I decided to get offsite storage. Living in Diamond Bar left me with few options. Feel free to contact me about some of the places I instantly ruled out. I would rather not list them here.
I posted a thread on Mark Squire's Bulletin Board. It was to ask about the places I was thinking about storing as well as ask for overall suggestions. I am a fan of research before asking, so, hopefully these suggestions may help you if you are looking for Southern California storage.
Message Post: Southern California Offsite Storage?
I decided to go with the Wine Grotto in Pasadena. While the setup is great and the people nice, they did not disclose to me a $15 a month charge for deliveries until after I signed up. I am paying $32.00 a month for my locker and $15 a month for them to accept deliveries. My locker has 3 rows. Each row measures 32W x 25H x 25D.
One of the many rows of lockers at the Wine Grotto in Pasadena
Ok, here is the main reason for this web page. Moving crates around in a locker did not sound exciting. I figured I would rather have easy access to the bottles then move around crates. My guess is I will visit the site once or twice a month. I looked around for some crates and found them tough to find. Yet again the fine folks on the board were there with suggestions. In the thread Ken Emery made a very cool suggestion
Message Post: Wine Crates Tough to Find?
The Suggestion? Use pipe instead of crates and store the wine in the pipes!
Ken was kind enough to mention what width of tube can hold what size bottles.
Ken Emery: "With 3.25" tubes you can store standard Bordeaux bottles. With 3.5" tubes you can store most Burgundy bottles (although the newer DRC bottles will not fit by just a smidge). With 4" tubes you should be able to fit any 750ml bottle (I have yet to find one which won't fit, the Krug bottles fit). The 4" tubes will also hold a standard Bordeaux magnum."
Ken went with cardboard pipe. I decided to go with plastic to make it a bit more sturdy. Turns out they only make 3 inch and 4 inch pipe.
To look for pipe, I went to Home Depot. You can buy 10 feet long 3 and 4 inch drain pipe for $4 - $5 each. You can then use a saw to match the dimensions in your locker. So, with each 10 foot pipe I was able to cut 5 pieces 24 inches each. Each pipe would hold 2 bottles.
So, the cost was about $.50 a bottle for this solution. If you are not a fan of Home Depot, look for a landscaping store. I ended up getting most of my pipes from a place less than a mile away from my storage facility.
24 inch long 4 inch wide drainage pipe.
Based on my locker dimensions, I computed that each row could hold 7 4 inch tubes and 1 3 inch tube. The only thing a 3 inch tube can hold is a half bottle or very skinny bottle. Also, you have to create a bottle grabber of some sort because you really cannot reach your hand into the tube. With this in mind, I will only be using the front of my 3 inch tubes.
One last thing. Chances are, the tubes will be VERY dirty. I bought some fantastic and a pile of shop towels to clean the outside. I would then take about 6 towels and shove them into the tube. I could not believe how dirty they were. Make sure you check. You do not want your wine being stored in dirt!
This part was simple. Lay the pipe down row by row. I decide to put each pipe directly on top of each other. I would have had to use more 3 inch pipe if I decided to lay each pipe on top of two others.
One row of my wine locker
2 out of 3 done!
I cannot thank Ken enough for this idea. As you can see access is simple. I am honestly not sure if I can fit more or less bottles, but, I do not care. This makes it so easy. I plan to put some sort of divider in the bottom row so I can store larger bottles and use tubes for the rest of the bottom row.