For wine collector
Candlelight flickers while good friends raise their wine glasses to sample a rare vintage –it’s a wine tasting party in your own well –stocked wine cellar. If you don’t have a cool room large enough for both storage and parties, plan to do your entertaining in another area rather than sacrifice storage.
A basement isn’t the only place for wine storage. Consider using the crawl space, a cool corner, or even a closet with artificial cooling. Regardless of the size of your collection or the location of the cellar, there are four factors for successful wine storage: temperature, peace and quite, bottle position and light.
Temperature is best keep between 500 and 600 F with expert generally settling on 580 as the ideal. Controlling fluctuating temperatures is crucial: though wine can tolerate some slow temperature changes over a period of days, rapid changes will damage it.
Since temperature changes occur more slowly in the earth than in the air, many wine rooms are built near or below ground level. If you don’t have a basement, consider wine storage in a consistently cool, likely storage spots. Buy several accurate thermometers and take readings over a couple of days in potential storage sites. Take the year round temperature into considerations as well as the proximity of heating ducts or hot water pipes.
Insulation also controls temperature –the more you have, the better. Good insulation and a solid core door with double weather stripping may eliminate the need for air conditioning. But if you do decide to hook up to artificial cooling consult an expert to obtain the most energy efficient system.
Peace and quite are what the wine likes. A secure rack will help, and it should be located away from sources of vibrations, such as clothes washers, dish washers, heating and cooling system.