DIY Custom Wine Cellar

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it. Sometimes you sign up for a wine enthusiast club and now are collecting rare wines. As your collection grows, you need a place to store it all. A cupboard can without difficulty be redesigned into a space saving wine cabinet to age your valuable collection.

A few factors must be considered first, before you initiate building the wine cellar. 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, temperature, temperature, outside walls make it very hard to keep this steady as they face the elements. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere.

Your wine will age well if you keep close tabs on the temperature within the cellar, this is critical. Don’t stress if at some times of the year the temp is higher and at other times it is lower, this is acceptable as long as it is a slow shift. If this happens over and over again, gradually the wine inside will be ruined as well. Temperature fluctuations are to be avoided at all costs when it comes to storing wine. 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. Each time the temperature changes, the cork is essentially pulled out and put back in. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork allowing air to seep back in. While it is usually good to expose wine to the air, as it brings out more flavor, it’s the last thing you want when aging wine. Your wine is ruined. It is best if your wine stays in the range of 54-57 degrees to properly age. 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.

Make sure you have a vapor barrier in the closet. Mold like the humid environments that are good for wine. Also think about a high quality wine cooler for keeping tabs on the humidity and temperature.

After the designing comes the constructing. Building a wine cellar is lots of fun! You will need to purchase a few essential items. Purchase some inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store or online retailer or storage shop. 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. A good idea is to have racks against only one wall of the closet. Then you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case. Constructing a custom wine cellar on a budget is simple and easy at home. Go for function over design to save money. Let your wine speak for itself.

A small addition, that will bring so much pleasure down the road!