How to Design and Build a Wine Cellar for Your Home
Wine holds a special place in the hearts, minds, and palettes of different people around the world.
It’s a drink that has a long association of elegance and class, working its way into everything from the paintings of Renaissance masters to the pages of Ernest Hemingway and Jorge Luis Borges to arias by Giuseppe Verdi and Johann Strauss II. It’s a beverage that evokes everything from the lusty fields of France and Italy to Northern California’s natural beauty to the rugged new wine territories of Argentina and Australia.
But what about storing all that wine? For that, you’ll need a top-notch wine cellar, and this guide can help you make sure you have the pieces in place to make that happen.
Consider Storage Conditions
image © unsplash
First and foremost, you are going to want to consider the storage conditions necessary for storing wine. Red wines are the least finicky in this regard – as long as you have a dark, cool environment with a reasonably well-insulated and moisture-free interior, you’re off to a good start. White wine requires careful chilling, so you’ll want all that and some extra cooling apparatuses. Champagne is most delicate of all and needs to be kept at precise temperatures and humidity levels.
Darkness Matters
image © pixabay
Wine’s biggest enemy is light. So darkness is crucial for proper wine storage. Therefore, you’ll first need to make sure you have a dark environment in which to construct your cellar. No direct sunlight should be able to reach the bottles. If there is the sunlight in the room, you’ll need to erect special glass made for wine cellars which can help shield the bottles from the harmful effects that direct sunlight can have on the wine and corks.
Insulation, Moisture Barriers, and Seals
image © pexels
You’ll also want to make sure space is insulated, includes barriers for moisture, and is sealed off.
For your insulation, you’ll want to look into different levels of “resistance” offered by the insulating materials. A resistance strength of at least R13 to R19 is optimal. For your moisture barrier, you should consider using a material such as polyethylene sheeting or something similar. To create the airtight seal you’ll need to keep your bottles’ corks from spoiling, you’ll want to make sure that there is no airflow entering into the unit.
Your wine cellar must have a completely airtight seal.
Get a Top-Quality Cooling Unit
image © pexels
The sweet spot for storing and aging wine is around 50 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity level of around 70%. The temperature itself can vary slightly depending on whether you are keeping red or white wines. If you are keeping both, delegate temperature settings to favor white wines, as they cannot handle warmer temperatures, as well as red wines, can survive cooler ones.
To handle all of that, you’ll want a top-quality cellar cooling unit. What type of cooling unit this is will depend on your cellar’s setup, how much you wish to reduce the noise, the overall size, what wine you are storing, and other factors. Popular types of cooling options include through the wall, split system, and duct cooling options.
Plan for Bottles Big and Small
image © pexels
When installing your wine racks, you need to plan for all different types of bottle sizes. Be sure that the wine racks you order are sized to comfortably keep all the bottles you wish to store snugly in place. If you wish to keep bottles of different sizes (i.e, champagne bottles with their broader bases alongside traditional red wine bottles) you’ll need wine racks that can accommodate both.
Wine is a truly glorious thing, and with these facts in mind, you can start planning out some of the essentials for building a wine cooler that’s worthy of the most robust Bordeaux or bottle of bubbly.
Author’s Bio: Lori Wade is a journalist from Louisville. She is a content writer who has experience in small editions, Lori is now engaged in news and conceptual articles on the topic of home decor and home renovation. If you are interested in furniture or lifestyle, you can find her on Twitter & LinkedIn. She has good experience and knowledge in the field.
