I was armed with four baskets. After placing four of the Croft Roeda ’80 bottles in my current drinking cellar, two of the baskets conveyed the other eight. I also basket cased some Vesuvio ‘91 and Dow ‘91 in the interests of making space.

I have a longer term ambition to get all bottles out of their original cases by the end of their 36th year, and also to get most bottles first weighed six years prior to being wanted, in order to order them by ullage rate when weighed a second time, and inducted into current drinking.

On both counts I have some way to go and am not rushing things – I aim to get 162 75cL bottles first weighed every year. I have now finished processing all the bottles from the 1970s, and plan to complete the 1980 vintage next year. However I still have a fair tranche of 82’s and 83’s left, and only half my ‘85’s have so far been processed.

Today however, I approached the other end of the objective, liberating a dozen Churchill 2003s for attention. These were not sorted, tagged, or fully recorded, merely numbered with a liquid chalk pen on the right shoulder and weighed. As I normally grab bottles with my left hand, I find this location for a number is the least likely to get accidentally rubbed off. A right handed person might prefer to mark the other side.

Mindful of the diced steak that is beginning to get little aged in the fridge, I filled a basket from my Rosebery’s stash – looking for potential cooking juice. A 1987 Esporao from the Lisboa region perhaps?

- It is again far too good for cooking with, so the steak has gone in the freezer.

[uncle tom]

September 3rd

Time to plan a re-stack of one of the bays in my holding cellar - bay 6 to be precise. It's a bit depleted and untidy, and I want to re-stack it and add some recent purchases at the same time.

First off I copied the 30 cases currently residing there from my stock database onto a fresh spreadsheet, and decided which I will want to extract over the course of the next year, which I'm likely to extract over the next three years, and which can be re-stacked for the long haul. Six stashes are flagged for the coming year, and will be transferred to a shelving unit near the cellar door. Eleven cases flagged for the medium term - these will be put to one side and then placed at the top and front of the re-stacked bay.

The bay itself is 60" wide, 60" high and 30" deep. To make sense of the many case shapes used for port, I classify them into one of four categories:

Cases with a horizontal dimension that is 12.5" to 13.5" (A); cases with a horizontal dimension of 15.5" to 16.5" (B); those whose two horizontal dimensions fit both size parameters (AB); and those that fail to have either horizontal dimension (C).

In practice, (C) cases are almost entirely those with bottles that are not 75cL.

The maximum of the two dimensions, 13.5" and 16.5", adds up to 30" - the depth of the bay. I stack (B) cases at the back of the bay, and (A) cases in front of them. (AB) cases are then deployed at either position to balance the numbers, and C cases are usually put at the top, or on the shelving by the door.

