Joel is into our air conditioning. "You have to take a picture of this!" he saystoday, carrying this out of one of his twelve lockers. It's a 1979 Pommard Grands Epenots. He was taking it for a friend's wedding. But the wine wasn't what he was showing me, no, it was the fill level.
Joel has commented on our air conditioning before. He talks about how if everyone is bringing the exact same wine to a tasting, his bottle always tastes the youngest and most intact. I think, like many collectors, Joel has his wine at a few cellars. If something goes horribly wrong at one place, you don't lose your entire collection. Also, storing it in a multitude of smaller lockers minimizes damage due to earthquake (which is a bit of an active subject).
"That bottle has been in there since the mid-eighties and look at that fill level and color." So I did. Then I took his word for it. Then I took this picture of it. Frankly it's a bit charming that a fill level can make someone so excited. The Cave Wine Storage...good air conditioning, good fill levels, good color, happy customers.