I’m really a gadget guy and this is a neat gadget for yourself, or a gift for a spouse or a friend. It’s the SoWine Home Wine Bar by Transtherm. Not only does it automatically extract the air from an opened bottle of wine allowing you to preserve it for up to 10 days, it also keeps it at the correct serving temperature. No pumping, no special stoppers, no expensive gas canisters to buy. Simply put your opened bottle in the compartment and push down on the vacuum cylinder. SoWine does the rest with no on-going expense.

It has two compartments that are individually controlled, so you could put an unopened bottle of white wine to chill in one compartment while you save an opened bottle of red wine in the other. Both individually kept at their proper temperature. Watch the video to find out more. Get one for yourself and stop throwing away wine from opened bottles. Hey, this thing will pay for itself in the wine you save.

Well, it’s the wine, of course. And with all the great wine produced in this area, it only makes sense that we also offer wine for sale so you can make use of all those accessories. Did you know we sell wine? But not just any wine; these are wines produced with exceptional care by our own winemaking team with only the finest fruit from some of the best vineyards in California. We’re proud to offer Girard and StoneFly wines from the Napa Valley; Fire Station Red and Windsor Sonoma from the Sonoma Valley; and Sonoma Coast Vineyards from, you guessed it, the Sonoma Coast. If you haven’t tried any of these fine wines, you don’t know what you’re missing.

But don’t take my word for it. Watch this video with our Sonoma Coast Vineyards winemaker, Anthony Austin, as he shows us the fruit he uses for the SCV Chardonnay and explains why great grapes make great wine. You might even want to buy a bottle just to taste for yourself what he’s talking about. Enjoy.

Who was faster? Wyatt Earp or Ike Clanton? If you know history or watch westerns, you know the Gunfight at the OK Corral answered that question. So when I saw the Metrokane Vertical Rabbit corkscrew in action, I wondered, who would be faster, a seasoned professional with a standard waiter’s corkscrew or a novice with the Vertical Rabbit? We decided to have our own “Corkscrew Shootout” to find out.

We put Katie, our Marketing Manager—a seasoned pro who has opened plenty of bottles with a waiter’s corkscrew—up against Katie’s grandmother, Sue—who is an occasional wine drinker with the Vertical Rabbit—and they shot it out in this quick video.

International Wine Accessories is now on Facebook. Our fan page just went live on Wednesday and we’re already starting to get a few fans. Our fan page will be your destination for fun contests, new product introductions, learning about wine directly from Vintage Wine Estates winemakers and much, much more. We’ve posted some of our videos and photos about our products. We’re going to continue to add even more. We invite you to add some of your own photos and reviews on our products.

Stay tuned. We’re only getting started.

Do you love Pinot Noir? If you answered yes without hesitation, you definitely should be attending the 8th Annual Passion for Pinot Noir Summit. On Saturday, February 27, 2010, consumers, press, trade and an extraordinary array of palates will gather at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael, California to evaluate “the best of the best,” from the 8th Annual Pinot Noir Shootout that was held during the past two months.

Yours truly was one of the judges on the diverse tasting panel comprised of wine industry professionals from varying disciplines including restaurant and retail trade, winemakers, wine writers, wine educators, and viticulturalists. Do you trust my palate? Come to the summit and challenge the judges’ conclusions. Taste 40 of the top Pinots from around the world in a blind tasting and be a wine judge for a day.

IWA is a Summit Sponsor

This year, International Wine Accessories is proud to be a sponsor and donating Ultima Burgundy glasses for use at this fabulous event. Our exclusive Ultima stemware is brighter, stronger and more durable than other glasses on the market. Lead-free and machine-made these glasses are extremely resistant to chipping and breaking, and are dishwasher safe. Ultima glasses are the stemware of choice for this prestigious wine event. They’re also perfect for everyday use in your home.

IWA will also be giving away some great door prizes, once every half-hour from 6:30PM to 8:00PM. Be sure to stop by our table and enter our drawing for your chance to win one of four fantastic prizes.

Click on the banner below to register. Here are the details:

Passion for Pinot Noir Summit

Saturday, February 27, 2010
12:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Osher Marin Jewish Community Center
200 N. San Pedro Road
San Rafael, CA 94903

Noon – 3:30 PM
Pinot Noir Shootout – The Final Showdown

3:30 PM – 5:45 PM
Pinot Noir Workshops

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Pinot Noir Reception and Awards Ceremony

Read more about Pinot Noir, the judging process and the results from last year’s Pinot Noir Summit.

