Wine Cellar/room

In the spring we are moving house onto a new basement. The basement will be an ICF basement (Styrofoam forms with concrete poured in).

I will be building a wine making room in the basement. Also, I want to make a wine storage room. The wine making room I know what I want. The storage, besides selves (I'll just use store bought) what should I look to do.

I want the storage to just be practical to store my wine for years, not a show piece.

What would you do?

Here is my advice..

1) take the amount of space that you think that you will need, and triple it!

2) I take it that you are talking about a wine storage room (an area to age your bottled wine)? if so, I would look to build or buy the diamond type of wine rack...



IMHO, these are just about the most efficient for storing wine. Remove one bottle and the others do not roll around...

I agree with John, with the following caveat: If you really want the diamond storage to be efficient, make the angles of the diamonds 60 and 120 degrees ("Harlequin pattern").

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=514027&postcount=29

http://cdn.winemakingtalk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=18037&stc=1&d=1412009404

my system - 2 bottles deep

All wine storage is temporary, therefore the ultimate temporary storage container is a glass...

kevinlfifer said:

http://cdn.winemakingtalk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=18037&stc=1&d=1412009404

my system - 2 bottles deep

Click to expand...

I've seen these, people here call it goat wire, comes in big sheets.

Ones I've seen just use the wire. Curious, why the wood in them?

Thanks for the replies and great ideas.

As it will be an insulated basement and room, do I need to worry about humidity? Would a portable dehumidifier work or should I look into putting something in the wall, more of a permanent thing?

sour_grapes said:

I agree with John, with the following caveat: If you really want the diamond storage to be efficient, make the angles of the diamonds 60 and 120 degrees ("Harlequin pattern").

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=514027&postcount=29

Click to expand...

Is this yours? trying to count but can't see all of it. How many bottles can you store?

Now that's my kind of closet! Nice job Paul!

ez2cy said:

Is this yours? trying to count but can't see all of it. How many bottles can you store?

Click to expand...

Yes, this is mine. The exact capacity depends on how many Burgundy vs. Bordeaux bottles, and how they cram into the partial cubbyholes, but I calculated that I should be able to fit about 468 bottles.

Some construction details available here: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=513850&postcount=26

I really like the closet idea - nice job Paul !

Question - why is there spacers on the floor ? I figured with all the weight you would like it spread out as much as possible ?

vacuumpumpman said:

I really like the closet idea - nice job Paul !

Click to expand...

Thanks, Steve.

Question - why is there spacers on the floor ? I figured with all the weight you would like it spread out as much as possible ?

Click to expand...

Well, there were two reasons that I recall. One was that I did not want the 1x8's in direct contact with the tile floor, as that area gets a little damp during the spring; I wanted to minimize the chance of mold from trapped water. And second reason concerns that center 2x4 on the ground: it was a contingency for mounting, if need be, a vertical post that the two doors would close onto. I wound up not needing this post, as the width of the doors turned out perfectly (by accident) to close together without any more framing.

The wood is to deepen the rack to hold 2 bottles in each slot, one in front of the other. Each row holds a case. By using the wire grid I did not lose a full vertical column to the width of wood vertical supports.