Nothing improves with age better than fine wine. And whether you drink wine or not, it’s always nice to have a bottle of red or white handy at a moment’s notice when entertaining guests.
That’s where a wine cellar comes into play. In fact, these dedicated wine storage spaces are fast becoming a growing trend in the world of home design.
Here are a few tips to exhibit your favorite wines while making sure they’re being stored in optimal conditions.
Find the Right Location
First things first. Before you build a wine cellar, you need to decide where it’s going to go. In fact, the location of the wine cellar is the most important decision you’ll be making.
Not only does the spot you choose need to fit your wine cellar easily and comfortably, it also needs to be away from any direct sunlight. That’s one of the main reasons why homeowners tend to put them in the basement. Wine cellars that are built above grade will require special attention and materials to make sure they’re adequately insulated and sealed.
Consider the Sizes of the Bottles
When coming up with the actual square footage of your wine cellar, consider the size of each bottle that you’ll be storing. Even though wine bottles come in all different shapes and designs, wine is typically sold in 750 mL bottles and measure about 3 inches in diameter and 12 inches tall. Champagne bottles are slightly bigger than that, at about 3.5 inches in diameter and 12.5 inches tall.
Consider how many bottles you think you’ll be housing at any given time, and accommodate for these numbers when laying out the size of your cellar.
Don’t assume that you’ll need a sprawling space to fit a wine cellar, however. These storage areas don’t take up as much space as you might initially believe. In fact, you can easily get away with 30 square feet to store as many as 250 wine bottles!
Ensure Optimal Temperature and Humidity Levels
When it comes to optimal storage conditions for wine, perhaps the most important aspects are the temperature and humidity level.
When it comes to temperature, the cellar should ideally be between 55 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit. The reason for this finicky range comes down to how well the wine will age. If the temperature is too warm, the wine will age faster. On the other hand, a cellar that’s too cold will slow down the aging process. Besides, a glass of red wine that’s about 55 degrees F simply tastes better than a glass that’s ice cold.
To maintain a perfectly chilled cellar, a cooling unit will need to be installed. To select an appropriate unit, you need to calculate the area of the space, and consider the room’s insulation.
Standard self-contained cooling units can be vented through the wall to the outside or to an adjacent room that’s ideally at least 30% cubic feet bigger than the wine cellar itself. You can also go with a split cooling system that works pretty much like central air conditioning. In this case, a condenser is installed outside the home and connected through copper lines to the evaporator unit in the cellar.
Cooling units for wine cellars also control the humidity level, which is important to make sure that precious wine of yours doesn’t spoil. The perfect humidity level is 57%; anything more than 70% and you’re asking for mold to grow on the corks, which essentially will ruin the wine. On the flip side, humidity levels that are under 50% can make the corks dry out, which isn’t good either.
Select the Lighting
Not only do you want your wine cellar to be functional, you also want it to look amazing. And stylish lighting can help do just that.
Forget about traditional incandescents and halogen bulbs, which give off way too much heat for a wine cellar to handle. Instead, go with LED lights, which emit almost no heat whatsoever.
The great ting about LED lights is that they come in all sorts of options, from track lights, to strip lights, to pucks, and everything in between. Layering your lighting options can highlight your prized wines while illuminating the space in a stylish and sophisticated manner.
Choose a Display Design
Lighting will take you so far in the style department, but exactly how your bottles are put on display can make a real difference. You don’t have to limit yourself to just one method, either. Mix things up a bit to create an eclectic and visually interesting and appealing display.
Store some bottles horizontally, and others upright. Include pine racks mixed with metal shelves.
Creating a decorative and chic wine cellar will allow you and your guests to enjoy both a fabulous glass of wine as well as the surrounding decor at the same time.
