Welcome to The Wine Safe - owned and run by wine lovers, for wine lovers.
At present our current clients are expanding their cellars faster than vacancies occur. As we cannot expand our premises further, we are unable to accept new clients for the moment. Sorry about that!
WineSafe (as it is known) is the original wine storage company here in New Zealand. It was started by a group of wine nuts in 1991, and became a registered business in 1993. It remains one of only two facilities in New Zealand that are solely and properly dedicated to fine wine storage.
WineSafe offers a secure, private, fully climate controlled facility that is dedicated purely to fine wine. It has been owned and run by one of its founders for over 20 years.
While none of us would park a Ferrari on the street, we often don't give the same consideration to our other investments. WineSafe offers ideal long term storage conditions for your finest wine with true constant temperature and humidity control, no ultraviolet light, and no vibration.
Temperature and humidity - Our coolrooms are kept at 13 degrees Celsius, plus or minus less than half a degree liquid fluctuation, with 68-72% relative humidity. To achieve this we use 22 specially imported Wine Guardian and Cellar Pro cooling units. These more than cover our 400 sq. metre space which contains 10 individual coolrooms, each with at least two cooling units, just in case one unit should be down for regular maintenance.
Unlike most other NZ facilities, each of our coolrooms is constructed with heavily insulated metal panels made with polystyrene and vapour barriered liners (rather than wood), which further slows the daily fluctuations and assists the retention of cool air.
Many facilities also use just one or two heat exchangers to control the entire facility and simply duct the air around the various wooden walled lockers. The further your personal space is from the cooling unit, the higher the average temperature and the greater the 'on-off' cycle fluctuations.
There are some great side benefits from using professionally managed storage - no double handling of your wine, more available home space, a complete lack of temptations, and no struggling with awkward wine lockers.
Wine lockers offer a cheaper alternative to our managed facility because they are cheaper to build and much cheaper to run. Of course many people prefer a hands-on approach to their cellars, and are happy to spend time rearranging their locker to store any new purchases and make withdrawals...but if you're not, that's where we come in.
If you value your time and prefer to have someone manage the everyday part of cellar ownership for you, then aside from the obvious (secure, climate controlled storage), here's what we offer:
1. Direct from the winery / retailer delivery.
2. A valuation on each new deposit for insurance purposes.
3. A chilling / decanting service is available - small fee applies.
4. An up to date inventory is available any time you need it.
5. Withdrawals are made twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) for collection during the business week.
The small amount extra that we charge for these services is money well spent. You need not even see your wine for many years. We have been around for 25 years, long before times became tough for the car and furniture storage guys.
Security - Access to the premises is strictly limited and is monitored by a state-of-the-art security system, linked to the same national security company who control the building 7 days a week.
Purpose: WineSafe's main purpose is to accommodate your long term cellaring wines and is intended as an addition to your home cellar, to complement and improve your current storage situation, rather than replace it. As such, our minimum rental period is two years. We've had over 400 long term customers, and currently have over 25,000 bottles in our care. We also offer an individual cellar management service for Corporates and larger private cellars.
Please note that as we are a relatively small facility in the global scheme of things, we are frequently unable to accept new clients.