Designer wine cellars are moving up

You've just designed your perfect new home and you're picturing yourself relaxing contentedly with an expensive bottle of red...when you shudder in horror as you realise you have nowhere to store your cases of Chateau Lafitte. Disaster. But luckily one easily solved with the wine cellar experts at FG Design.

And thanks to FG you can now spend as much time, and have as much fun, designing your home's ultimate accessory, a state-of-the-art wine cellar, as you can your actual home. And I'm not just talking about thermostatic control here but about a cellar that you will want to show off to your friends. Often. And no, ‘a basement where you can store wine' is not the same as a real wine cellar. And as those who love their wine and treat it with more importance than their family will happily tell you, a specifically designed place to keep your Grand Cru ‘Babies' is an absolute must-have if you're in any way serious about your wine.

So apart from needing space and endless racks what else will the perfect home for your wine entail? Well at a very minimum you must create an environment free from mechanical vibration, with good humidity, low temperatures, low lighting and with racks tilted at the perfect inclination for optimum maturation. It has even been said by some wine purists that the placement of the bottles relative to the poles increases the wine's quality. Regarding building materials, wood is traditionally used for its beauty and its natural humidity control but FG may encourage you to be more adventurous and consider the use of glass and metals for the ultimate wow factor.

And of course it goes without saying that your wine must start off at a certain quality. The perfect cellar is primarily about safe-guarding and improving. So a bottle of Chateau Plonk will not turn into a Chateau Cru simply by leaving it tilted towards the North Pole for 10 years. Unless you believe in Father Christmas. So if you're not sure which wine to buy to drink now or as a future investment, don't guess. And equally don't just buy the most expensive, it's not necessarily the best regarding quality versus price. Some Second Crus are truly excellent and only named so because there's a quantity cut-off point for every Premier Cru ('First Growth'). So do consider getting professional help. Especially for choosing your wine.

And once you've chosen your wine the great news is it's no longer a prerequisite to keep it out of sight. You can now showcase your precious investment and enjoy your wine visually just as you would a beautiful painting by a famous artist. A designed-to-order cellar by FG can be a visual feast and a wonderfully aesthetic addition to your home. It will only be a problem for those who rely heavily on the 'out of sight out of mind' principle.

But if you can resist temptation before breakfast consider moving your cellar upwards; physically and in terms of design. And think of the years of pleasure you'll get from a beautifully designed and stunningly lit Wall of Wine in your home.

Old town, New sounds - Shapko: an authentic jazz venue in the heart of old Nice

Located at 5 rue Rossetti in the heart of Vieux Nice, Shapko is a small bar where people go to listen to good live music in a cosy atmosphere.

A snow weekend in Val d’Allos

After all the rain we've had on the Riviera recently, it's the perfect time to be thinking about a weekend snow break up in the mountains. We're lucky enough to ... >>