Building a Wine Cellar?

If you have been buying wine for a few years and the bottles are beginning to pile up in the corner of your unfinished basement, you are probably wondering what to do. Maybe it is time to consider building a real wine cellar to help protect your investment. You are tired of the mess and having to search for "that perfect bottle," when you suddenly discover one of those bottles that you forgot you still had. You rush upstairs in excitement and open the bottle. You grab your best glass, pour the first taste and it’s over the hill! What a bummer!!

There are really three directions one can take in order to build a proper cellar. The first is to just store your treasures in a dark cool corner of your cellar and hope and pray they live. The second is if you are very handy around the house and you decide to be a "weekend warrior." You’re that kind of person who knows how to and has the time to build it yourself! The third method is how I built mine. I, like many others, am just too busy with life and would rather hire a professional to do it all. Sure, I’m the designer and builder, but my subs built mine and it was not free! Regardless of which direction you decide, the following is a list of what you will need to consider if you truly want to build a wine cellar that will stand the test of time!

The number one fundamental concept to understand in wine storage is temperature. The delta or change in temperature is the single most important factor in the storage of wine over long and even short periods of time. If the space you intend to store your wine has a delta greater than five degrees up or down you are flirting with disaster. Wine is a liquid and as such changes state depending upon the temperature at which it is stored. The optimal temperature a bottle should be stored at is 55 degrees. If the temperature in the storage space rises and causes the liquid temperature in the bottle to raise above 55 degrees the pressure will increase proportionately. Delta T = Delta P. Sorry if it sounds like your high school chemistry class… This pressure build up will eventually force a small amount of air past the cork during the higher temperature swell. It’s the downside or lowering of the temperature that will cause damage to the wine. As the wine cools it will create a vacuum behind the cork drawing oxygen past the cork which in turn will cause the wine to oxidize prematurely.

The second fundamental concept is location. Just like in real estate where location, location, location is vital to the value of a property, the wine’s location in a basement determines how the home above and the property surrounding the home effect the internal temperature of a basement space. Boiler rooms produce heat in the winter months, southern facing terraces absorb summer sun and through absorption transfer heat to the foundation walls in turn raising the overall basement temperature. The same holds true as well for winter months.

The third fundamental concept is humidity levels. We all know that basement humidity levels change from one season to another. High humidity levels in the spring will exist and dry levels in the winter will occur. Nature will take its course. Building a wine storage space with a proper vapor barrier will slow the delta and installing a refrigeration system with a humidification device will help maintain proper humidity for long term storage. 60% to 80% relative humidity is optimal.

The next installment in this series will deal with construction……..stay tuned!