As I stack, so I record the location. The holding cellar is cellar 3, this is bay six, so the storage codes start 3B6. Then comes the horizontal position, LL = Left, CL = Centre Left, CC = Centre, CR = Centre Right, RR = Right; and finally F or Fore or A for Aft, to give me a six character storage code.

~~~

I finally begrudged some old wine for the cooking pot. A claret bottle, capsule corroded to the point of being illegible, label rotted ditto, top of cork went to countless pieces when I tried to remove it. The wine was a little dried out, beefy, but perfectly quaffable. A libation made in the kitchen, I drank the rest of it. The bottom of the cork had fallen into the bottle and had some legible branding. Peering through the glass I could make out part of the vintage date - 193..?

My pre-war marinated stew was very nice..

[JacobH]

Got to Rosebery's and was relieved to find they had some off-street parking space. Just as well I took a supply of wine boxes, my winnings, all 83 bottles, were loose in mesh baskets. I also picked up a weird lot of framed sheets of stamps a few lots after the wine. Dating from the 1980s, these mint stamps had a face value of £82, but were knocked down to me on the opening bid of £10 - does the rule still apply that post offices have to swap mint stamps for cash on request still apply? If not, my correspondence will be decorative, going forward..

The bottom has fallen out of the stamp market over the last decade or so. I think the traditional stamp catalogues over-value stamps by a factor of about 10 on average, compared to what you can buy them for via. a dealer or online. I sometimes buy things on ebay from stamp dealers, and they inevitably come in an envelope stamped with vintage stamps. Interestingly, they almost never seem to get cancelled: I wonder whether they flummox the automatic machines and the people who are supposed to do them manually don’t like using a permanent marker to put a cross on unusual stamps? I think the ½p value is no longer recognised, even when combined with a larger figure so 2 × 2½p stamps = 4p of postage but I have no idea if that is actually enforced on a regular basis. I don’t think you can return stamps to the PO these days for cash, although there are companies who offer to buy them for a percentage of the face value. I have no idea what those percentages are or what they then do with them.

[uncle tom]

September 5th

A lazy weekend. The Noval '75 has been an absolute darling - my best VP of the year to date, will finish it shortly (sadly)

The grand re-stack of bay 6 will take place sometime this coming week, in the meantime I put away the chalked and weighed Ch03. When bottles are racked, but not tagged, I give one bottle a cheap plastic key fob tag with the metal ring removed and a rubber band put in it's place, marked with it's case number. Rubber lasts forever if it's away from two things: UV from sunlight, and ozone from electrical equipment. Although too small in quantity to detect by smell, the ozone from a microwave seems to kill any rubber bands nearby in a matter of weeks.

I digress. Having delivered back the dozen freshly weighed Ch03 I needed to pick up a bottle of Senhoro do Convento LBV 2003, which left 11 vacant places in the baskets. I was reminded of a case of T85, bought pristine, but loose, eight years ago from Christies. Well, almost pristine - one bottle was wet from apparent seepage, but when drunk through there was nothing under the capsule to suggest a problem. The other 11 bottles duly loaded in the baskets, all looking very sound, I had another quick dive into my Rosebery stash. The burgundy bottles have almost all lost their neck tags that normally indicate the vintage; however the glass being usually pale, cutting the foil often reveals. First up a very clear 1966, plus a lot of extra text that will take some research. Second a badly ullaged bottle that looked like low end burgundy circa 1960s/1970s; short cork, badly ullaged, cork blackened and illegible - glass embossed round the base with the words 'not to be refilled' in both English and French.

Although a humble player, probably never intended to survive more than a year or two after bottling, it has been a delight to drink this evening..

[uncle tom]

September 9th

This week's late summer heat has been no weather for lugging around cases or carrying bottles in hot cars, but a little pottering around in the cool of the cellar is most agreeable.

Some inspections of odd old bottles - an old bottle of Feuerheerd 'Commandador' - is it a tawny, is is a ruby? I've no idea - nor any real plan as to when to drink it. Although no visible sign of seepage, its ullaging at 559mg p.a. so the T stopper is probably on its last legs. Then there's the bottle of Fonseca 'Very old tawny' with a note on the label saying it was received as a Xmas present from 'PNG' in 1969 - so a very much older tawny now.

I will never know who PNG was (or maybe still is..) or what they would make of their Xmas gift being still unopened 52 years later.