Here are a few great examples of custom wine cellars. If you’re looking for some practical tips, be sure to check out the other article in this series, Custom Wine Cellar – Step-by-Step.

A Great Closet Conversion

Barry Southard is a man of many talents. Besides throwing pottery, baking and planting a vineyard (as if that isn’t enough), Barry is pretty handy around the house and converted a very unusual small closet space under the stairs of his house into a beautiful wine cellar that not only preserves his wines, but showcases them in grand style. Not only did he have to work around providing access to crawl spaces leftover from the original closet, he also had to deal with the unusual angles under the stairs. Here’s a few before and after photos of his wine cellar.

Ron Gaffe’s Fabulous Wine Room

Ron’s wife gave him a wonderful birthday gift—a wine room with storage, seating for four and a lockable door. She ordered the racks from IWA and found some terrific old doors at an architectural warehouse. One was cut down the middle for a base for the wine racks and the other placed on higher legs for a counter to open and serve wine. The walls of the room are finished in a copper-toned Venetian plaster, making the room cozy and warm. These photos show that you don’t need to spend a fortune to have a wonderful spot to store and serve wine.

This is one of the example cellars that we'll look at in detail next week.

So you’ve decided to convert that spare closet into a wine cellar. Great decision, but now what will it take to do this? Let’s break the project down into three steps.

Select a Cooling Unit

You’ll need to do this first because the rough opening in your cellar will depend on the size of your cooling unit. We offer many styles and sizes of cooling units from small units for a cabinet or small closet to large units for larger wine rooms. Here are some tips to help you select the right cooling unit:

• Measure your cellar space and multiply the height × width × depth of the space to compute the cubic feet that the cooling unit will need to chill.
• If the amount of space is near the maximum cubic ft. of the unit you’ve selected, you should select the next size larger.
• If you live in an extremely hot or humid climate or your cellar is located where exterior walls receive direct sunlight, you may also want to consider the next larger size.
• Your cooling unit should be positioned at a location within 12″ of the top of your space that will allow adequate air circulation throughout your cellar.
• Cooling units need to vent to another room that has adequate ventilation or if you live in a mild climate you can vent through an outside wall.
• Most of our cooling units run very quietly, but if you want nearly silent operation, you may wish to consider one of our split systems.

Prepare the Space

To convert your spare closet into a wine cellar, you must first prepare the space to maintain the proper humidity and temperature. If you’re handy with remodeling projects, you can do this yourself.

• Remove the sheetrock from the inside walls and ceiling of the closet. Remove any carpet or floor covering.
• Rough out the opening for the cooling unit. Most units will fit within standard wall stud spacing. Install adequate framing to hold the weight of the unit.
• Provide 110 volt, 15 amp dedicated electrical circuit for the cooling unit.
• Install a 6 mil plastic vapor barrier on the walls, ceiling and floor. If necessary wrap the vapor barrier around the stud framing leaving space for insulation.
• Insert R13 insulation between the studs for interior walls. Use R19 insulation for exterior walls and ceiling. If the ceiling is directly under the roof, R30 insulation is recommended. When finished, the insulation should be inside of the vapor barrier.
• Finish the walls with moisture resistant greenboard and PVA paint. Alternatively, you can finish the walls with cedar or redwood paneling.
• Install flooring. You can use vinyl, tile, slate or marble. Do not use carpeting in a cellar because the humidity will encourage mold growth.
• Install low-voltage or fluorescent lighting on a timer so that lights do not stay on for long periods of time and heat your cellar. If recessed can lights are used, be sure the integrity of the vapor barrier is maintained.
• Hang an exterior grade door with full weatherstripping and a door sweep.
• Install the cooling unit and plug it in.

