Designing Your Own Wine Cellar

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it. It may be|Perhaps you join a wine lovers club and now are bringing in high quality wines. The more wine you have the greater need you will discover for a wine cellar. A closet can simply be adapted into a small wine storage cabinet to protect your brand new wine collection.

Since you are building to last, there are a few things to think about before you begin. For instance where is the closet in relation to the rest of the house? Avoid converting a closet against an outside wall into a wine cellar. Temperature fluctuations are very common for walls situated on the edges of your house as these are exposed to the elements. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere.

A critical part to storing wine is monitering the temperature changes that could take place. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won’t matter. Be sure not to let this continue as it can ruin a good bottle of wine. A bottle of wine can be shocked beyond recovery if the temperature changes too fast too much.

You’ll notice damage of this nature straight away. Look for the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It’s like having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork allowing air to seep back in. After the wine meets the air, a process is set in motion that cannot be undone called oxidation. Your wine is ruined. For wine to develop fully it must age at the correct temperature. This is usually in the range of 53-58 degrees. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a temperature above 82ºF for even a month.

Put in a vapor barrier so the humidity does not damage the walls. Mold like the humid environments that are good for wine. Also keep in mind a little better wine cellar cooling unit for keeping tabs on the humidity and temperature.

After the designing comes the constructing. A DIY wine cellar will be a worthy undertaking! You will need to purchase a few essential items. You can get some cheap wine racks from a hardware store. With some cheap racks you’ll have a simple but very effective mini wine cellar. Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density. Price variations are more to do with aesthetics than efficiency. Individual racking is the most convenient for selecting bottles.

Make your wine cellar with scalability in mind, only put the racks on one side, leaving the other side empty. Then you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case. Building a small wine cellar in your house is easy and cheap. Go for function over design to save money. Let your wine speak for itself.

Be sure to delight in your newly created wine cellar!

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