Inspected a nice stash of Berry's bottled Taylor '55. Four bottles remaining of an original six, two of whom still have a high fill level. Ullaging at 99mg.

Opened another one of my Rosebery bottles last night - Avery's bottled, burgundy bottle shape, unbranded cork, no clue to vintage and only remnants of the label: something Montrachet possibly? The wine looked murky so I suspected it had gone sick, but no - it was just still a very dark wine, which I drank with indecent speed before moving on to the Senhora do Convento 2003 LBV - a wine of a standard that could easily be passed off as VP.

Time to inspect a few LBVs..

[winesecretary]

That Rosebery's bottle sounds like a burgundy that had been 'improved' with with some syrah. It can be surprisingly good with 40-50 years of ageing...

[uncle tom]

That Rosebery's bottle sounds like a burgundy that had been 'improved' with with some syrah. It can be surprisingly good with 40-50 years of ageing...

When did the English merchants stop bottling claret and burgundy? The practice seems to have ended at much the same time as VP bottling was confined to Portugal, but I don't know the exact timeline..

[jdaw1]

When did the English merchants stop bottling claret and burgundy? The practice seems to have ended at much the same time as VP bottling was confined to Portugal, but I don't know the exact timeline..

The Wine Society Spring List, May/September 1980:

Bottle size

In common with the rest of wine merchants, the Society continues to use 70 cl content bottles for most of its own bottlings of fortified and table wines. The 1976 and 1975 clarets, bottled in 73 cl content, are exceptions. The reason for this is that 75 cl content bottles, which we hope will eventually become normal, have been very difficult and expensive to obtain in this country, since there is little demand for them from the larger firms. The Australians, Californians and South Africans use 75 cl content: and some French, Italian. and German bottlers do, as marked in the list, although 70 cl is more common in Italy and Germany and 73 cl in Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire. Our Alsace wines come in 70 cl content bottles and the standard Champagne bottle holds 75 cl, Eastern Europe and Spain usually bottle in 70 cl, unless indicated. Whisky. Gin and Vodka will be bottled in 75 cl fractionally less than the old 26⅔ fl.oz. size; Cognac is bottled in 70 cl, the old, 24 fl oz, as is traditional.

[JacobH]

That is really interesting. I’ve often wondered about this but never seen it set out so clearly. I wonder why the traditional bottle size in England was 24 fl oz rather than 25 which would be 1¼ pint (or 1 pint, 1 gill)? Also why the premium French wines were sold in 73cl rather than 75cl, which seems the more obvious size (as ¾ litre)?

Perhaps the differences between the round numbers at the bottling numbers was to allow for wastage?

[uncle tom]

September 18th,

After a few days pottering around doing other things, a little session of weighing LBVs. Two little stashes, both with driven corks, first weighed six years ago.

First up, my six remaining bottles of a case of Duff Gordon 1991, ullaging at between 49mg p.a. and 82mg p.a. Then six bottles of Warre 1995, ullaging at between 17mg and 50mg, with four of the six recording 34mg.

When I first started weighing bottles, I focused on the older bottles and only made a very few second weighings of young wines. The numbers on these two stashes are coming in somewhat lower than I expected, although the Duff Gordon bottles with slightly lower levels have already been drunk through.

Is my plan for a six year interval between first and second weighings going to be long enough to separate the sheep from the goats? Should I weigh bottles to a greater resolution than 0.1g?

The obvious step of buying a balance that reads to 0.01g is complicated by the fact that at that resolution, draughts, including one's own breath, can send the number up and down with ease. Changing to measuring in grains is tempting (0.065g) but whilst many balances will read in obscure units not known on these shores, not many list grains in their list of displayed units.

Maybe the six year interval will be enough to flag up weakling corks - maybe these twelve bottles are all better players - will wait until I have more six year data on young wines.

The computer checks my inspection record on a rolling basis - counting the number inspected in each age group over the previous 365 days, and comparing that with the annual target number. Thus instructed, some 70-79 year olds have been given an inspection, also three 100yr plus bottles.

One of those is of a vintage we'll never have a horizontal of, and a shipper we'll never have a vertical of. It has a decent pedigree (bought a long time ago from a long time friend of Michael Broadbent) and the bottle glass looks reasonably correct, but the capsule has been replaced or reinforced, and the label re-affixed with Sellotape. Ullage rate and wine colour look consistent with a very old bottling.

More than that I won't say, as I think this will be my candidate for this year's Xmas bash..

