Luxury I can't afford

It's no secret that I like a glass of wine, and that I have been known to cross the threshold of Majestic from time to time.

The Majestic connection is the only thing I can think of that might explain why the postman has delivered me a fat glossy brochure from a company called Spiral Cellars, who specialise in coming to your home, excavating a large hole in the floor and installing a lavish mini-cellar with spiral staircase, accessed by a large glass (or wood) hatch in the floor which will certainly impress your friends. It is designed to hold (by my standards, anyway) quite a large number of bottles.

I say large, but everything's relative, obviously. The smallest cellar in the range holds 650 bottles, which may not be a huge number but comfortably exceeds the largest total routinely to be found in our garage - maybe 20 or 25. I can appreciate the convenience, though. As one happy customer testimonialises:

"We used to keep our wine in a temperature-controlled warehouse. It became hard work always having to think ahead about what wine to have delivered to the house to drink in the short term, and in quantities of full cases. Now I have everything in one place, and a wine for every occasion to hand. What's more, the money I save on warehousing and deliveries means I have more to spend on wine."

The money saved might also, of course, help you to partially recoup the cost of the project, which appears to be upwards of £15,000 or so. How quickly the effect of the saving might be felt would obviously depend on your household's consumption of wine. Of course getting through the amount required to make a truly significant saving might leave you struggling to assess what the saving might be - or to get to a handle on anything else, for that matter.

I don't think I can afford to be taking this idea up. I mean, the suggestion is already offered in this household, from time to time, that I appear to be an alcoholic. What assessment of my character might result from a decision to go in for one of these?

If you can afford it: http://www.spiralcellars.com/