How To ... Store wine better

It can happen to anyone. At least, any oenophile. A lone case of wine stashed under a staircase or in a closet blooms slowly, quietly consuming more and more real estate until you suddenly realize -- you've become a collector and your collection is a space hog.

The first step is accepting what you and your wine have become. The second step is figuring out what to do about it.

Here's some of what you should consider.

BUILDING A CELLAR

For people who want their wine close by, desire serious wine cred and are willing to pay a hefty sum to convert a room or basement, a private cellar is the way to go.

Downsides include price. Costs -- which include equipment to control temperature and humidity -- depend on how elaborate and large you want to go, but can easily run into the thousands. The good news is that small cellars can hold a decent wine collection.

Creating a home cellar can be as simple as putting up shelves in a basement that has a consistent temperature or as elaborate as retrofitting a room with customdesigned racks, artwork, crown molding, grapevine inlays or anything else your imagination can conjure.

BUYING A SPECIALIZED REFRIGERATOR

Wine refrigerators offering temperature and humidity controls are widely available in a variety of sizes and price ranges, from about $100 for a dozen-bottle minifridge to $5,000 or more for a 500-bottle model.

Advantages of refrigerators include portability (it's hard to move a cellar to a new house), space (they won't hog an entire room) and cost (even high-end models are likely to be cheaper than retrofitting a room).

And if you're willing to put in a little work, you're likely to be able to find a used one at a heavily discounted price over full retail. But there's a reason for that.

RENTING WINE STORAGE SPACE

Storage facilities aren't just for spare furniture anymore. A growing number are offering climatecontrolled environments intended to accommodate the needs of data, document, art and wine storage.

Going this route requires serious evaluation of your wine collecting and consumption habits. If you're likely to quickly outgrow home-based options, storage facilities are a good idea.

However, if you're likely to want easy and frequent access to your bottles, be prepared to pay. And to jump in your car every time your stash at home gets low.

A walk-in room that can hold thousands of bottles allows renters to arrange racks to make access easy and create the semblance of a cellar atmosphere. But these rooms can cost hundreds of dollars a month.

A more affordable option is a locker, which can run just a few hundred dollars a year and stores several hundred bottles. But these usually aren't easily accessible. The cheapest require electric lifts to get to.

-- The Associated Press