As you know, Strongbox wine cellars utilize state-of-the-art technology to limit and maintain temperature, humidity, light exposure, and vibrations, keeping your precious bottles safe from harm. But before such modern storage techniques were developed, there were your basic wine caves—underground caverns, either natural or manmade, that did an excellent job of preserving wine without the benefit of technology.
Some of the earliest wine caves were not wine caves at all; they were the catacombs of the Roman Empire, which were used primarily for their convenient location. The Romans seemed to have discovered the possibilities of wine storage as an accident, using the caves left behind from mineral excavations—the first wine caves in France, most likely, were former limestone mines dug by the Romans. It didn’t take shrewd winemakers very long to hatch the idea of building caves with the sole purpose of storing wine, and soon caves were being dug throughout all of Europe.
Although the United States was still over a century away from establishing its presence in the world wine markets, immigrants to the New World brought with them the skills and ingenuity to make their own caves in American soil as well. The Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, New York, is the United States’ oldest surviving winery, and makes use of caves and cellars that go back as far as the mid-1800s. Other long-surviving wine caves in America include those belonging to the Schramberg and Beringer wineries, which were dug in the late 1800s by Chinese laborers who had just finished the transcontinental railroad.
Prohibition ended the first wave of wine cave excavation in the early 1900s, but by 1970, new construction tools and the rise of California’s vineyards created a demand for new ones. The wine caves of today have decided to do as much with form as with function, creating lavish underground areas in which wineries not only produce their wine but also hold tours, weddings, and even the occasional concert!
The next time you’re in wine country, remember that for as scenic and exciting as the wineries are above ground, there is even more to experience if you’re willing to go underground. Several companies dedicated to wine cave design operate today, and much of their work is available for viewing via wine cave tours. It will certainly give you a great perspective on the long, long history and the effort it took to come up with the perfect wine storage environments we have today.