[uncle tom]

22nd September

A case of Vesuvio '95 liberated from its case today, the case itself somewhat battered as it had long since been deprived of it's cardboard outer, so will go on the pub's kindling pile. But what to do with the pottery bin tag? Seems such a waste to bin it.

Four of the bottles have fairly easily seen levels, but two are completely opaque. Modern glassmakers still struggle to get colour consistency sometimes. Also odd is that while some bottles from the 1960's have a dry weight that is almost identical, the weights of these bottles are all over the show, despite consistent levels. Very aged glass making machinery, I suspect.

As I've already got one six pack of V95 weighed and tagged, these bottles have been chalk numbered and will be returned to the holding cellar. Why did I choose this case? - It was in the way while I was re-stacking.

Next to do - a few more inspections, 50-60 yr olds this time.

[Alex Bridgeman]

*Sigh*

I am so enjoying the Cellar Diary entries. Thoroughly enjoyable gentle reading.

Thank you Tom. Please don’t stop.

PS - I use my spare Vesuvio bin labels as garden markers. A black wax pencil on the reverse side of the label allows me to write the name and date of sowing.

[uncle tom]

September 25th

I finished consuming my first case of Fonseca 85 (a six pack) last December, so time to get another into service. This one bought from Bonham's 11 years ago as a full dozen owc but the case itself was not in very good shape. For the past nine years these bottles have lived, upside down, in a crate in my holding cellar.

No leaky bottles, but two had a very slight discolouration of the selos. All bottles completely opaque so had to be judged on weight alone. One of the two with a stained selo was also the lightest, so a strong hint of ullaging. The other was mid range weight-wise but also had a cork that had not quite gone fully home. These two will be the first candidates for execution. The other ten spanned a fairly even weight range of 12g, whereas from ullage alone I would expect a weight range of about 3-4g at that age, so another candidate for old glass making machinery. I've noticed from past weighings that the old machines tended to be used when the bottles have dates or crests applied on the shoulder.

My last flight of VP for home consumption finished last night - one where every bottle showed better than expected, or in one case, feared. So the next task is to load the next six. Tonight, however, reminded by a thread elsewhere, I shall pop a Rozes 40yr, bottled in 2005.

[uncle tom]

September 26th

The Rozes 40yr was better than my past recollection, but if you are not fond of marzipan you will not like it's nose. After two glasses I got quite a sugar overload, so will take the rest more gently. No rush to drink these - plenty of beef to keep it alive for decades.

Now for the next flight for home consumption, the computer to the rescue as usual.

First bottle, the first from a previously untouched stash - a Martinez '87. This bottled propelled to the fore by virtue of slight seepage signs.

Next up, a bottle or vintage that is in overstock, on this occasion both - Taylor '60. Also aided by evidence of a little seepage.

Then a bottle that has either a poor level or high ullage, this time a Delaforce '85, obscure glass but a high ullage rate of 322mg p.a.

The fourth bottle has to be a wine that has not been recently drunk at home. The computer picked a Niepoort 1991 - last sampled over 12 years ago on 26/3/2009.

The fifth bottle has to be a 'drink up' candidate, and in this flight I've planted a bottle, as the computer doesn't handle unknown vintages. Known to be Noval after removing the foil, but the vintage date is hard to discern - probably 60's. As it's an odd bottle with a VTS level, one to drink through.

And the final bottle on the flight, a bottle that is the last from its stash, but in this case a rather messy odd bottle - a Borges '79

All six bottles will be shortly stood up in a little pine cupboard in the cellar that I had fashioned for the purpose, the bottles in a neat single row with a a 1960 crown coin indicating the next bottle to be drawn. At the side is a stack of half crowns bearing notable vintage dates - one is moved from left to right each time I start a new flight. This being the sixth flight of the year, the sixth coin bears the image of Edward VII and the fine date of 1908.

[JacobH]

Might we have a photograph of your pine cupboard, please?

[uncle tom]

Might we have a photograph of your pine cupboard, please?

If I can remember how..

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=65 ... 5591415821

[JacobH]

I really like that. I might have to steal the idea, perhaps with slightly fewer bottles. I like that you have space to keep all the bits and pieces that accumulate.

[uncle tom]

I really like that. I might have to steal the idea, perhaps with slightly fewer bottles. I like that you have space to keep all the bits and pieces that accumulate.

