Wine Cellar Design

You should learn all you can about wine cellars before you start your wine cellar design. The easiest part of a wine cellar design will be assemling the racks.

Assembly of the other design elements may be a bit more challenging. If you are not ambitious you might be better off storing you wine at a wine storage facility the picking it up as needed.

Temperature

The proper temperature range to store wine is 50-60 degrees fahrenheit. To keep wine at a contant temperature may be more difficult than you imagine. The home heating system will be the main obstacle in achieving this constant temperature. If your heater is on during the daylight hours the rising temperature will far exceed the ideal wine storage temperature.

Then at night when the heating is turned off your wine is subjected to a drop in temperature. Then due to temperature change the wine will have expanded and contracted. One way to get round this is to use your basement, which is the best substitute for the stone walled cellars in old mansions.

Temperature fluctuations are not good for wine. If you have a boiler in your basement, you should make sure that the wine cellar is well insulated with quality insulating material.

Natural Lighting Effects

The home basement (if you have one) is by far the ideal location for a wine cellar since your wine collection will not be exposed to light. Light speeds up deterioration in your wines. Red wines don’t have this problem as much because they usually come in dark colored bottles that cut down on exposure to light.

Champagne and lighter wines are extremely light sensitive plus they normally come in light colored bottles which amplifies the effect. So make sure your wine cellar design will accommadate this and prevent minimal sunshine.

Appliances

In you cellar design you should account for vibrations and movement. You wine should lay in a horizonal position. If there are any dryers or washing machines nearby your wine cellar this could cause a problem for your wine.