We’ve been doing a bit of rearranging. The bottle cellar has, for the past three years had large shelving units along both walls and today I moved one of them. This allowed us to move the wine storage cabinet that we brought from Glasgow to the other side of the room (next to a plug) and get it going.
This is today’s view of the cellar. It’s not part of the hotel that guests usually see and in days gone by was the meat larder. We know that because when we came to the hotel, there was a huge circular contraption with hooks on it hanging from the ceiling. Sadly, that had to be cut down when the ceiling was replaced, but the room still has things of interest. One of these is the big walk in cupboard which was, until today, behind the shelving units.
The door is enormous – 1.1metres wide with a huge wooden framed lock with iron workings. Inside are a further two cupboards with big stone shelves. The room is always cold even on the hottest summers day.
Anyway, there were no real surprises inside since we’ve been in there before. Old Caffreys glasses, a broken wine chiller, random bits of junk.
But back to the wine storage cabinet. It was emptied and put into store in Paisley when we moved here in 2004 and was brought down to the hotel around 4 years ago. I don’t recall it being switched on since it arrived. So when we opened the door, we got a nice surprise…
That’s six bottles of rather nice claret that is. I’ve no recollection of buying it, although a company called “Wines of interest” kind of rings a bell. From online tasting notes the 11 year old St Emilion may be past its peak so we’d better check as a matter of urgency. Happy days 
Update on Thursday…
It is very nice indeed!
Excellent!