We’ve enjoyed being involved with an interview by boutique wine merchants, Humble Grape this month. They are a stylish, high quality company offering wine from a small selection of highly boutique vineyards, carefully selected from around the world’s top wine growing regions. See also Cellar Maison’s interview with James Dawson of Humble Grape earlier in our blog.

Here’s the interview conducted with Andrew Speer, founder of Cellar Maison:

How was Cellar Maison born?

I have been designing bespoke furniture for 15 years and I set up Cellar Maison in 2002, after having developed sound experience in the property market and working with property developers, designers and wine merchants.

We offer innovative solutions that no other wine cellar company can provide including a bespoke customer service. We have team of interior designers who work together to support high-end developers, glass and refrigerator experts.

I am a wine lover but I still have a lot to learn about viticulture: I grew up in the Marlborough region in New Zealand and this is the environment I was raised in. I wanted to get into the wine cellaring business because of personal interest but also because of the opportunity to be part of the huge cultural change that is happening in wine collection and investment.

Cellar Maison was inspired by acknowledging the French wine cave being the hub of the wine cellar, paying homage to this ancient concept and combining it with modern technology.

What kind of services does Cellar Maison offer to their clients?

We help with the planning stage, offer bespoke design consultations on wine collection and budget. All of the above needs to suit the client’s interior decor preferences.

We specialise in climate controlled solutions, consultation, frameless glass innovations that will depend on the properties and offer integrated lighting and LED solutions too.

As part of the consultation process we sketch out a 3D design visual so people are able to visualise the concept before committing to a specific design.

Our aim is to fully project-manage the wine display right from the planning up to the final stages working with both contractors and architects.

How would you organise your cellar?

Definitely by region: to me, it’s important to highlight the origin and the terroir and the tradition behind it.

We are now working on getting hold of reference software that makes it easier to locate a certain grape, vintage or vineyards in biggest wine collections of 500-10 000 bottles.

What’s your favourite food + wine pairing? 

Humble Grape’s Chateau Puy Mouton with slow cooked roast lamb.

And your favourite wine soundtrack?

Working my way up to a Humble Grape’s Chateau Puy Mouton Gran Cru from St Emilion and Bill Wither’s soul music.

Any interesting wine and tech heads up?

Well I plan visit the expo in the US for wine and tech inspirations. There are a number of excellent innovations we can incorporate in our packages. I am researching controlled wine bottle pourers too, that allows the open wine to last for a month. With technology, the possibilities are enormous.

Thanks to Humble Grape.

If you have any questions or want to talk about wine cellars for your home, or wine collecting, please contact us here.