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把酒窖看得与葡萄酒一样重要-第1页

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THERE ARE PEOPLE for whom the wine cellar is every bit as important as the wine. The cellars of such people tend to be carpeted, mirrored and lit by chandeliers. They may also be accessorized with Old Master paintings, Roman statues and Cristal Jeroboam souvenirs. Wine in these cellars isn't so much consumed as it is revered. I don't have one of those cellars. In fact, I don't really have a cellar at all. My wines are currently stored in several places-including the basement of my ex-husband's house.


一些人把酒窖看得与葡萄酒一样重要，他们常常给酒窖铺上厚厚的地毯、装上宽大的镜子和巨大的枝形吊灯，甚至还会用古代大师的字画、罗马雕塑和Cristal Jeroboam纪念品来装饰自己的酒窖。这种酒窖里的葡萄酒多半都是用来收藏的，平时很少拿来饮用。我没有这样富丽堂皇的酒窖，事实上，我连个称得上酒窖的地方也没有。现在，我的酒储藏在好几个地方，包括我前夫的地下室。



That last location probably warrants an explanation. My ex-husband, Alan, and I had a great natural cellar in our unfinishedbasement in New York's Westchester County. The walls were stone and the floor was rock. The temperature was constant (55 to 60 degrees) and the humidity was pretty steady as well. And although Alan and went our separate (and amicable) ways some years ago, our wines stayed together-I continued to store many of my best wines at his house.


必须要解释一下最后这个储酒场所，我和前夫艾伦(Alan)在纽约韦斯特切斯特县(Westchester County)曾有个很棒的天然储酒场所──我们未完工的地下室。地下室的 和地板都用岩石搭建，室内温度恒定在55-60华氏度，湿度也正合适。虽然我和艾伦几年前和平分手了，但是我们的酒还在一起──我的许多好酒仍保存在他那里。



But recently my new husband, Roger, and I moved into a new house and decided that we needed a real storage space. Unfortunately, the basement of our house was completely finished and a little too warm, so any storage would have to be purchased or built. But what kind of space, and how should we start?


不过最近我与现在的丈夫罗杰(Roger)搬进了一栋新房子，我们觉得应该有一个像样的酒窖。可惜我们的地下室已经完工，温度有点偏高，所以我们不得不购买或者重新修建一个储酒场所。但是，我们应该如何选择，又该从何处着手呢？



Proper storage is essential for any wine that will be kept for more than a few months, and there are certain conditions that must be met. First and foremost, the wine cellar must be set to a correct and constant temperature-ideally at 55 degrees.


要想长久地保存葡萄酒，合适的储藏方式是必不可少的，必须要满足几个条件。首先，也是最重要的，酒窖温度必须合适，最好恒定在55华氏度左右。



A somewhat lower temperature is acceptable: The wine will just evolve more slowly-which may be a consideration if you don't want your wine maturing long after you're gone. A higher temperature, conversely, will speed aging along. Humidity is also an important, though less talked about, number; generally 60% to 70% is considered desirable. Lower humidity dries out the cork while more humid conditions can make a mess of the labels.


稍微低一点的温度也可以，只不过酒会成熟得慢一些──如果你不希望在有生之年自己的藏酒都未能成熟，也许就得注意这个问题。反之，温度过高则会加速酒的成熟。虽然大家对于湿度的关注不如温度，但是湿度也是非常重要的一个方面，理想的湿度应该控制在60%-70%之间。湿度过低软木塞就会干燥，湿度过高就会使酒标受潮。



Bottles should also be kept sideways rather than upright, in a dark place that's free of excessive vibration. The latter is said to upset the 'biochemical' makeup of the wine, though I've never read anything about how much vibration was too much-nor have I tasted a wine that was off and wondered, 'Could this wine have been excessively shaken?'


酒瓶应该横向放置，避光，防震。据说震动会打乱葡萄酒的分子结构，但我从没看到过关于震动过度的表述，也没听过有人在品酒时说"这瓶酒是震动过度了么？"。



These conditions can exist in a natural cellar or one that's been custom built or, for that matter, in a wine refrigerator. I have one in my basement, an Avanti, but it's a budget-quality model that's much too small for my entire collection.


