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 that, 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).
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 (cellar alley) and created 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.
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Egon Mark
Diplom-Sommelier, Weinakademiker und Weinberater, Volders (Österreich)