🍷 Cave cellar
A cellar dug into rock or a hill, naturally cool.
A cave cellar is a cellar dug into rock or a hillside. It needs no complex equipment, because the stone itself keeps the cool and the moisture. The temperature inside barely changes and is usually around 10–14 degrees Celsius.
Such cellars exist in many wine regions. They are dug in soft rock: tuff, chalk or limestone. The chalk cellars of Champagne and the stone cellars around Saint-Émilion are well known. For wine this is convenient: it matures slowly at an even temperature and does not suffer from summer heat or winter cold.
A cave cellar is one kind of wine cellar. Cheesemakers use a similar idea: Roquefort ripens in natural caves, and many cheese dairies also rely on the steady cool of underground rooms.
Today caves are used not only for storing wine but also for visits that show how wine matures.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Cave cellar → kind of → 🍷 Wine cellar → stores → 🍷 Wine
Links
- What happens here
- 🪨 Tuff, 🪨 Chalk
- Previous step
- 🏛️ Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine cellar
- Wine and milk
- 🧀 Roquefort, 🏭 Cheese dairy
Frequently asked questions
What is a cave cellar?
It is a cellar cut into rock or a hill, where natural stone keeps the cool and humidity.
Why is wine stored in caves?
The temperature is even with no sharp swings, so wine matures slowly and calmly.
What rock are such cellars dug in?
Most often soft rock: tuff, chalk and limestone.
What to read next
- 🏭 Cheese dairy — A workshop or plant where milk is coagulated and cheese pressed and ripened; the world made 27.3 million t of cheese in 2023 (FAO).
- 🏛️ Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion — An old Bordeaux wine town with cellars cut into limestone; a UNESCO heritage site.
Similar
🍷 Cricova · 🍷 Mileștii Mici · 🍷 Storage humidity · 🍷 Horizontal bottle storage · 🍷 Cellar mould (Zasmidium cellare) · 🍷 Storage temperature