I started collecting wines when I was 17 years old in Spain in 1970 and shipped home a 1/2 cubic meter container of Spanish wines. Most of those bottles became undrinkable  when they were stuck on the docks of Oakland during the summer Longshoreman's strike of 1971. A lot of those bottles, because of the memories and interesting labels are still with me.

My cellar was finally finished from a bare concrete vault to a beautifully racked room for 3200 bottles around 2003 but is now stacked with an extra 500 bottles from last year's inflow I've yet to inventory label.. Adding to it each year is always accompanied with spousal criticism since we drink less than 100 bottles year. I just need to have a few more parties.

The cooling system is a Breezair 8000 which, while cooling, dries out the air. I've been using an inexpensive one foot high self-lighted multi-level decorative fountain from Bed. Bath and Beyond which holds about a half a liter of water for some years. As long and it is filled once a week it will keep the humidity in the 68 to 72% range.