天然酒窖或顾客自己建造的酒窖以及酒柜都可以满足这些条件。我的地下室里就有一台Avanti酒柜，但是体积太小，装不下我所有的藏酒。



My 'collection' really deserves to be captured in quotation marks, as I own just under 500 bottles of wine. That's not a number that would impress a collector or would warrant building a cellar in my basement-at least that's what Alan Genee, a sales consultant at the Wine Enthusiast, said. 'Financially, you're better off just buying two EuroCave units,' he told me. 'To have someone come in and Sheetrock it and insulate it and tile the floor and get the racking would be tens of thousands of dollars more.'


我的"藏酒"不到500瓶，所以"藏酒"这个词要打上引号。这个数字打动不了任何一个收藏家，也不值得专门在地下室建一个酒窖。至少，《葡萄酒爱好者》杂志(Wine Enthusiast)的销售顾问艾伦•吉尼(Alan Genee)是这么评价的。他告诉我，"买两个EuroCave的酒柜要经济得多。而要建酒窖的话，还得找人来装一层石灰胶纸夹板来隔热，地上要铺瓷砖，还要装酒架，这可能得多花个好几万。"



EuroCave is a wine-storage refrigerator made in France to resemble the conditions of a natural cellar. It was one of the very first such systems on the market and is still considered the gold standard in terms of design and dependability. I checked out the Wine Enthusiast website and found that the Connoisseur EuroCaves, each with a capacity of 223 bottles, would set me back a cool $7,000 altogether. Was it really necessary to spend so much?


产自法国的EuroCave酒柜，能够提供与天然酒窖相类似的储存条件。这个品牌是同行业中的佼佼者，质量和设计都值得信赖。我在《葡萄酒爱好者》的网站上找到了一款名为"Connoisseur EuroCaves"的酒柜，售价7000美元，可存储223瓶酒，花这么多钱到底值不值呢?



There are many less expensive options, and Craig Costanzo sells quite a few of them. Mr. Costanzo, president of BeverageFactory.com, said the wine-refrigerator business accounts for about 30% of his company's sales. He features a wide range of names, including the affordable Avanti, as well as Haier, Vinotemp and Danby, whose wine refrigerators range from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on their capacity and finishes. (They can also be found at places like Costco and Home Depot.) BeverageFactory's best-selling wine refrigerators house six and 12 bottles, according to Mr. Costanzo-thereby proving that no wine collection can be too small to 'cellar,' I suppose. Deciding between the various brands of wine refrigerators can be overwhelming; I found it quite useful to check out wine chat boards of sites like WineBerserkers and eRobertParker.com to see what collectors were saying about particular models and cellar pro and cons.


其实我有许多更便宜的选择，比如 BeverageFactory.com网站就销售许多比这便宜的酒柜。网站总裁克雷格•科斯坦佐(Craig Costanzo)说，葡萄酒柜的销售约占其总销售的30%。他为我提供了许多可供选择的品牌，如便宜的Avanti、海尔(Haier)、Vinotemp和Danby，根据容积和型号的不同，价格从几百到几千美元不等（这些产品在好市多(Costco)和家得宝(Home Depot)等店也有售）。科斯坦佐说BeverageFactory.com最畅销的葡萄酒柜是容量为六瓶和12瓶的酒柜，所以我觉得再小的收藏也可以被称为"藏酒"。在不同品牌酒柜之间的选择让我一时不知所措，我觉得非常有必要到WineBerserkers或者eRobertParker.com等网站的论坛上看看，参考一下其他收藏者的意见和经验。



The more I researched, the less certain I became that a wine refrigerator was the best choice. Did we really want to line up a couple of large refrigerators along the wall in our basement? On the other hand, it was expensive to build a real cellar space, as Mr. Genee had noted. But just how much would it actually cost?


