T. T. Greg

“ A brave tenant is worth a noble home; see you that he gets it. Let all be in order and in place: as in the heaven above, so in the earth beneath. There is none to dispute that all wines have a body, these Titanic and huge, those of more lissome build. Whatever their physical constitution, yours be it to maintain the existence of the soul and the imagination in them. ”

“ It is not every one, and least of all a Londoner or town man, who can scoop him a cellar under the living rock, which is the true matrix for the development of good wine; but you will find no finer hold than that which lies deep, some forty to fifty feet, as the soil allows, without excess of moisture, nor with any opening save one to the north alone. In populous cities pent, the least you should insist on is. ”

“ Also remember that “A wine-cellar too hot or cold Murders wine before ’tis old”; and be your own cellarman.
A waitress, being a woman, cares nothing about wine and knows less. A butler either cares about wine, or does not. If he does, he drinks it; if he does not he gives it away. And let your cellar be a pattern of neatness, so that yourself can descend thereunto with pleasure, and conduct your friend with pride. ”

“ Not to have a cellar is derogatory to the dignity of man. Yet it is notable that, while every petty clerk or budding draper clamours for a bathroom, not one in a thousand will insist upon his wine vault ”

“ Avoid the advertising vintner as you would the Devil, and hie you only to that fine, old, crusted, long-matured variety—known as the Old- Fashioned Wine Merchant. He will look after the buyer: it is for the buyer to look after the cellar. ”

“ You will find that though there be many dreams in a flagon of Burgundy, they are not of the stuff that common dreams are made on, and that you can interpret them or let them slip past you into thin air, according as you house your liquor well or ill. ”

“ The shelves should be of stone or of brick, but of wood—never! No thickness of lime can wholly whitewash wood: no fermentable material, no acid, no liquor in a state of acetous agitation may enter the cellars of the blest. ”

“ If so be that you can have double doors, see to it that they are there, this one some four feet behind that other; so that the outer being closed ere the inner be set wide, one equal temperature of fifty degrees may be achieved, week in week out, throughout the ages. ”