I found a guy on eBay making cupboards from reclaimed pine. The width was perfect, but his standard shelf height was too high to fit a bottle on the top shelf. I asked him if he could make me a special with a lower shelf, and he happily obliged.

[nac]

A case of Vesuvio '95 liberated from its case today, the case itself somewhat battered as it had long since been deprived of it's cardboard outer, so will go on the pub's kindling pile. But what to do with the pottery bin tag? Seems such a waste to bin it.

Our friend GEAG might be interested?

[winesecretary]

@ nac - Thank you, but GEAG's bin-label-collecting friend has the 1995...

[uncle tom]

October 3rd

I wanted to have a look at bottle 828A - a lone bottle of Sandeman '54 - or is it '34..? I've plenty of Sa34 but the '54 is rare and the capsule is a bit ambiguous. I wanted to have another look at the capsule to see if I could era date it. Computer said location code 06J18 - but there it was not..

I went into detective mode. Everyone puts bottles in the wrong place from time to time, having some systems in place to help trace errant bottles can be helpful.

Had it been drawn in a busy moment and consumed, with no record kept? Easily done. To guard against this I have two safeguards; first is the neck tag that is always cut off and put in a basket before the bottle is removed from the cellar. Until three years ago these tags had no dedicated home in the cellar. Very occasionally one might get mislaid. I then acquired a bottle that came complete with a pouring basket, which was effectively re-purposed as a tag repository. When did I last inspect this bottle? - last year. The introduction of the basket and lack of social events since it was last inspected made it very likely that it was still in the cellar - just somewhere else.

My second safeguard is that I forbid myself from entering the cellar unless sober. Spur of the moment, rule breaking excursions below stairs are not permitted.

So I checked the written record of the last inspection - no new storage location recorded - but did I forget to note it..?

My next tool was my rack mapping software, which maps the location of every bottle on to a spreadsheet matrices, and throws up alerts if two bottles appear to occupy the same spot. I've not run this tool for some time, and running it threw up two queries.

Errors resolved, I printed out maps of the racks to look for holes that should be empty - but were not.

This revealed my wayward bottle in position 07B04 - moved, but erroneously not recorded.

And is it 54 or 34? I'm still not sure. The wax capsule type I've seen before, but don't still own an example to compare it too. Annoying. I'll leave it booked as '54 until we next have a Sandeman vertical - if it turns out to be twenty years older than expected, I doubt many will grumble..

[M.Charlton]

October 3rd

I wanted to have a look at bottle 828A - a lone bottle of Sandeman '54 - or is it '34..? I've plenty of Sa34 but the '54 is rare and the capsule is a bit ambiguous. I wanted to have another look at the capsule to see if I could era date it. Computer said location code 06J18 - but there it was not..

I went into detective mode. Everyone puts bottles in the wrong place from time to time, having some systems in place to help trace errant bottles can be helpful.

Had it been drawn in a busy moment and consumed, with no record kept? Easily done. To guard against this I have two safeguards; first is the neck tag that is always cut off and put in a basket before the bottle is removed from the cellar. Until three years ago these tags had no dedicated home in the cellar. Very occasionally one might get mislaid. I then acquired a bottle that came complete with a pouring basket, which was effectively re-purposed as a tag repository. When did I last inspect this bottle? - last year. The introduction of the basket and lack of social events since it was last inspected made it very likely that it was still in the cellar - just somewhere else.

My second safeguard is that I forbid myself from entering the cellar unless sober. Spur of the moment, rule breaking excursions below stairs are not permitted.

So I checked the written record of the last inspection - no new storage location recorded - but did I forget to note it..?

My next tool was my rack mapping software, which maps the location of every bottle on to a spreadsheet matrices, and throws up alerts if two bottles appear to occupy the same spot. I've not run this tool for some time, and running it threw up two queries.

Errors resolved, I printed out maps of the racks to look for holes that should be empty - but were not.

This revealed my wayward bottle in position 07B04 - moved, but erroneously not recorded.

And is it 54 or 34? I'm still not sure. The wax capsule type I've seen before, but don't still own an example to compare it too. Annoying. I'll leave it booked as '54 until we next have a Sandeman vertical - if it turns out to be twenty years older than expected, I doubt many will grumble..

The discipline required to forbid oneself from entering the cellar unless sober is undoubtedly up there with one of the most commendable things I’ve ever heard. So for what it’s worth, Tom, I commend you.

