When storing your wine collection, ensuring every wine bottle is kept in the proper elements is essential. If you don’t control the temperature, humidity, lighting, and other conditions your bottles are exposed to, they will quickly develop rancid flavors.
While purchasing a wine cooler is an excellent solution for a wine enthusiast, it isn’t always ideal. Compressor-based wine coolers tend to have significant vibrations, and if you want a large wine collection, you’ll need to spend a lot on your new cooler. The best solution is building a custom wine cellar.
The 5 Essential Elements for Your Wine Cellar
1. Find the Perfect Location
The most essential element you’ll need to account for when building your new wine cellar is the location, as this establishes the baseline and limitations for all other elements of your wine cellar.
You should look in your home to find a dry and cool room. The room should be dark, with little to no vibrations present. Many homeowners use their basements for a more traditional wine cellar, but closets and pantries are often also good candidates.
2. Insulate and Finish Your Wine Cellar
To maintain the proper temperature and conditions, you must adequately prepare your wine cellar before adding anything else to the room.
To start, you’ll need to prepare the floor. If your wine cellar has a concrete floor, you’ll need to coat it with a concrete sealer. If you want to use tile for your wine cellar, use grout or tile filler to seal the grout joint.
Next, you’ll need to prepare the walls. You will need to install a vapor barrier and insulation. To start, use six mil plastic sheeting to cover all surfaces except the floor of the wine cellar, securing it with duct tape.
Once the vapor barrier is in place, you’ll need to install insulation with furring strips and blue boards. You should ideally use pressure-treated furring strips, as they will be significantly more sturdy. Once the strips are installed, place properly sized blue boards between the strips to insulate the room.
Next, you’ll need to install the drywall itself. You should securely attach it to the wall, ensuring it is appropriately sized and leaves no surface uncovered. Before finishing your installation, you should also install a light fixture with a switch and timer. You should also account for any desired outlets or ductwork.
Finally, you should finish the room by installing a wine cellar door or an exterior-grade door. This type of door will provide the proper levels of insulation. You will also need to install a weatherstrip on the door to prevent air leaks.
3. Cool Your Wine Cellar and Control Humidity
Once you’ve properly insulated your wine cellar, the next most important thing you can do is install the cooling system. This will ensure that you can keep your wines at the proper temperatures. Depending on the dimensions and configuration of the room you used, your options may vary.
You should make sure to research thoroughly when choosing your cooling unit. Your cooling unit should be powered appropriately for the dimensions of the room you intend to use it in. Otherwise, the cooling unit may overcompensate and run at significant costs over time. Likewise, you should research when choosing an appropriate humidifier or dehumidifier.
It’s worth considering what style of cooling unit you want before building a wine cellar. If you use a through-the-wall cooling unit, you’ll need to be prepared to mount the unit onto the wall and cut it through to another room. You can also consider a ducted system, allowing you to use ducts for air intake and exhaust.
Before you consider yourself finished with this step, the last thing you need to do is ensure that your wine cellar doesn’t have any leaks. If there are leaks, you may spend a significant amount on cooling and humidifying air that will only escape. Inspect the wine cellar thoroughly before proceeding.
4. Install the Wine Racks
Once your wine cellar is insulated and cooled, one last step you need to take before storing your wine is installing the wine racks. When it comes to wine racks, there’s no shortage of styles and designs to choose from.
Consider using a wood wine rack. This popular variety offers a high level of quality, and it looks incredible in your wine cellar design, too. Depending on the desired style of your wine cellar, you can also consider styles like floating metal wine racks or even a complete cellar rack kit.
5. Add the Finishing Touches
The best way to finish building your new wine cellar is to make the room as beautiful as you envisioned. Depending on what you want to do, there are plenty of possibilities. Many wine cellar owners like to install stylish humidity-resistant flooring and walls in their wine cellars.
If your modern wine cellar is large enough, consider adding amenities like a wine glass rack, cabinets, LED lighting, or a table and chair to sit at and taste wine. You can arrange the wine racks to organize your wine display however you please, and you can even add shelving for decoration or books.
While a wine cellar design is built to preserve your wine, it’s safe to say that you don’t have to stop there. You can make a genuinely delightful space inside your wine cellar if the room is large enough. And whether you intend to use it as a social room or a personal retreat, you won’t regret making this addition to your home.
Conclusion
Building a traditional cellar for wine storage can seem like a daunting process. From insulating the room to installing the wine cellar cooling system, there are a lot of factors you need to consider when building your brand-new wine cellar.
Building a modern wine room doesn’t have to be difficult if you take a diligent approach and research properly. Many a wine collector has enjoyed the process of building their dream wine cellar. Using this guide, you can accomplish the same.
