Barrelheads designed The Private Cellar as a personal wine education and discovery programme. Built around one simple idea: the best way to learn about wine is to drink good wine, with someone who can explain it to you, at your own pace, in your own home.
View Programme Options →It is not about filling a cellar with trophy bottles or impressing anyone with labels. It is not about investment returns, auction lots, or First Growths served at dinner parties to signal status.
There are programmes that do all of those things. This is not one of them.
The wines in your monthly cases will typically cost between $20 and $65 a bottle. The point is never the price. The point is what the wine shows you.
A $15 Beaujolais from Marcel Lapierre will teach you more about winemaking philosophy than a $500 Napa Cabernet. A $22 Langhe Nebbiolo will show you the soul of Piedmont more clearly than a young, unapproachable $200 Barolo.
Everything in this programme comes directly from your questionnaire — your palate, your pace, your preferences.
No wine-critic jargon. Tasting cards and sessions that make sense to a curious person, not a sommelier exam candidate.
Sessions are 60–75 minutes, not two hours. No homework. No exams. Wine arrives, you enjoy it, you learn something.
Start wherever feels right — you can move between tiers at any time. The programme runs month to month with 30 days' notice to change or cancel.
* Annual vineyard trip includes all estate visits, private tastings, winemaker dinners, and local transportation. Flights and accommodation arranged separately to your own standard.
Simple, unobtrusive, personal. Wine arrives at your door, your sommelier comes to you, and the education happens naturally over a glass.
Start the conversation →Your 6-bottle case arrives at home. Each bottle has a tasting card explaining what it is, where it's from, and what to look for — in plain language, not wine-critic jargon.
Your sommelier visits for 60–75 minutes. You taste 4–6 wines together, guided by conversation, not lecture. You learn something new every time.
You text your sommelier: "We're going to dinner tonight — what should we order?" or "We loved that Beaujolais — can we get more?" They respond the same day.
You drink the rest of the case at home, at your own pace. No pressure to taste formally. Just enjoy the wine with dinner.
Your sommelier sends a short note: here's what you've explored, here's what's coming next, here's what we think you'll love.
It begins with a short questionnaire — so we understand your palate, your pace, and what you want to explore. Your sommelier then designs the programme around your answers. Once you are happy to proceed, we send a simple service agreement to sign. After that, no ongoing commitment: the programme runs month to month, and you can pause, change tiers, or stop at any time with 30 days' notice.
Tell us about your palate, your pace, and what you want to explore. The more you share, the better the programme.
We review your answers and introduce you to your sommelier, who will design the programme personally around what you told us.
Within two weeks of getting started. After that, month to month — no lock-in, no minimum term.
If you have any questions about the wines, the programme, the pricing, or anything else — we are here. This is a personal service, and it begins with a conversation.
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