Choose Your Racking

We have many styles of racking available to suit your tastes and budget. Call one of our IWA consultants to order custom racking or to create a 2D or 3D plan of your cellar. The cost of any 3D plan will be applied to your racking order. Or you can choose to do it yourself with our easy to assemble kits. When buying racking, here are few things you should consider:

• What kind of bottles will your cellar hold? Large format bottles and wood cases need different storage than standard 750ml. bottles.
• Will your cellar be purely functional or will it be used to showcase your wine collection? Display racks show off your wine but do not use the space efficiently.
• Accessories such as glassware racks and serving tables are nice additions, but a wine cellar is cold, so don’t expect to spend a lot of time inside your cellar.
• The kind of material and finish you choose will depend on the style and color scheme of your cellar and will determine the cost and capacity of the racking.
• Vintage View metal display racks are unique and show off the labels, but will not have the same capacity as a wood rack.
• Wood rack kits can be made of poplar, oak, redwood or mahogany and can be unfinished, or finished and stained in various colors.
• Custom racking can also be made from exotic woods such as black walnut, cherry, maple or purple heart to enhance the visual appeal of your cellar.

With a little planning and some help from one of our knowledgeable IWA consultants, you too will be on your way to having the wine cellar of your dreams. In our next post, we’ll show you one of our favorite cellar conversions along with some photos and stories from our customers.

At what point does someone go from being a wine drinker to a wine collector? When they decide to build a custom wine cellar. So why would you ever need a wine cellar? Does this sound familiar to you?

1. It’s the weekend, let’s visit some tasting rooms.
   
2. Mmm, I really like this wine.
   
3. Let’s get a case of it.
4. I’m joining their wine club.
5. Drive to the next place.
6. Repeat 2 – 5.
7. Next free weekend, repeat 1 – 6.

Do that a few times and pretty soon that standalone wine cellar is full and you’re stacking boxes of wine in the garage. Well, at least until summer arrives. Then what? You don’t want all that great wine to go bad from the heat of summer, do you? Which is why now, in the dead of winter, is a great time to start planning for your built-in cellar to have it ready by this spring.

A built-in cellar can be as elaborate as converting the entire basement, to as straightforward as converting a closet or pantry. Since I’m at that point of having repeated the above steps 1 – 6 several times and have boxes of wine in the garage, I started doing a little research for my own cellar and found a great resource right here at work.

Jim V. works here as one of our Wine Consultants. Like all of our wine consultants, he’s an expert on wine cellars, racking systems and cooling units. But Jim has taken his knowledge a step further by building his own wine building. This is beyond just a cellar. Jim actually built an insulated temperature-controlled wine storage building in his backyard. Wow! Now that’s someone who loves his wine. Click on his photos of the construction and the finished cellar to see a larger image.

Doesn’t that just inspire you to start your own custom wine cellar? Your cellar doesn’t have to be this large or elaborate. In part 2, I’ll show you a cellar made from an existing space along with an overview of planning your own cellar and what you’ll need to consider.

If you have pictures of a cellar project or would like to share your experiences, leave us a comment or shoot us an email with your photos.

New Year’s Eve is almost here. It’s time to celebrate the end of not only this year, but of this decade. And to paraphrase Prince, “Tonight we’re gonna party like its 2009.” Hmm, that doesn’t roll off the tongue as gracefully as the original lyrics. Anyway, if you haven’t already watched my video on champagne etiquette, you still have time to learn how to do it properly before tomorrow night and not waste a bunch of bubbly like in this picture.

Take our survey

It’s been a great year thanks to you, our customers. So much has happened and this is a great time examine what we’ve done and make plans for the future. We have some exciting things planned for this upcoming year but what I really need is some help on our blog. Am I writing about things that interest you? Are there things that I should be writing about? I invite you to take a short easy survey about our blog and give us some feedback. And to add a little incentive, if you answer our questions and leave your email address, we’ll enter you in a drawing for a $25 gift card for wine or merchandise from International Wine Accessories.

Click here to take the survey

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. (Can you believe it; it’s almost 2010.) And we all know that New Year’s Eve is synonymous with Champagne and sparkling wine. But do you know the proper way to open and serve sparkling wine? No worries, because I just produced this video to help you open and serve your sparkling wine like a pro by showing what to do and what NOT to do. (Don’t try this stunt at home, I’m a professional.)

I also suggest a couple of accessories from IWA, such as the SwiftTURN opener and Champagne Xpress, that can help you open the bottle and keep the leftovers…like there will be any. HA! By the way, if you need some bubbly, such as the 2001 Windsor Vineyards Brut, North Coast, Platinum Series shown in the video, it not too late to order some for New Years Eve from Windsor Vineyards.

Happy Holidays and a special thank-you to Bill and Cathy Fallis of Vine Tasting Wine Bar & Bistro in downtown Windsor, CA. for letting me use their beautiful wine bar for my video.