Wine Cellar
What does a wine cellar do?
A wine cellar, also called a wine refrigerator, helps you control the following: temperature, humidity, light and for some models, vibration. The ideal temperature to maintain your wines is between 52 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit. While you can certainly go above and below these ranges (but don’t stray too far!), your best bet is to stay close to them. A lower temperature will slow the aging process, and a higher one will increase it. The key to good long-term storage is to maintain a temperature that doesn’t vary significantly. For humidity, the ideal range is about 70%. If it’s lower than 50%, the corks will dry out and ruin the wine. If it’s too humid, then you run the chance of mold forming and ruining the labels.
Do I need a wine cellar?
Whether you need one depends on what you’re looking to do. If you plan to only have a couple bottles around at any one time, and plan to consume them within a few months, then no, you don’t. However, if you plan on keeping wine around for more than 5 or 6 months, and you don’t have a cool, dark place with constant temperature, you should consider getting one.
There are countless ways to properly store your wine. It all depends on what you’re trying to do. Here are some options.
Countertops, Basements and Closets
You can absolutely keep some your wines on your kitchen counter top. This is perfectly fine if you’re going to consume your wine within the next month or two. However, make sure that if you leave it out at ‘room’ temperature, it’s not exposed to any heat source (oven, top of refrigerator, under direct sunlight, etc.), and that the temperature doesn’t fluctuate too much. A well insulated, dark closet or basement can also work for larger scale, and longer term storage. Again, so long as the temperature doesn’t vary much. Remember that the further you stray from ideal conditions (constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit, 70% humidity, no exposure to sunlight or vibrations), the higher the risk your wine will not age properly.
Small wine cellar
Small Countertop Wine Cellar
A small wine cellar that can hold between 2 and 60 bottles will meet most needs. You can buy a variety of wine refrigerators that can be placed right on top of the counter, installed under the counter, or as a standalone unit. If you plan to install the wine cellar where sounds that typical refrigerators make (the compressor turning on and off) can ruin the atmosphere, you’ll want to get a silent wine refrigerator that uses a thermoelectric cooling system. WineGuppy carries a complete range of silent wine refrigerators that use Peltier’s thermoelectric cooling technology.
When selecting a small wine cellar, you’ll need to ask yourself the following questions:
- How much wine will the wine cellar need to hold? Think carefully about this. It’s almost like moving into a big house. It’ll be empty at first but boy, it’ll fill up over time! So realistically assess your needs upfront. You don’t want to buy a small wine cellar, only to find yourself running out of room in a couple years.
- Where will I keep it? If it’s out in plain view, you’ll want to make sure the exterior of the unit matches the surrounding decor.
- Will it be within earshot? If so, you will want to get a silent wine refrigerator.
- Do I need to lock it?
And finally, if you will be storing lots of larger sized bottles (such as burgundy/pinot noirs and champagne), make sure the wine cellar caters for this slightly larger bottle size. Otherwise, you’ll have lots of ruined labels from trying to force them into the smaller spaces.
Large system
Once you’re ready to invest in a large wine refrigerator, it’s time to talk to folks that specialize in wine cellars to find out which one is right for you. If you’re going to invest time and lots of money on a wine collection, you’ll want to do this right.
But don’t be the person that collects wine for the sake of collecting. Wine is meant to be enjoyed. I feel a little sad when I hear of estate sales auctioning off massive collections of wine. That person passed away without ever enjoying what they spent a lifetime collecting.
A simple system to arrange your wine.
Figure out how many bottles, on average, you drink in a week. Multiply that by 50 and add some (or a lot, depending on your social lifestyle!) for special occasions, parties, etc. With this number, you can create a cellar section for each year that holds what you’ll consume in a year. Then, you can add bottles to each section as you buy them. One fun thing to do is to buy a case of something you really like and throw one or two into each yearly pile. You’ll be able to have some every year and can see how it matures over time.
Cellar System
Once a yearly section is filled up, you know you have bought enough wine for that year. At the start of each year, you take all the wine from that designated year and sort them out by variety or style in the most accessible section of your cellar. In the diagram above, you would store all the wine you plan to drink this year in each of the diamond bins, sorted by wine style. This will be your current year section. That’s it! This simple system works really well because it will allow you to visually keep track of how much wine you should buy for each year, while keeping the wine for current consumption easily accessible. You’ll be drinking each wine at their peak, and won’t have a whole bunch of wine maturing on you at the same time. And when there’s an over-supply (discounts galore!), you can stock up on the cheap and hold off when prices are going through the roof. If you follow this system, you’ll have a constant supply of well-aged wines for the rest of your lives!
Using an Old or Spare Refrigerator
Wine Stat
This is a method I discovered while trying to find a cheaper way to store lots of wine without having to splurge for a large wine cellar. It’s really quite clever. All you do is plug the refrigerator into the wine-stat (which is itself plugged into an electrical outlet) and set the temperature you want. You then plug the attached thermometer into a wine bottle filled with water and lay it with the rest of your wine bottles in this refrigerator. It will turn the refrigerator on and off to maintain the desired temperature. It’s a brilliant way to cellar wine at a constant and ideal temperature without spending thousands…
For the most up-to-date version of this guide, check out the WineGuppy Guide to Wine Cellars.
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