[uncle tom]

October 15th

Summer is a'going out.. as I opened the door to my holding cellar today, the air coming out felt warm. I don't monitor cellar temperatures religiously; I do have a data logger, but it's apt to run down when I'm not looking, and it takes an odd sized and expensive battery. A thermometer on the wall has been reading very close to 60F since June - the seasonal temperature change in this cellar does not seem to follow a sine curve so much as a summer plateau and winter plateau.

A little unremarkable pottering around of late - a case of Noval '95 has been prised, chalked weighed and returned, and a little search for an AWOL case of three Taylor VVV 2000 was successful. I have four of these, so will open one soon to get some bottles chalked and weighed.

Have been happily drinking through the Rosebery stash, picking off the ones with no discernible ID, and my impression of old Rioja's has improved considerably as a result. There's about a dozen old bottles in the stash with clear ID and in good order that would easily make £50 a go at auction, so I'm well pleased with my bargain.

A little session of recording consumed bottles taking tags from the cellar basket, a glorious Taylor 60, a young Eira Velha '87 with just the faintest hint of VA, and a very uninspiring Delaforce '85. This is not a faulty '85 but it is hard to credit it as being of vintage quality. Also consumed recently was a very nice standard Noval tawny, with around 20-30 years of bottle age, and a very elegant bottle of Borges VVV - bottled in 1947 and probably 30 or so years old at the time.

Next in the decanter, a very old bottle of Graham's six grapes with ancient label and driven cork, probably around a half century old. Since buying the bottle eight years ago I've been vaguely keeping it for an interesting occasion, but as I have many other interesting bottles, think I'll drink it through instead..

[uncle tom]

November 2nd

I keep most of my cellar data on two Excel spreadsheets. One has formatted basic data on every stash and a variety of analytical tools, occupying 5Mb. The second is a wholly unformatted data sheet that carries all my notes and details of every bottle. It is normally hidden and not edited directly, taking instruction from the first sheet and saving data from it, it occupies 2Mb.

Putting all the data on one spreadsheet would result in a heavy and slow file.

I was aware that my backup systems were not perfect, that the two sheets needed to be backed more frequently, and simultaneously. I had started writing code to do this automatically - but had not got it operational yet.

Then I recently discovered an issue with my Excel Vba coding - a corrupting influence had crept in. At first I thought I had accidentally overwritten a single character in the code, then I suspected I had run a Ctrl+H to replace text in a routine and accidentally replaced everything in the project, but the potency of that tool and the potential for calamity is such that I very rarely use it, and only then with huge care. Was it the legendary 'digital decay' - had it simply corrupted itself?

I'm still not 100% sure. What I do know is that I ran a corrupted routine which in turn mucked up a load of data, and worse, I didn't spot the problem for a couple of weeks. The backups being out of sync complicated matters.

What I did have were saved written cellar notes, and a scanning routine I wrote some time ago that tests all the data entries and looks for irregularities.

The scanning routine takes about a minute to work through the 13000 lines of the database. It threw up about 200 errors.. At one point I was tempted to call time on the restoration and accept that I really don't need my TN on a bottle of Cockburn Special Reserve drunk in 2009; but, in for a penny..

I think I've got it mostly sorted - I hope fully sorted now - and the reform of my backup regime now enjoys top billing..

[JacobH]

At one point I was tempted to call time on the restoration and accept that I really don't need my TN on a bottle of Cockburn Special Reserve drunk in 2009; but, in for a penny.

I think that was a wise decision. I am still annoyed that I did not regularly date my tasting notes before 2010 and therefore, whilst I have managed to reconstruct some of the dates from big tastings, I cannot quite work out the date of many of the Ports I drank at home between mid-2007 and 2010...

[jdaw1]

From time to time, email somebody both spreadsheets.

[MigSU]

From time to time, email somebody both spreadsheets.

Ideally himself
I do that from time to time with some documents, using two e-mail accounts.

[uncle tom]

From time to time, email somebody both spreadsheets

Yes having a distant copy stored is a good idea - no-one knows what will happen if we get a repeat of the 1859 solar storm - an awful lot of data could get fried..

[Steve Veness]

Might we have a photograph of your pine cupboard, please?

If I can remember how..

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=65 ... 5591415821

