Many people who enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages usually have their preferences. Some individuals prefer hard liquor like brandy or rum, while others like to consume beers or cocktails. One popular drink that many individuals like is wine. It has a lot of varieties with different flavor profiles and aromas and is easily accessible and affordable. Plenty of individuals eventually develop a liking to it and build a cellar of their own to store various wines.
If you plan to construct a room dedicated to collecting wines, you need to keep some things in mind. You don’t want to make these mistakes since it may cause you a lot of trouble in the future.
1. Building It Near A Heat Source
Heat is one of wine’s greatest enemies. High temperatures can affect the quality of wine and may cause it to spoil easily. Once you look for an area to build your own wine cellar, you need to ensure that the location you’ll pick won’t be exposed to direct heat.
If you’re going to renovate a room into a cellar, you need to check if it’s hit by sunlight during the day. The natural heat that’ll come from the sun can affect the alcohol you’ll store inside the room. Make sure you’re picking a location that’s protected from the sun’s rays. You also need to consider if there’s large machinery near the cellar’s site that will emit hot air.
If you can choose the area where you’ll construct the wine storage, consider an underground location. Building an underground wine cellar has a lot of benefits. You can utilize its natural cooling effects to ensure that your wines stay within their recommended storing temperature. It’s also not susceptible to the sun’s heat, and its internal temperature is easier to maintain.
2. Picking The Wrong Cooling System
One crucial piece of equipment you need to install in your cellar is a cooling system. It’ll regulate the temperature inside the room and provide the optimal conditions for your wines. If you get the wrong one for your wine storage, you’ll risk spoiling your wines. Hence, before you purchase your cooling unit, you should evaluate a few things first.
The size of the room and the types of wines you’ll store will dictate which cooling system you need. A wine cellar cooling system for bigger storage spaces may come with a condenser unit you need to install outdoors. This can be troublesome if your cellar is located within a building and doesn’t have direct access to an open area. There are also cooling system designs that’ll require you to mount it on the wall and have enough room for air ducts.
An excellent cooling unit should be capable of keeping the room temperature between 40 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. If your cellar’s temperature is too high or too low for long periods, you’ll risk ruining all the wines you have. You should consult with a wine cooling system provider before you buy a unit for your cellar. This way, you can ensure that what you’ll install in your wine room will do the job.
3. Inadequate and Unorganized Storage Space
A mistake you don’t want to make when building your cellar is not making enough space for all the wines you want to store. After you settle your wine storage location and design, the next thing you need to think about is how you’ll organize and keep your wines. You need to evaluate how many wines you want to collect and for how long you’ll keep them. Different wines will have varying shelf lives, so it’s vital to consider that. For instance, if you wish to buy bottles of Chardonnay, you should know that this particular wine is best consumed a couple of years within its vintage.
When planning your cellar design, you can allocate an area for bottles you want to age and ones you’ll consume immediately. It’ll be easier for you to locate the bottle you want to drink if your storage space is organized. Also, remember to have wide racks that can accommodate different bottle designs since it can be troublesome to store a wine that has a peculiar shape. Remember that you need to keep wines horizontally to prevent their corks from drying out.
4. Not Considering Security
If you’re a wine enthusiast and collector, you know that wines have a wide price range. Some wines are more affordable and easier to source, while other bottles can be elusive and more expensive. If you plan to have an extensive wine collection that costs a significant amount of money, you need to ensure that you store them somewhere safe.
You should include a security system for your cellar to protect your property from intruders. Ensure that the entrance of your cellar has a lock, and if you can afford it, install a security camera so you can check if anyone was around your wine storage when you’re away.
5. Neglecting Possibilities For Expansion
Building a cellar is an investment, especially if you plan on collecting a wide array of wines. One miscalculation you don’t want to commit is not having the foresight for expansion. You never know how many bottles you’ll accumulate in the years to come, so it’s better to leave some room to increase your storage.
It’s better to have ample space in your cellar instead of not having enough room to store more wines. If you can decide where to build your wine storage, pick a place that’s easy to expand. This way, you won’t have to worry about getting more wines to store in the future.
Final Thoughts
Having your own cellar and building it from scratch takes a lot of work and research. You need to ensure that you’ll pick the right location and equipment to keep its condition optimal for wine storage. Once you start storing your bottles, you also need to consider how you’ll organize them in your cellar. Therefore, it’s best to take things slow when building your cellar so you can achieve the facility you want.
