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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 8/2/2023 5:16:02 PM

recotte

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quote:

ORIGINAL: S1

Plenty of room for more stuff.
Don't ask me about the Eurocaves though...

Moving all of the bottles in decaying cardboard to Weinboxes soon.

Dude! Plenty of space in there!!!

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 8/3/2023 12:30:19 PM

wadcorp

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quote:

ORIGINAL: S1

Plenty of room for more stuff.

If you can't rack it, stack it.

.

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Post #: 1622

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 8/4/2023 4:39:33 AM

musedir

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From: At 2534ft in Asheville near Royal Pines
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Post #: 1623

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 8/4/2023 6:50:47 AM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: musedir

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Post #: 1624

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/28/2023 2:20:23 PM

VintageSF

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At long last I had a wine room constructed in my basement. It was completed in May 2023. The outside dimensions are 7' x 10'. The exterior is unfinished 1/2" plywood. Framing is 2" x 6", and the walls are 1/2" purple board, painted white. The insulation is closed-cell foam, approximately 6" on the sides and 4" on the ceiling. Ceiling height is about 78". The floor is concrete with a resin finish; the rug is an antique 3' x 6'3" hand-knotted Persian Balouch. Three walls have redwood racks (built and installed by Artistic Wine Cellars; Alameda, CA) approximately 12" deep that hold 22 bottles in each vertical row, and the fourth has a solid wood door and no racks, leaving open space of approximately 4' x 9.5'. The racks below the cooling unit are for sparkling wine and large-format bottles (currently occupied by 1/2 bottles of Sauternes and some ports). The room is cooled to 55° with a through-the-wall WhisperKool SC Pro 4000. Humidity is around 55%. The capacity is 1024 bottles. The total cost was about $25K.

The basement is at ground level in front (west), and below grade level at the back. The house is attached on the south side. On the north side I have room for around 100 to 125 bottles that abut the outside wall. Since November of last year, the average temp has been 63.6°F but has increased a bit since I added the wine room. During warm spells, the maximum temperature occasionally reaches 72°F but is usually around 67–68°F. During cooler months, the temperature is 55.8–62°F.

Reds, whites, roses are arranged separately by year. All bottles have hang tags that show year, winery, varietal, cost, where purchased, drinking window, avg. CT score, and delivery date. The section to the right of the cooling unit is devoted to the older and most age-worthy wines; eventually I plan to buy a wine cooler for them to free up space.

Currently I have 1140 bottles. Most are from California (77%) and France (16%), with the remainder from Italy (4.7%) and Austria, Germany, Spain, Greece, New Zealand, and Australia. The majority of the California wines are from wine clubs I've belonged to over the years, and for a long time they sat forlorn in their shipping boxes, which were piled up and mostly inaccessible. Wines for daily drinking were mostly from K&L. As a result I have around 350 bottles that are supposedly past their drinking window; however, most of them are reds and with few exceptions those I have opened were still drinking well to reasonably well. Even the older Chardonnays (2009–2015) have been good.

Since the cellar was built, I have been buying more European and other non-California wines to balance the collection. I love being able to easily find the perfect bottle!

Here are links to photos of the wine room: https://share.icloud.com/photos/030oEmMRK-nBGoubmwwyAzfeg / https://share.icloud.com/photos/07eF8Kr7Cmdmv9Y0n_zvRR7dg

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/29/2023 8:08:57 AM

grizzlymarmot

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Awesome forum debut, VintageSF. That is impressive - Athena-like - born fully formed and ready. Mine is more like an old church - constructed slowly with many styles that probably don't really go together. There are remnants from the 1980's - several houses ago and my last modification was to replace a light fixture about a year ago.

< Message edited by grizzlymarmot -- 10/29/2023 8:09:53 AM >

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Post #: 1626

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/30/2023 11:53:18 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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quote:

The capacity is 1024 bottles....

....Currently I have 1140 bottles.

Welcome to the forum, VintageSF, you are certainly one of US!!!

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/30/2023 1:51:46 PM

musedir

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Indeed, a fully realized Cellar Tracker right out the chute… with a hand-knotted rug no less. Thanks for sharing.

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Post #: 1628

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/30/2023 2:26:45 PM

DoubleD1969

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From: New Jersey
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quote:

ORIGINAL: ChrisinCowiche

quote:

The capacity is 1024 bottles....
....Currently I have 1140 bottles.

Welcome to the forum, VintageSF, you are certainly one of US!!!