Ok, I've got to ask, if you don't mind me asking: What's the machine below the cupboard that looks like a lathe without a bed?

[uncle tom]

Ok, I've got to ask, if you don't mind me asking: What's the machine below the cupboard that looks like a lathe without a bed?

It's a 1930's Colchester lathe, slightly stripped down, but I still have all the bits - the bed is still there but is now the base of my work bench.

[Steve Veness]

Ok, I've got to ask, if you don't mind me asking: What's the machine below the cupboard that looks like a lathe without a bed?

It's a 1930's Colchester lathe, slightly stripped down, but I still have all the bits - the bed is still there but is now the base of my work bench.

Very nice. I have a 1956 Boxford model A which I stripped down and rebuilt.

[Glenn E.]

From time to time, email somebody both spreadsheets.

Or, you know, store it in the cloud and edit it from there. I use both Dropbox and Google Drive for active cloud storage, and also have Microsoft OneDrive and Amazon Drive accounts that back up photos from my phone. All are free except for Google Drive, which I finally decided to upgrade to the minimum 200 Gb plan for $2/month (I think... whatever it is, it's cheap).

[MigSU]

Yes, I have my spreadsheet online as well (synched to be accessible offline - the reception in my cellar is simply horrendous, both wifi and mobile signal - it's underground and has stone walls).

[winesecretary]

@MigSu - Poor internet connectivity from one's cellar is indeed a common problem... as you say, they tend to be underground and abundantly walled. Perhaps I will come up with an expensive bespoke solution (#winefi?) as a retirement business.

[uncle tom]

Out with the old...

My last bottle of port for home drinking in 2021 - the last bottle of T55 from a rough stash bought 11 years ago, is drinking nicely, if a little evolved. I have better stashes in the shadows for the future. Have also just finished a '64 claret from the Rosebery stash. Exact name of the producer not clear, but English bottled and in very good order. Just fifteen bottles left from that stash now.

Have extracted some baskets of wine from cellar 3 to fill gaps in cellar 1 - Gibson shiraz '04, Beaucastel '95, d'Issan '97

New induction and inspection schedules up to speed for the year and logged. First stash of 1998 (Vargellas) sitting in the wings ready to be selected by the 'puter when it gets round to it.

- And my pub manager fell downstairs yesterday - managing to break her wrist (quite badly) ankle and ribs..

[jdaw1]

- And my pub manager fell downstairs yesterday - managing to break her wrist (quite badly) ankle and ribs..

Ouch. We wish her a good recovery.

[uncle tom]

In with the new..

Whilst manning a very quiet pub today I have done the annual task of cutting neck tags for the year. I make these by guillotining down strung luggage tags, four at time on an old fashioned lever guillotine, 200 in total. These are then stored in a couple of Vesuvio single bottle boxes.

Before going to the pub I printed a load of cellar record sheets for the new year. For no particular reason I wrote a bit of code to give them serial numbers when they print out.

I've run my 'Choose bottle' routine - by far the longest bit of Excel vba code I've ever written, to select my first flight of home drinking VP bottles for '22

And the 'puter's choices are:

1) First bottle: SFE (Tesco) '94
2) Over Stock: Dow '77
3) High ullage: Croft '70 (level: VTS)
4) Not recently drunk: Fonseca '80
5) Drink up: Sandeman '75 (Seepage and poor level, runt of a recently bought litter)
6) Last bottle: Smith Woodhouse '85 (Second of a pair bought in 2005)

[uncle tom]

Winter is not a great time to be fussing around in the cellar, but in the heat of summer it is delightfully cool.

Recent tasks have included inspecting a clutch of centenarian bottles and some nearly that old, all previously weighed and inspected at least five years ago. Highest ullage rate was recorded on a Burmester 1922 at 360mg/p.a. lowest on a Taylor '24 at just 19mg/p.a.

The general principle that ullage rates over 200mg demand consumption or waxing within a few years, whilst rates over 400mg demand more urgent attention seems sound.

Then there was an owc to be cracked, a case of W77 I'm sharing with WS. Always a bit of trepidation when opening an owc that old.

The large railway screwdriver I secured on eBay a few years back could have been custom designed for prising owcs. As usual nails and staples are left sticking up after top boards are removed, which can all too easily catch a casual hand so I always lever them out or knock them down before proceeding to unfold the Symington cardboard inners.

And within.. - a dozen tidy bottles, with decent levels and no selo stains - Excellent!

[jdaw1]

I am pleased that the cellar diary has resumed.

large railway screwdriver

What is a L.R.S.?

[uncle tom]

What is a L.R.S.?

A super-sized screwdriver, typically 18" long with a blade half an inch wide. There are a few currently on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-LNER ... 7675.l2557