可是，调查得越多，我越发不确定酒柜是不是最好的选择。我们真要在地下室的 角摆上几个大冰柜么？而另一方面，吉尼说过建一座真正的酒窖会很贵。但到底有多贵呢？



I decided to consult Scot Ziskind, a Philadelphia-based wine-cellar designer who has been in the custom-wine-cellar business for more than 35 years. Unlike many cellar designers, who have branched out from basic construction, Mr. Ziskind trained as a mechanical engineer. That means he knows a great deal about cooling systems-a skill that is incredibly important in creating a cellar and yet surprisingly rare.


我决定请教来自费城的斯科特•齐斯金德(Scot Ziskind)，他是一位在客户定制酒窖行业工作了超过35年的酒窖设计师。与那些从基本建筑专业分化出来的酒窖设计师不同，齐斯金德更像一位机械工程师，他熟悉许多制冷系统，这在酒窖设计中是一项极为重要的技能，很少人能拥有这一技能。



'I don't think I have enough wine to warrant building a cellar,' I said to Mr. Ziskind by way of introduction. He immediately dismissed this idea. In fact, he said, he had been building more 'middle class' cellars for doctors and lawyers than ones for hedge-fund titans these days. 'You don't have to be rich to have a cellar anymore,' he said. And while his average cellar costs between $25,000 and $30,000, Mr. Ziskind could put together a space for me that was 5 feet by 5 feet and 8 feet tall with a great cooling system and cheap racking (wine racks) for about $8,500. I could cut corners on the racks (metal instead of wood), but the cooling system was where the money had to go, said Mr. Ziskind. He had seen a lot of wine cellars where people didn't spend the money on a proper system or use the right insulation.


"我的葡萄酒太少，不足以建一座酒窖。"我这句话一出口就被他否定了。他说这几天他为许多律师和医生设计了"中级"酒窖，"酒窖不再是富人的专利了"。他的酒窖平均花费在25000-30000美元之间。他答应给我设计一个长宽各5英尺、高8英尺的储酒空间，其中包括不错的冷却系统和便宜的葡萄酒架，总花费大约为8500美元。齐斯金德见过许多系统不完善或者隔热材料不合适的酒窖，所以他提醒我如果想节省费用可以把木架换成铁架，但是制冷系统的钱是不能省的。



If I didn't want to build my own cellar, Mr. Ziskind noted that he also owns a temperature-controlled warehouse with a few partners. This storage option is especially popular with people who live in apartments and with collectors with wines they may have purchased for investment. (Professionally stored wine is easier to sell.) His storage price is $2 a case per month-a standard number for storage facilities-and the price goes lower if you store more cases of wine. But since I was already storing many of my wines remotely in Westchester, this option had little appeal.


齐斯金德和几个合作伙伴有一个自建的恒温仓库，如果不想修建自己的酒窖，我可以把酒储藏在那里。这种储藏方式很受那些居住在公寓里的收藏者的欢迎，葡萄酒投资商们也很喜欢这种方法（毕竟专业储藏的葡萄酒会好出手）。仓库的存储价格是两美元/箱/月，这只是一个标准报价，储藏越多实际价格会越低。但是我把许多酒放在了遥远的韦斯特切斯特了，所以这个方法也不太理想。



As we pondered our options (EuroCave? Basement cellar? Weekly drives to my ex's house?), my husband mentioned he wanted to rebuild our garage. Why not put the wine cellar there? I consulted Mr. Ziskind, who said it would cost about the same to put a cellar in the basement as a garage. There was no downside, he added, although I could think of one: When the rebuilding is finished (sometime in the fall), I still won't be able to say my wine is properly stored-but garaged.


是选择EuroCave酒柜？在地下室自建酒窖？还是每周驱车到我前夫那里去？正当我们为该作何选择而发愁时，我丈夫提到他想重建车库，为什么不把酒窖建在那里呢？为此我咨询了齐斯金德，他告诉我不论把酒窖建在车库还是地下室，费用都是一样的，而且价格也不可能下降。不过我倒是想到了有一个做法是可以省钱的：等我们的车库重建完成时（大约在今年秋天），就把我们的酒草草地放在那里。



Oenofile: Five Storage Options


葡萄酒储藏的五种方式



1. Natural wine cellar


1. 天然酒窖



A natural or 'passive' cellar is an underground cellar-generally with a dirt or stone floor, a naturally cool, nonfluctuating temperature and fairly high humidity. It's the sort of cellar you'll find in all the best European wine estates. It's the ideal place to store wine when the conditions are right, though it's necessary to make sure there is proper insulation from the fluctuating temperatures outside.


