The Rest of the Story...

Although I have been collecting wines for almost thirty years, it was not till three years ago when we were fortunate to build a "real" wine cellar in my village in Greece.I always had a strong desire to some day have a wine cellar. I love watching old European homes--in movies or television--and I am particularly drawn to the wine cellar, should there be one. I am fascinated with homes and architecture--my other passion--but there is something about wine cellars. They blend the allure of yesteryear romanticism with the promise of a living earthly reward--the complex flavors and aromas of a perfectly aged wine. It's simply unique...I was afraid though that wine cellars would remain just that--a fascination satisfied from time to time in the virtual world. There was no appropriate place available and no financial means to get one.

But the Gods had different plans. During the summer of 2007 and while in my village in Greece, I decided to clean an abandoned storage space in the basement of a studio I inherited from my parents. I was concerned about its structural integrity, especially in an earthquake-prone region, and because it had become an eyesore in the neighborhood where I grew up. It is important to visualize the house. Built at the turn of the twentieth century it has been in my family for three generations. It is located in the center of the village with its massive exterior masonry walls coming right to the street. The basement had no visible windows and only one single-paneled door that lead you down by 4 stone steps to a dirt floor. After removing the thirty plus years of junk that had accumulated in that dark and forgotten space, I directed my attention to the business of examining the walls and replacing the door.

The walls--80 cm (2.6 ft) thick--were built of stone bound together by a mixture that can be considered the predecessor of cement. The interior and exterior basement walls had been plastered sometime in the last thirty five years, so I had to remove the plaster to see in what condition the walls were. With the help of a hammer, I started chiseling away slowly and carefully the 3/4 in. plaster until the stone walls were exposed. The plaster must have been applied carelessly as it did not take great effort to peel it off. To my amazement, what I saw beneath all this ugliness was a work of art. There, in front of my eyes was exposed some beautiful stonework, and as I continued its unveiling I came across an arched window that had been closed. This discovery, in particular of the arched window, was very emotional to me as I tried to visualize what it might have been used for during better days. I could see the blurred images of my ancestors, including my parents, and hear their muffled voices. A child playing on a wooden loft in one of the corners of the cellar with the toys he had built. A large wooden wine barrel laid against one of the stone walls. My mother was picking up some firewood for the fireplace upstairs. It had gotten cold all of a sudden...

When I went home that day I told my wife of the hidden stonework and window and that it would be a shame to let all this slip into neglect and decay one more time. We hadn't decided what to do with the basement, but we knew we could not walk away from it. Then we realized we had the perfect structure of a wine cellar. A basement facing north with very thick stone walls and no windows. Although it was June, every time I stepped down into the dark space of the cellar I could feel its cool, musty air. I didn't have a thermometer but it had to be less than 60^o F. Perfect environment for a cellar. It took us two summers of hard work and lots and lots of devotion to bring the dream into reality. And so my friends, a permanent home for our wines was created--we finally had our own wine cellar!