moving soon , no cellar

[wood1954]

We're moving in January to a house with no basement and i have about 300 bottles of wine to store. This is in Waupaca, Wisconsin, very cold in winter and pretty mild in summer. The house has a room on the northwest corner that will be shaded in the summer, but unless i put in a window air conditioner it will be in the seventies during the summer. In the winter i can close off the heat and keep it cool. the house does have a 4' deep dry crawl space that is heated enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but i can't see putting that much wine in there. so my question is as we remodel the house i could insulate the interior walls of that room and run a small AC unit, but is that going to be expensive if i shoot for about 60 degrees? Or should i try to make a smaller storage area so i don't have to cool the whole room.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

You mention that you have a 4' deep dry crawl space that is heated enough to keep the pipes from freezing -
I bet it stays pretty cool in the summer months also. I have a similar issue - I have to get on my knees and crawl to get access to all my wine, that is my only option I have available to me at this time.

 

[wood1954]

i suppose that would help me age it longer if i had to always crawl down and pull some out. Probably wouldn't be too bad, one guy in the crawl space and me handing the cases to him.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I put a plywood floor down and it makes the cases slide easier. I do have 150 bottle rack , but most all others are in cases upright - that is one reason I use normacorks.

 

[DaveL]

Hire a day laborer, around here that's code for Latino, and excavate a deeper area in your crawl space if it is dry year around. Your footer should be at least 4 ft in the ground up there I believe so you should be fine. However picture a line drawn on a descending on a 45 degree angle from the top of your foundation and do not encroach on this. If it is heated enough that your pipes don't freeze you should not have to worry about frost heave from the inside. You could take this as far along as you like, walls floor etc

 

[JohnT]

Personally, I would hate the idea of my wine being so far out of reach. What happens in the winter when you have 4 feet of snow on the ground? How can you check your wine or, perhaps, break out a couple of bottles?

(I assume that the crawlspace has no access from inside the house)

Keeping wine at 60 or 70 degrees is fine. I normally have my wine at about 70 in the middle of summer and as low as 55 in the middle of winter.

I concern myself more with trying to remove the violent swings in temp rather than attempting to keep my wine at one particular temperature. this seems to work well as I have some wines that I made more than 20 years ago.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

The crawlspace I am referring to in my situation is actually inside but under the actual foyer floor. It stays between 55-65 degrees all year round. Three sides are concrete foundation and stone floor.

 

[JohnT]

The crawlspace I am referring to in my situation is actually inside but under the actual foyer floor. It stays between 55-65 degrees all year round. Three sides are concrete foundation and stone floor.

In your case VPM, it sounds perfect. most crawlspaces are set up like that though.

 

[buckhorn]

Wood1954 - is the crawl space accessible from inside your house at all? Is it set up in such a way that you could have racks in the crawl space and pull them back into a full size room in the house?

My mind is thinking if you can do that, you could build a wine rack on wheels - similar to the racks used to hold folding tables/chairs in school and gathering halls ... you could pull the rack out (wheel it out) and select the wine from the rack and roll it back in...

Just thinking ideas out loud.....

 

[FTC Wines]

Wood1954, I moved my 500 ish bottles from my basement in N Ga Mtns to Florida. I had NO choice but to have a separate wine room. After a AC debacle I settled on a GE 6400 btu unit. We keep the room at 68* year round hasn't effected electric bill too bad. PM me if you want more info! Roy

 

[firejohn03]

We're moving in January to a house with no basement and i have about 300 bottles of wine to store. This is in Waupaca, Wisconsin, very cold in winter and pretty mild in summer. The house has a room on the northwest corner that will be shaded in the summer, but unless i put in a window air conditioner it will be in the seventies during the summer. In the winter i can close off the heat and keep it cool. the house does have a 4' deep dry crawl space that is heated enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but i can't see putting that much wine in there. so my question is as we remodel the house i could insulate the interior walls of that room and run a small AC unit, but is that going to be expensive if i shoot for about 60 degrees? Or should i try to make a smaller storage area so i don't have to cool the whole room.

6000-8000 BTU window units are becoming more and more energy efficient as the years pass. at their price of around $100 they will climate control an average bedroom, even with un-insulated walls. I would keep my wine close.

 

[wood1954]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I think after all the remodeling I'll put a small plywood floor down and make a bigger trapdoor to access the area. that will be my long term aging cellar and i'll make a small wine storage area in the living space , still negotiating with my wife tho. there could be a small wine making area in the new laundry room.