NORFOLK, Va. — This week on Inside Access, we are taking you into the basement of a Norfolk restaurant.
Byrd and Baldwin is an upscale steakhouse in Downtown Norfolk. Walking through the doors, you’ll find a beautiful bar area, a dining room, and some delicious food, but under the restaurant is a huge cellar full of wine.
To be more specific, there are over 40 lockers full of wine and each locker holds anywhere from 150 to 8,000 bottles of wine. According to Don Paul who is the general manager of the restaurant, they currently have about 30,000 bottles of wine in their cellar.
The wine selection varies greatly with just about any type of wine you can imagine and the values range from under $100 a bottle to as high as a $10,000 a bottle! With that said, it’s imperative that they go above and beyond to keep these wines protected.
They have four temperature and humidity controls that keep the cellar at a steady 58 degrees and 60% humidity. They even have special lights that were designed to not interfere with the aging of the wines. Dozens of security cameras are strategically placed throughout the cellar and at access points as well.
These lockers are all privately owned, but the restaurant does hold public wine tastings for their customers and they love giving tours of the cellar to their guests. You can find more information on their website at www.byrdbaldwin.com.