天然酒窖或"被动式"酒窖是指地下酒窖，通常是泥土或石材地面，自然阴凉，恒温，湿度高。欧洲知名酒庄都有这种酒窖。如果条件合适，这种地下酒窖是理想的藏酒之所，但必须确保隔热效果，防止室外温度波动的影响。



2. Custom wine cellar


2. 定制酒窖



A custom-built cellar is also called an 'active' cellar. It's one that's constructed and insulated and maintained by a special cooling system (this is key). Custom cellars are ideally located in a basement (temperatures fluctuate less there), though they can be built anywhere-including garages and even, as I once read, in the spaces of former in-ground pools. The prices range from the tens of thousands to the stratosphere.


按顾客要求定制的酒窖又被称为"主动式"酒窖。这种酒窖是人工建造的，由一套特殊的制冷系统维持恒温和隔热效果（这一点很关键）。定制酒窖最好建在温度相对恒定的地下室内，当然也可以建在其他地方，例如车库，我甚至在书上看过利用废弃不用的室外游泳池建酒窖的。定制酒窖的费用高则数万美元，当然也有很便宜的。



3. Wine refrigerator


3. 酒柜



Some 30 years ago, EuroCave was about the only wine refrigerator sold; today there is a dazzling, if not bewildering, array of wine refrigerators for sale. They come in a wide range of sizes and finishes, with options like dual temperature controls, rolling wine racks and interior lights, but the most important feature is reliability. Some manufacturers make better refrigerators than others but the general rule of thumb seems to be that you get what you pay for. I recommend checking out online forums like the ones at WineBerserkers and CellarTracker to see what other collectors are saying about the systems they've purchased.


大约30年前，EuroCave也许是唯一一家酒柜品牌；如今，市面上的酒柜品牌恐怕数都数不过来。这些酒柜又有着各式各样的容积和型号，例如，有的是双温控的，有的带有翻转式酒架，有的配有内置射灯。但可靠性是最最重要的标准。有些制造商的酒柜质量更好一些，但按照一般的经验，基本上就是一分价钱一分货。我建议在购买前先访问下WineBerserkers、CellarTracker这样的网上论坛，看看其他收藏者对于有关品牌的评价。



4. Off-site storage


4. 异地储藏



The rise in the number of off-site (nonresident) storage options has increased almost directly in accordance with the rise in wine auction houses. It's not cheap and it's not convenient (the warehouses are often in industrial areas of cities) but if you purchase wine as an investment, professionalstorage is a must. The cost averages around $2 a case per month (cheaper if you store a lot of wine), along with a small monthly charge.


异地储藏（非住所储藏）的选择方式日益流行，几乎与葡萄酒拍卖行的崛起同步。异地储藏既不便宜也不方便（储藏地往往位于城市的工业区），但如果你购买红酒是为了投资，就必须采用专业的储藏方式。异地储藏的费用大约在两美元/箱/月（储藏得多，价格会便宜一些），同时每月还需要再缴纳一小笔费用。



5. The pantry, coat closet or kitchen cabinet


5. 储存室、壁橱或橱柜



These are the unsanctioned spaces that most people probably use to store their wine. Needless to say, they are less than ideal for long-term storage, since elevated and fluctuating temperatures are always a problem. These spaces are best for keeping a small supply of wines a short time. Author Nelson DeMille keeps 40 bottles in a butler's pantry-'about a month's supply, in case we're cut off from the world,' he said.


大多数人可能都是在这些"难登大雅之堂"的地方存放葡萄酒的。毋庸置疑，由于无法控制温度的升高和波动，这些地方都不利于葡萄酒的长期储藏。但对于短期存放少量葡萄酒而言，储存室、壁橱或者厨房的橱柜确实是理想的选择。作家尼尔森•德米尔(Nelson DeMille)在一个餐具室内存放了40瓶酒，"大约可供一个月饮用，万一无法从外界获得正常的供给时可以应急。"



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