WINE LOVER

“It breaks my heart to see badly stored wine. It’s a living product and should be treated with respect.” So says Vincent Gasnier, who has put his money where his mouth is by investing in a spiral wine cellar for his home in Hampshire. “Wine doesn’t like brutal changes in temperature. It should be neither too warm nor too cold, or the wine will begin to referment,” he says. “If you’re serious, the garage is not a storage option.”

Gasnier’s passion for wine has produced six books, won him numerous awards, including youngest Master Sommelier in 1997, and brought him his own wine consultancy company, which he set up in 2000.

The wine cellar is his pride and joy. “For years I didn’t have the luxury of a cellar, but it was always a dream,” he says, lifting an almost invisible trap door in his kitchen floor. “I keep about 1,200 bottles here. I lay down all my expensive wine, so I can cherish it for years to come.”

He has a White Spiral Cellar from Spiral Cellars (£17,530 for the 2m version, which can hold 1,190 bottles, and up to £21,750 for 3m and 1,870 bottles). A watertight, pre-cast cylindrical system that’s sunk into a hole in the ground, it can be located anywhere at ground-floor level. “It’s a beautiful piece of engineering, as well as being secure and discreet” he says.

A bottle of something special has become a popular gift for birthdays. Unluckily for Gasnier, his own year of birth, 1974, is a dud. “My wife bought me a bottle of Lafite-Rothschild 1974 for my 30th. I haven’t opened it; it’ll be vinegar.” His three children, however, were born in 2000, 2003 and 2005 – “all outstanding vintages”.

www.vincentgasnier.co.uk, www.spiralcellars.com

MUSIC FREAK

Freddie Hair designed his bedroom so that he would rarely need to leave it. “It’s got everything I could want – my mixing desk, Xbox, TV, computer, guitar. There are beers and Cokes in a little fridge for when my mates come over, and it’s great when it’s dark with just the little chilli lights on.”

The 17-year-old’s enthusiasm for music is infectious. His walls are a riot of club flyers and movie posters. “I stole the cardboard cut-out of Spider-Man from Streatham Odeon. The target poster I got on holiday in America and the Che Guevara one is kind of ironic. I mean, who my age even knows who he is any more?”

Hair, who is studying for his A levels, makes his own music, mixing CDs and vinyl. DJ-ing is his passion.

“I started doing parties and small club nights about four months ago. It’s an amazing thrill seeing people jump into the song you’ve just mixed. I like French dance music, hip-hop, drum and bass – electro kind of covers it.”

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