Adding a wine cellar or wine room to your room can be an incredibly welcome addition, whether you want to store 250 bottles of wine or 2,500. As a rule, home wine cellars should be installed in areas that are dark and climate-controlled. And according to Paul DeFeis, senior managing partner of Trade Mark Design & Build in Hawthorne, New Jersey, it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
Your Personal Requirements
Choosing the right wine storage system for you also depends on external factors – some of which may be out of your control, such as budget and space. How many bottles you wish to store is also of paramount importance. Your personal requirements will dictate whether you’re looking to buy a sophisticated refrigerated cooling system for your kitchen, install a series of wine hives in your storage room, or convert a basement, spare room or garage into a fully equipped wine cellar.
While any room in the house will do, at least in theory, there are areas that are more suited to becoming wine cellars, which will require less maintenance over time. When installing a wine cellar, it’s best to pick out basement areas or cool dry places that have virtually no light coming into the room.
Light can affect wine greatly, which is why it optimally should be stored in the dark. Slightly damp conditions are best, as an atmosphere that is too dry can be detrimental. Whatever you do, avoid putting wine next to pipes, radiators and central heating, and keep all bottles away from the sun.
Purpose-Built Rooms
There are two main ways to store wine in a purpose-built room: either have an individual refrigeration unit inside the room, or climate control the entire room itself. The price will depend on how much wine is being stored and thus how much storage is involved. But as a rule overall refrigeration of the entire room is cheaper in the long run.
According to DeFeis, one thing that sets his firm apart from the others is that no wine cellar or room they do is prefabricated. Everything is custom-made from the drawings on up, accounting for individual style and preference. So no wine room has that type of “generic” feel to it.
Keeping in mind that a lot of ad hoc wine rooms are either do it yourself or modular kits, custom-made ones are a real departure – especially when the imagination of the client and designer are allowed to enter the equation. It’s a must that appropriate wood be used, such as walnut, teak and white oak, and some are rooms with barrel windows and other distinguishing features.
For the most part, wine rooms are part of the house already, an existing area in the basement that can become a real interesting focal point. A narrow existing basement in an area out of use becomes a great up-sell feature.
Catering to Special Interest
Most people have a wine room or cellar because of expense and election. They either want to take care of their wine in a certain manner to allow it to appreciate appropriately, or they want to create a specific look or entertaining space in their room. Some wine rooms don’t hold many bottles at all, but simply have the special ambiance a wine room offers for entertainment purposes. Obviously, the amount of wine you wish to store is crucial. Two hundred to 250 is not a big number when it comes to wine rooms, usually the objective is safe storage of at least several thousand bottles.
Adding a wine room would add resale value to a home. Occasionally clients import their own wine and use the bespoke room as a sitting and tasting room for new acquisitions. These are serious wine collectors.
