If you’re going to talk about luxury homes in the Los Angeles area, one thing you have to consider is that many homes of the rich and famous will probably have a wine cellar of some sort. For many, it’s nothing more than a status symbol. For others, it’s a necessity if they’re either going to be doing a lot of entertaining, or just love wines of all styles and vintages.

Many people don’t understand what the purpose of a wine cellar is, or why it’s such a big deal. People who are connoisseurs of wine have an understanding of what keeps a wine good over the course of time. For instance, these items seem to be important for keeping a wine at peak condition over time:

• Keeping wine in the dark most of the time
• Keeping a consistent temperature, especially in the Los Angeles area where the weather is a bit warmer than normal; wines like to be kept cooler, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit
• Little movement, as wines don’t like being jostled too often
• Good humidity to keep the corks from drying out so they don’t shrink, as their purpose is to allow wines to breathe some, but not get contaminated by outside air
• Keeping the air still, as this also can dry corks
• If you’re going to collect a lot of wines, having them all in one place for convenience and safety

Of course, after those factors, all bets are off as to how they’re created. Some builders only use wood; others only use stone or brick. Some avant garde builders of wine cellars will use metals that actually look like coolers. In an expensive home, homes will usually be built with a wine cellar, though one can be added later; it costs more to install a wine cellar after the fact.

Los Angeles is truly a unique place when it comes to wine cellars. Even the mayor’s mansion has a wine cellar; that’s unheard of in most places around the country. In today’s world, where most celebrities will buy homes that already have this feature rather than build a home, the house of former television producer Aaron Spelling stands out not only because of its massive size, but because it also has a wine tasting room.

Another wonderful house that was formerly owned by both Kirstie Alley and Katey Segal, once again on the market for around $ 9.3 million dollars, has a large wine cellar also, with a lighted arch that can highlight the favorite wine of the owner at the time.

And the home of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, which they paid $ 16 million for, came with a brick wine cellar, which they had to wait to use since, when they purchased it, Jennifer was pregnant.

Wine cellars in the homes of the rich and famous don’t conform to the same look or style either. Some have wines stacked on top of each other. Some have them facing each other, or side by side. Some have they spiraling either up or down, covering the equivalent of two stories. Some figure out ways to compact the space, while others want the space to be as large as their living rooms might be. And, because they have the money to pay for it, many will order customize wine cellars from Italy and France and have them installed in space set aside just for them.

No matter what, if you’re looking for a home in Los Angeles and have the money to spend, you’ll easily be able to find a home with a stylish wine cellar.

“Keep clear of wine I tell you, white or red, especially Spanish wines which they provide and have on sale in Fish Street and Cheapside. That wine mysteriously finds its way to mix itself with others.” Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (14th Century).

Chaucer, evidently a suspicious man, would no doubt be amazed at the sophistication of counterfeit wine production in the 20th and 21st century. As in both the art and antique world, rogue elements have been attracted by fine wine’s high prices, so much so that wine counterfeit trading on the secondary fine wine market has risen to a worrying 5%, according to Wine Spectator magazine.

It’s important to note of course that counterfeit or fake wine can also cover doctored or illegally blended wines. For the purposes of this article we are concentrating on the particular band of black marketers who devote themselves to the manufacturing, distribution and selling of fraudulent fine wines.

So how do you spot a counterfeit bottle?

LABEL
Many leading estates have their wine labels posted on their website. Failing this you can search for the wine label via Google Images (take care to ensure the website you end up on is reputable). Benchmark the website label with your own. In the case of a bottle in your possession, remember if a wine is old, a perfect label is often a worrying sign…

CORK
Does the cork look unusually young? Corks, like bodies, become brittle with age. If your bottle purports to be 15/20 years old, does the cork look of a similar age? (to complicate matters slightly, wine collectors can, and do, recork wines occasionally).

CAPSULES/FOILS
Capsules can be lead, wax aluminium, or plastic. Make sure your capsule is of a type (and colour) that the wine estate or Chateau uses (or used).

BOTTLE SHAPE
Look at the wine estate’s website again. Does the shape of your bottle concur with the bottle shape on the website? This is a crude method, but remember that fine wines are generally found in Burgundy (sloping shoulder) or Bordeaux (angular shoulder) shaped bottles.

Finally, make sure you buy from established, reputable sources.

Find More Malbec Wine Articles