Common name for the place where wine is usually stored in bottles or other containers. In the original sense, this refers to an underground room, but the term also applies to a ground-level arrangement. A winery, on the other hand, usually refers to a production facility which, unlike an independent winery, does not have its own vineyards and processes grapes supplied by grape producers, as is the case with winegrowers' cooperatives or other processing associations, for example. However, the term "Kellerei" is also used to describe a specialised wine shop (vinotheque).

Cellar lane

The old wine cellars, which were generally dug below ground level, were usually lined up next to each other outside the actual wine-growing community in the so-called Kellergasse, creating a typical picture. In front of the actual wine cellar was the press house, where the grapes delivered after the harvest were pressed. The press house was connected to the cellar tube, the actual storage cellar, via the cellar neck. The dark cellar mould (also known as cellar cat) often found in such cellars was or is desirable.

The picture on the left shows a cellar pipe, the picture on the right a press house in the cellar alley in the municipality of Prellenkirchen(Lower Austria).

Fermentation cellar

Fermentation produces fermentation gas (carbon dioxide), which is toxic to humans. In the past, the extremely unsafe method of candle testing was used to determine the level of gas present. The gas used to be removed via two structural devices. These were the fermentation grid in the cellar door and the vapour pipe (ventilation shaft). Both are only suitable to a limited extent because the carbon dioxide is heavier than air and collects at the bottom or at the lowest point. Today, it is extracted via exhausters (ventilators) and fed into the open air or, in large cellars, into containers and utilised. The picture shows a typical vaulted cellar. This does not have a flat ceiling, but is usually closed off by...