Setting Up A Home Wine Cellar For Your Prized Wine Collection!
By: Devati Mallick
As published in Sommelier India Magazine, April 2023
From contemporary cabinets for compact spaces to traditional wine-wall designs. Devati Mallick offers a primer on setting up a functional home wine cellar…
Your dream wine cellar, at home.
Picture this. You are a wine enthusiast, who has collected many precious bottles of wine over the years. These have found their way into your very own wine collection.
However, appreciating a fine glass of wine in the comfort of your own home also comes with the requirement to store it the right way. And maybe even go a step ahead by organising it according to your personal preferences. By the wine style, the country, or simply by the ‘drink-now’ or ‘store-for-later’ yardstick. Put simply, you need a home wine cellar, because the best wines can spoil if stored incorrectly.
This doesn’t have to be the vast underground space of ancient times that could hold enough wine to last a few generations. I’m going to tell you how even a little closet can be transformed into a functional wine storage area. A home wine cellar today is nothing but a specially cooled space or a cabinet that stores all your wine labels in the right conditions. Thus offering oenophiles the best taste of their valued wines time and again.
Put simply, you need a home wine cellar, because the best wines can spoil if stored incorrectly.
1 First things first: Pick a spot.
Unlike other beverages, wines are sensitive to specific environments and require proper storage temperatures. This means that the location you select
must be far from any direct source of heat, light, strong scents or vibrations
of any kind. Some level of ventilation helps because excessive humidity might
result in mould and a musty odour.
Ideally, the coolest part of your home works best! Wine rooms can take many forms. If you have a basement or a separate store room, it can be the best spot for your new wine cellar. While the lack of space may seem a difficult obstacle to overcome, consider one of these ideas. How about a secret stash in a secluded pantry cabinet? Or an unused cupboard in the living room? Some of us may have the old-fashioned wooden buffet counter cabinets in dining rooms that our parents used for storing antique dinnerware. Perhaps a section of that could be converted for storing a wine chiller. If nothing else, a section of your wardrobe could possibly be cleared out to make space for your beloved wines!
Tip: In short, look around your house for any untouched or convertible area with required plug points that can be brought to life as a mini-cellar.
2 Next up: Choosing the ideal type of wine storage.
Now that you’ve decided where to put your chiller, you need to consider a key aspect. How many wine bottles do you intend to store inside it? This will help you determine how much space needs to be allocated. Also, how to utilise that space effectively. And what kind of cooling systems or other installations you will need to put into place.
DIY Racks
If you need to store only a few bottles, minimal storage options might be best. For instance, inexpensive DIY wine racks or shelves. These are sold online and can be assembled easily on a tabletop. Or inside a small cabinet, and hold up to a dozen wine bottles. If custom-made is more your style, consider building ‘X’ shaped wooden wine racks that can either be wall-mounted in an air- conditioned room or fitted inside an existing cabinet.
Invest in a wine refrigerator
If you have a sizeable collection of wine, in a variety of styles from sparkling to white, rosé and red still wines that you want to store for a long period of time, investing in the right size of wine chiller is crucial. This may cost you a bit but is a wise investment in the long run. Modern options are available and also provide solutions for compact spaces.
While it’s excellent to briefly chill wines in your standard refrigerator before serving them, it may not be the best idea to store them there for a long time because a fridge is too cold and won’t provide the right level of humidity. Wine chillers provide flexible solutions when it comes to maintaining different wines at their optimal temperatures consistently, ensuring a safe haven for your precious labels. You’ll be pleasantly surprised (and tempted!) by the range of wine cabinet types that are available. Take a look at three of these general styles, for instance.
Types of wine cabinets
- Built-in Wine Cabinets: Mini wine fridges that can be integrated into your home bars or kitchen island tables. Full marks for exclusivity and chic presentation here! Store 20 to 30 bottles depending on customisation and expect to spend between Rs 30,000 and Rs 80,000 for a premium brand.
- Wine Fridges: Freestanding storage cabinets that maintain all wine bottles at one set temperature are perfect for long-term ageing.
- Multi-temperature Wine Cabinets: These are the best type of wine coolers with separate temperatures set for various racks, allowing you to store sparkling, white, red and rosé wines in the same cabinet without worrying about the wine being served at the incorrect temperature.
Modern options come with adjustable temperature and humidity levels, and several additional features — the ultimate dream for a wine lover! Expect to spend upwards of Rs1,00,000 for these wine cabinets. While there are many options available online, some brands stand out. Eurocave, a global name that specializes in wine coolers and cellaring solutions, Liebherr, a German-Swiss home appliance brand, and Kaff, an Indian company that specializes in custom-made home appliances.
3 Maintaining your wine cellar.
It goes without saying that your cellar needs to be carefully and precisely maintained, with the occasional spruce-up. Just a few pointers to bear in mind: keep a check on the temperature and humidity levels at all times. Clean out the racks once in a while, don’t let dust accumulate on the bottles, and if a bottle breaks and spills, clean up immediately to avoid pests or bacteria settling in. For a larger area or cabinet, install soft lighting so that you can see everything clearly.
4 Final Word…
Hopefully, some of these suggestions should help you to create the ideal wine cellar for your home. Once you decide to take the plunge, you’ll realize that it isn’t as complicated as it first appears just as it is with wines! Now, all that’s left to do is make some visits to wine regions around the world and start picking up a few bottles at a time for your brand-new wine cellar.
