How To Build A Mini Wine Cellar
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When you are passionate about wine you start to collect it … and when you begin collecting it you need a place to store your wine collection.
It is easy to convert a closet into a mini wine cellar to house 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.
Avoid converting a closet 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. Ideally, choose an internal closet where the temperature is likely to remain more constant.
The speed and degree of any temperature changes are critical in successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees between from winter to summer won’t matter. A similar change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.
The number one rule when you are storing wine is to avoid large temperature fluctuations. You’ll notice damage of this type immediately from the stickiness that will often form around the capsule. Over time, the continued expansion then contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It’s just like having the cork pulled and replaced every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined.
At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age gracefully, enabling it to fully develop as the winemaker intended. Higher temperatures age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures slow the ageing process. The damage done to your wine will be irreversible if it is stored at temperatures over 82ºF even for a month.
The most difficult part of creating a mini wine cellar in a closet can be finding other places to store the original contents of the closet! Do not hesitate … remove all the present contents (move them elsewhere / give away / auction them) and start out with an empty closet!
Purchase inexpensive wine racks from an online retailer, hardware store or storage shop and you’ll have a simple but effective mini wine cellar.
Wine rack designs vary in bottle density; price variations have more to do with aesthetics than efficiency.
Individual racking makes it easy to select bottles. If you place 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.
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