Leaving Mexico city behind, I now find myself on the way to my client's ranch, where a traditional Mexican lunch is on the menu. Driving out of the city, you cannot help but stop to contemplate the surroundings. At 7000 feet above sea level,  Mexico city has 21 million inhabitants, one of the largest cities in the world. Maybe here more than anywhere else, I realize the surreality of the journey. Avoiding the potholes, and speeding through less than recommendable towns, I already anticipate the final destination, as I know from past experiences of this client, what awaits me will be a grand spectacle, worthy to be noted as one of the most beautiful places in the world. Yet again, this experience did not disappoint.

Seated by the lakeside in an english garden, while the family and I enjoy a bottle of 1990 Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache, I must admit I have one of the best jobs I could imagine. Aside from the gorgeous locations I am fortunate to visit, the fine wines I am obliged to enjoy, it really is the people I share my time with that make these moments special. Clients become friends, and just to be able to share a meal with such interesting men and women, makes my work a real pleasure. We enjoyed La Tache accompanied with tacos and guacamole, and even though the depth of the concentrated fruit was impressive, black cherries and black currant rather than red fruits, even the slightly spicy guacamole didn't overpower the taste of this great wine. The aroma was difficult to detect as it got lost with the scents of the garden, but the colour was a deep concentrated purple, a still solid colour for a 20 year old wine.

Moving on to lunch, one of my worst nightmares. My client hands me his cellar book and asks me to choose the wine for lunch, a traditional menu of steamed lamb, roast pork and fajitas. I always feel in a really difficult position wanting to remain polite and modest, but what exactly is modest for a client who drinks Chateau Petrus every day? My solution is usually to suggest a vintage and leave it to my host to choose the wine from that vintage. Having agreed on a 1990 Burgundy to start, I suggested that Pomerol from the 70's was especially delicious now, so my host decided on Chateau Petrus 1975 from Magnum. Served carefully but directly from the bottle without decanting, the tannins had incorporated themselves to form the skeleton of the wine, with prune sitting on the robust structure. I was pleasantly surprised, the colour was a deep mahogany having lost all purple traces, perfect balance in the mouth, a very long finish, and absolute purity. This Magnum of Chateau Petrus could have lasted another 20 years easily.

The lunch was served in the wine cellar, which can accommodate about 20 diners. I have worked with this client for the past 5 years, and first visited the ranch 3 years ago. At the time, the cellar was no bigger than 50 square meters, but now, we have expanded it to 250 square meters, a duplex cellar with one floor underground and the other at ground level. The main entrance is on the ground floor, but of course no daylight ever shines through the heavy door. The rustic stone and wrought iron racking create a truly authentic atmosphere, adapting to the beautiful mexican surroundings.

Sitting under a blue sky, no smog anywhere and 21 degrees in the early spring sunshine, a glass of Domaine de la Romanee Conti in my hand, I realize I really do have the best job in the world.

Looking out over the skyline of Mexico City, from this beautiful 23rd floor penthouse, a client has requested a specific wine cellar to accommodate his fine wine collection, notably a very convincing selection of Chateau Latour, Chateau Lafite and our client's favourite, Chateau Petrus. While overlooking the plans to create a showroom for such exceptional examples of fine wines with our architect, I pause to wonder at how much the wine industry has changed. As little as 50 years ago, the finest wines were usually found in the cellars of castles, European country houses or on the dinner table of Lords and Ladies. But today, you can travel all over the world and most diners will have heard of Bordeaux wine. 

As I review the plans with the architect to work out how we can contain and display 1150 bottles, 55 magnums and 30 large formats, I imagine that in past times it would have seemed inconceivable to construct a wine cellar in a penthouse. We decided to keep things relatively simple, and arranged the bottles geographically by region, segregating Margaux, Pauillac and Pomerol from Burgundy and Italy, for example. We also placed the young vintages on top, only accessible by ladder, whereas the old vintages are on the bottom of the racking; and finally, horizontally down the middle, an overview of the features of interest, of course prominently featuring Chateau Petrus. The vintages at current ideal maturity for consumption were arranged for easy access.  

As the shapes and sizes of the bottles vary from one to another, we had to think about how many different size racks we would include in this cellar. Finally, we decided that we would only have three sizes, one for the Burgundy and Bordeaux, one for the Magnums and one for the Imperials. 

Like many clients, this gentleman enjoys entertaining with wine so we decided to include a small dining area in the cellar itself.  We decided that our target humidity level would be slightly lower at 60%, instead of 75%, so that just by turning off the air conditioning and leaving the cellar door open a few hours before the wine themed dinner, the cellar will have reached a comfortable temperature. Also this lower humidity level reduces the likelihood of  condensation and mould attacking labels, which can be important in protecting value if you are an investor as well as a drinker.

Wine cellars have really evolved so much over time. A wine collection needs to be taken care of and, done properly, can become a decorative and entertaining feature of a home. This client prefers discretion so demanded a solid rather than glass door to the cellar; and I guess, at 300 feet above street level, there’s little chance of anyone peeping though the window!