You forgot this: “ I have around 350 bottles that are supposedly past their drinking window”

Yup, fit right in 😂

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Post #: 1629

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/31/2023 12:02:36 AM

VintageSF

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Yup. More bottles than rack space. The basement fridge has around 25 bottles and the rest are in the area next to the north wall of the basement. The remaining rack space will accommodate about 50-60 bottles. Now the problem is lack of rack space within the year categories. Having initially guessed how much space to allot to each year, I had to play wine-bottle Tetris for a good hour in order to get the last 7-8 cases properly situated. The strategy now is to slow the acquisition rate (which accelerated alarmingly) once the wine room was ready) and to drink/share as many of the older bottles as possible.

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Post #: 1630

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 10/31/2023 8:21:21 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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quote:

ORIGINAL: VintageSF

Yup. More bottles than rack space. The basement fridge has around 25 bottles and the rest are in the area next to the north wall of the basement. The remaining rack space will accommodate about 50-60 bottles. Now the problem is lack of rack space within the year categories. Having initially guessed how much space to allot to each year, I had to play wine-bottle Tetris for a good hour in order to get the last 7-8 cases properly situated. The strategy now is to slow the acquisition rate (which accelerated alarmingly) once the wine room was ready) and to drink/share as many of the older bottles as possible.

I think it takes us all a while to find a rhythm and system that works best for us. and it will change over time as your tastes and cellar evolve. I spent a few hours this past weekend doing cellar Tetris for the purposes of a) making room for new arrivals, b) moving a couple cases of ready to drink red bottles to our upstairs wine frig, hank, b) getting all of our white/roses/sparklers organized in hank. I've been in my current configuration cellar-wise for ~10 years and I'm still tweaking this dance. Latest system needed to accommodate more white wine in the cellar since we are drinking and buying more and trying to move enough ready reds to the convenient temp-controlled spot for daily grabbing. Assuming I stay with this routine, it should make trips to basement cellar reduced to about 1 per month. I know I desperately need a cellar audit, but that will wait until some rainy/snowy weekend. I'm also over "capacity" by about 4 cases on the floor of the cellar and have another 5-6 cases arriving in next few weeks. That doesn't count the closet, carboys, and barrels!!! still full of home brew.

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 11/3/2023 10:12:53 AM

sastewart

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Wine in 3 LeCache units holding about 900 bottles at home in Nashville
Wine in 2 storage units downtown Chicago.
Wine at 2 friends cellars in Chicago
Wine at 1 friends cellar here in Nashville

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Post #: 1632

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 11/4/2023 3:27:29 PM

wadcorp

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From: Kansas City, MO
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quote:

ORIGINAL: VintageSF

Here are links to photos of the wine room: https://share.icloud.com/photos/030oEmMRK-nBGoubmwwyAzfeg / https://share.icloud.com/photos/07eF8Kr7Cmdmv9Y0n_zvRR7dg

Nicely done!

.

_____________________________

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Post #: 1633

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 1/2/2024 1:38:26 PM

ChrisinCowiche

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New Year attempt to organize. At least I got most of the boxes off the floor and created room for a stool.

Overflow, mostly de Negoce, upstairs ready to drink. These black crates are my grape picking crates that I acquired a few years ago from a peony nursery. Handy imitation of a wein box. We have a lot of drinking to do if we want to use them for harvest, 2024.

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 1/2/2024 4:32:26 PM

recotte

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Nicely done, Chris. I’ll bet those crates cost a lot less than the weinboxes!

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Post #: 1635

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 1/3/2024 6:55:20 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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quote:

ORIGINAL: recotte

Nicely done, Chris. I’ll bet those crates cost a lot less than the weinboxes!

$4 American. Hold 20-24 bottles, so heavy as a MF when full, but twice as many as weinbox, so $2 per case vs. $20+?

< Message edited by ChrisinCowiche -- 1/3/2024 6:56:02 AM >

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Post #: 1636

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/6/2024 2:17:13 PM

nebhc

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Hey all,

New to the forum and have really been enjoying reading through all of the past projects here as I am about to embark on building my own cellar. Specs are:
- The space is approx 208 cubic feet and 34.5 square feet
- It's in the basement of our 1684 house
- I'm planning closed cell spray in insulation
- Exterior will likely be reclaimed thick old sheathing from a renovation from the house, on which you can see saw mark blades from an old mill

Am currently selecting a cooling unit and and designing racks. Have some from Facebook marketplace, but am also considering building my own to fit the space more precisely.

I'll post images as it comes together.

Cheers.

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Post #: 1637

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/6/2024 2:52:25 PM

wadcorp

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Welcome, nebhc!

And see you are well on your way with the cellar build-out.

