A Wine Cellar In A Small Space

« « Why California wine gifts are so popular | Do You Need to Buy a Cigar Humidor As A Gift » »

Subscribe To Our Feed

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it … and when you begin collecting it you need a place to store it.

A closet can easily be turned into a mini wine cellar to store your growing wine collection.

Before you begin converting your closet into a wine cellar consider the position of the closet relative to the rest of the house.

Try to avoid converting a closet situated against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outer walls of your abode can be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature from season to season. Select an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a stable atmosphere.

The degree and the speed of any change in temperature are critical elements in successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won’t matter. A similar change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

A major rule when storing wine is to avoid large (or quick) temperature changes. You’ll be aware of this damage straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It’s just like having the cork removed and replaced every day. When this occurs, very small amounts of wine may be expelled along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the neck of the bottle) allowing air to seep in. Your wine will be ruined once air comes in contact with your wine and the irreversible process of oxidation begins.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age with grace, enabling it to develop fully. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. The damage done to your wine will be irreversible if it is stored at a temperature above 82ºF for even a month.

The most difficult part of creating a wine cellar in a closet can be finding other places to store the original contents of the closet! Be tough … remove all the present contents (give away / auction / move them) and start with an empty closet!

Purchase some inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you’ll have a simple but very effective mini wine cellar.

Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density; price variations are more to do with aesthetics than efficiency.

Individual racking is generally thought to be the most convenient way of storing and selecting your bottles. If you have racks against only one wall of the closet you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case.

Get Social, Bookmark Us!!: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.