Damage Control

This morning we discovered that our wine cellar, also known as the basement, was flooded from a sewer backup.  Since some of you may have just eaten, I’ll spare you the details on the smell, but suffice it to say that we immediately brought in the experts from Duraclean to rip out the playroom carpet and utility room tile, along with the baseboard molding and dry wall around the bathroom.  All in, several thousand dollars of damage, not to mention the headache in getting all that repaired during the holiday season. 

Now, my Pinot Noir and Malbec wine carboys were resting peacefully on the counter on the far side of the basement, so they were in no immediate danger.  However, as the Duraclean staff prepared to depart, they pulled me aside to say that the dehumidifiers and other equipment they were leaving behind had a tendency to raise the temperature in the area considerably, which, along with the decrease in humidity, could potentially damage my wine. 

My internal processing of this information went something like this:  How the hell do these guys who clean sewage damage know so much about wine?  Wait, how come I didn’t think of that?  Crap, how can anyone be expected to make world class wine in these conditions? 

Ultimately, I got over it, and moved my red wines to the dining room to join the Chardonnay.  Crisis avoided, for the moment.  But I still can’t help but feel like this would be a whole lot easier if I could just drill a cave in the side of the Mayacamas Mountains in Napa and store my wines in there.