Home & Garden By Jim Peters
INNER SANCTUM WINE COLLECTING ALMOST AS POPULAR AS WINE TASTING
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or many of us, storing our wines lasts about as long as the trip from the liquor commission to the living room. Others like to display their bottles in one of the many appealing wine racks available on the commercial market—at least temporarily. Whatever your preference, the popularity of all things wine has seen a corresponding increase in the popularity of large-scale wine storage. And if you’re looking to give some unused space in the house a makeover, there’s nothing quite like the beauty of today’s contemporary wine cellars. Among wine aficionados, Winnipeg’s Genuwine Cellars is well-known for the quality and beauty of its storage designs. Rhae Redekop, director of wine cellar design, says, “Genuwine is a perfect example of a great business idea beginning in a garage. Several years ago, a friend approached founder and carpenter Lance Kingma and asked him to build a storage area for his wine collection. Co-founder Robb Denomme saw the potential in Lance’s designs and suggested a partnership—resulting in the birth of Genuwine Cellars in 1995.” The love of wine and fine woodworking formed the nexus for their business model—Robb and Lance are also alumni of the prestigious International Sommelier Guild. From its humble origins, Genuwine has grown into a global manufacturing enterprise with state-of-the-art facilities designing and building custom wine cellars for locations around the world. Redekop says, “The owners play to their strengths. Robb fronts the business end and Lance works behind the scenes as the cabinet designer and builder. Our business model includes certified distribution centres—there’s currently 25 across North America—that rely on us for the design and engineering of wine cellars that meet a huge variety of individual tastes. When we work locally we act as the design centre, project manager and engineering firm. In the near future we’ll also be introducing our products into the European market.” WINNIPEGMAG.COM
Image courtesy of Evolution Wine Rooms SPRING 2014
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