Can't wait to see some in-progress photos.

.

_____________________________

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Post #: 1638

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/6/2024 5:17:55 PM

recotte

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nebhc, great space! Where are you located? Perhaps you don't really need a cooling unit?

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Post #: 1639

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/7/2024 4:42:22 AM

nebhc

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I'm outside of Boston and note the house was originally built is 1684. We've yet to install a heat pump or HVAC, so the basement can get warm in the summer.

In the winter, it's a pretty stable temp but just a bit higher than I would like. Also would like the humidity up a notch.

Given the cubic feet is pretty small, I'm looking at one of the smaller cooling units and I'll do the carpentry myself. Shouldn't be too costly.

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Post #: 1640

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/7/2024 6:50:36 AM

DoubleD1969

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If the basement/cellar is underground, I don't think you need a cooling temp where you are unless you're planning to buy and sell First Growths, DRCs, and other blue chip wines. You just need to seal it off from the rest of the basement in case you want to make the basement livable. I recommend getting a door that is also insulated.

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Post #: 1641

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/7/2024 9:42:53 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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Hi nebhc, FANTASTIC Space!!!

Have you read this book? Gold's Book

I highly recommend as someone who went down a similar path of building out my own cellar. Great info on determining methods/options and where and why and how much to insulate. Obvious every situation is different, but I agree with the comments that your space may not need a cooler. I designed mine to be either/or, I have space, power etc... for a cooler, but have never installed one. I do monitor my cellar temp/humidity and it does get a bit above "optimum" in summer heat, but my only problem 10+ year is humidity is low, which dries some corks from the outside. Doesn't affect the wines, but corks crumble sometimes.

Anyway, again great looking space and looking forward to updates!

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/8/2024 4:45:07 AM

nebhc

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Thanks DoubleD and Chris. I honestly had never considered NOT having a cooling unit.

The basement is below ground on two sides - but the house is on a slope and back wall there does open into the basement which then opens onto the backyard. I don't have a wifi thermostat down there, unfortunately, so I don't have longitudinal data on temp and humidity.

But I like the suggestion for building the wall to accommodate a unit but holding on installing one.

And, I just bought the book!

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Post #: 1643

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/8/2024 5:31:46 AM

khmark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: sastewart

Wine in 3 LeCache units holding about 900 bottles at home in Nashville
Wine in 2 storage units downtown Chicago.
Wine at 2 friends cellars in Chicago
Wine at 1 friends cellar here in Nashville

Yikes. That sounds like a nightmare. I have a difficult time locating everything just in one location.

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Post #: 1644

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/16/2024 4:43:51 PM

nebhc

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Status update on cellar build. Framed in the space today with 2x6s.

I found a used WhisperKool 3000 xlt, but don't like how far it protrudes into the room. Can anyone vouch for the Slimline LS models?

Started playing with how to arrange the racks.

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Post #: 1645

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/18/2024 9:27:41 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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Looking Great! My favorite part, after the exposed brick, is the Blue tape! A must for any project!

I have made my own wine for a long time and use blue tape and sharpie labelling schemes all the time. My wife has always said, if we ever made a commercial wine we would have to name it "Blue Painter's Tape".

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RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/19/2024 1:46:58 PM

wadcorp

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One question: what are you considering for the floor?

Many just have the concrete, since this is a basement. Others have noticed the need for rubber mats or cork flooring to prevent accidental bottle breakage.

Any plans?

.

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Post #: 1647

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/20/2024 5:59:17 PM

nebhc

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WadCorp: Good question! Just bought some sealant, but had not considered a mat... But now you have me thinking. I do have lots of gym foam squares, but they won't look very nice I'm afraid. Will have to think about this one!

And yes, Chrisin, the blue painters tape has been indispensable!

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Post #: 1648

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/21/2024 12:48:34 AM

kirillblshkv

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I'm in the same boat as you, no traditional cellar here either. I've got a couple of wine coolers doing the job, and a spot under the stairs. But yeah, totally agree, your storage space definitely shapes how you manage your wine obsession.. I mean, interest :)

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Post #: 1649

RE: What form does your cellar take? - 3/21/2024 5:40:41 AM

Ibetian

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kirillblshkv

I'm in the same boat as you, no traditional cellar here either. I've got a couple of wine coolers doing the job, and a spot under the stairs. But yeah, totally agree, your storage space definitely shapes how you manage your wine obsession.. I mean, interest :)

Of course, there are professional wine storage facilities, so there really doesn’t have to be a limit to how much wine you hoard, I mean collect. 😈😉

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Post #: 1650