Artisan Wine Storage & Methuselah’s Cellar

Conceived

By Eamonn Egan in 2012. He was Chief Executive when it opened, and he designed Methuselah’s Cellar.

Facility

$2 million, Lane Cove West, Sydney. Launched September 2013.

Storage

Ambient or climate-controlled. The climate room held a constant 12°C at 55–75% relative humidity.

Capacity

1 million bottles climate-controlled. 2 million bottles ambient.

Standard

Designed to exceed HKQAA standards. The first storage facility in Australia to do so.

For the trade

Fully managed warehousing and 3PL, with an online Wine Management Portal.

Members’ cellar

Methuselah’s Cellar, in figured Tasmanian oak. 44 private Vin~Crypts of 216 bottles each.

Grange

A vertical Penfolds Grange collection, 1951–2008. The release calls it the only public dual vertical: bottles 1951–2008 and magnums 1979–2008.

Why 12°C

One of the reasons I chose 12°C for the warehouse is because of the effects of the GFC over the past six years, which has seen less wine being exported overseas especially to the US. This has led to current vintage wines along with prior vintages sitting in wineries in 16-18°C or even higher conditions. If they don’t slow down the maturation process they run the risk of not being able to sell the wine at a premium.

Proper wine storage is imperative to maintaining the integrity of the product and can even increase the clients’ return. We have $22 bottles of 2002 wines currently in storage that the winery expected to last only 5 – 8 years, but after 10-12 years they’re still drinking beautifully. If that happened to be Penfolds Grange, we can effectively add 15 years of life to the bottle; it’s a fantastic result for the owner of those products. Essentially, we can elongate the lifecycle curve by slowing down the maturation process.

What the release records

Artisan’s 2013 brochures say the business was conceived by Eamonn Egan in 2012. The September 2013 media release records the opening: a facility in Lane Cove, about fifteen minutes from the Sydney CBD, with the street address withheld here. The climate-controlled warehouse was held at a constant 12°C, which the release described as the only facility at that temperature in the Southern Hemisphere, and at 55–75% relative humidity. It was the first storage facility in Australia designed to exceed the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) standards for temperature, humidity, light, vibration, insurance, hygiene, inventory, security and maintenance.

Storage was offered as ambient or climate-controlled: one million bottles under climate control and two million in ambient storage. For the trade, the brochures describe fully managed warehousing and 3PL, with an online Wine Management Portal. The release describes the same service as fully integrated third-party logistics, from warehousing through supply-chain management, for wineries, wholesalers, retailers, auction houses, liquidators, private collectors, and Sydney restaurants.

Methuselah’s Cellar, the members’ area, was meticulously designed by Eamonn Egan. The release describes it as hand-crafted in figured Tasmanian oak. The brochures add that members had 44 private Vin~Crypts of 216 bottles each, and a vertical Penfolds Grange collection from 1951 to 2008. The release calls that display the only public dual vertical of Penfolds Grange: bottles from 1951 to 2008 and magnums from 1979 to 2008. Members could use the room for meetings and dinners, with the wine in their Vin~Crypt next to the table.

The photographs below are of that project. Where a frame is credited, the credit is shown with the image.

Commercial & hospitality gallery · Wine storage & 3PL