A home wine cellar is the ultimate playground for wine enthusiasts. Without the hassle of visiting a store or cluttering your kitchen with more bottles, you’ll have a whole area dedicated to your hobby.
Your favourite wines are available at home, waiting for the ideal occasion to be uncorked and enjoyed.
But, if you want your wine to get finer with passing time, you need to know the proper way to store it. Just building a home wine cellar will not solve your problem; instead, doing it the right way will. Find out some great wine cellar ideas along with how to take their optimal care.
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What is the cost of building a home wine cellar?
Have you decided on the perfect place for your personal wine cellar? This is because the size of the home wine cellar will decide the cost of building and maintaining it.
An empty home wine cellar doesn’t look good, so you need to fill all the cells. Take it by the thumb rule – a square meter will contain 100 bottles.
In this way, if the average cost of one bottle is 50 AUD, then the total cost of the wine will be 5000 AUD. Apart from this, there is the cost of construction, temperature and humidity control, and decoration.
Where to build a home wine cellar?
Although a basement is the most common place to find a home wine cellar, your house may not come with a basement. The most important thing to remember about a wine cellar is that the place should be low in temperature and high in humidity. As long as you can maintain this, any place in your home can become a wine cellar.
Some familiar places apart from the basement are:
- Under stairs wine cellar
- Entrance to your home
- A spare room
- Living room
For homes that do not have a spare space for installing big wine racks, it is better to get a wine cabinet that you store in a cool, dark place. Now that you know the cost and location, here are some things to keep in mind before you start building it:
Maintain proper light
Do not let UV light enter your home wine cellar. This is because UV radiation activates the Vit B12 in wine, which releases Mercaptans and hydrogen sulphide. This will result in your wine having a pungent sulphurous smell.
The best options are when looking for low-UV lighting for your cellar, incandescent, LED, and sodium vapour lamps. Also, strictly keep it away from sunlight and fluorescent bulbs.
Have an excellent cooling system
Never forget to install a good quality cooling system for your home wine cellar. No matter how fancy wine cellar racks you install, it will be a waste if the cooling fails. Ideally, the wine cellar is supposed to be maintained at a constant temperature of 14℃.
The most affordable and convenient option – A mini-split AC. Another great option is a ducted cooling system. These systems produce the least amount of vibration, making them wine-safe.
For smaller homes that don’t have enough space, it is best to invest in a wine fridge that you can install under stairs wine cellar. These wine fridges provide adequate seal and lighting while maintaining the temperature.
Confirm proper seal
If you’re a dedicated wine collector, you’ll want to store your bottles in a secure location. This includes the ability to manage the amount of light, heat, and humidity in your home wine cellar. The ideal humidity is to be maintained at 60-70%.
Always inspect for any light, water or air leaks. Wood or carpet is too porous and permeable to keep moisture from your wine cellar. Therefore, sealed concrete floors can best do the job. Additionally, these concrete floors also require a sealer such as urethane, siloxane, silane, or epoxy.
Only apply these high-performance sealants after the concrete has fully hardened, which takes about 28 days. If you talk about the ceilings, seal them properly using adhesives to get insulation of minimum R-19.
Install vapour barrier
A large amount of moisture can decrease the capacity of the wall insulation. If it continues the same way, this can result in the growth of mould that will lead to decay and structural difficulties.
However, if you live in cold climates, the opposite can hamper your home wine cellar. It’s likely that your climate-controlled wine cellar will be hotter than the rest of the house. If this is the case, your vapour barrier should be installed on the internal wall of your wine cellar.
Get the perfect door for your home wine cellar
Another critical factor to consider is the sort of door you install. To successfully contain and manage the climate inside the cellar, you must have a door that seals entirely. If you want your wine cellar to be more than just a storage room, you can think about more styled alternatives that improve the space’s aesthetic.
Consider wrought iron and glass doors if you want to make your wine cellar a showpiece or display it as your jewelled possession. These doors not only help to seal the room but also offer a feeling of elegance and design. Prefabricated wrought iron and glass doors are available, and custom orders are to meet your exact measurements and specifications.
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