Storing Your Wine in Traditional Champagne Riddling Racks

I adore champagne, and I still remember my first visit to a sparkling wine house in California, where I saw how the wine was made - and learned about riddling racks. While many producers of champagne and other sparkling wines now use mechanized riddling equipment rather than the traditional wooden riddling rack and the associated hand riddling process, some wineries still go with the traditional approach. The photo above comes from Schramsberg.




But riddling racks, or pupitres, are also making their way into homes, where people are using them for wine storage. Sometimes the racks are old ones; sometimes they are newly-made. NapaStyle is one place that sells old used riddling racks.




VivaTerra sells a "genuine reclaimed pupitre that comes with centuries of bubbly tradition." [via EcoSalon] Update on Aug. 11, 2012: VivaTerra doesn't sell this product any more.




2-Day Designs makes this riddling rack, from its Wine2Night collection, from "previously-used white oak wine barrels." Update on Aug. 11, 2012: 2-Day Designs no longer makes this product.




And this riddling rack comes from Uttermost. Update on April 11, 2012: Uttermost doesn't make this product any more.