What to Look For In the Perfect Wine Cellar

When it comes to what the phrase “wine cellar,” one can often imagine European grandeur and luxury. We are all aware that most private villas in Europe pride themselves on their extensive, fully stocked, gorgeous wine cellars. In addition, most fine restaurants also brag about the elaborate methods they utilize for keeping expensive wines in top-notch shape.

With all of this attention on wine cellars, the typical person might be a bit daunted, and not quite know what to do if he or she is a wine lover looking to invest in a wine cellar. If they are a tad daring, they might take the leap and purchase their own wine cellar for their home.

Many wine lovers, however will not need an extremely, fancy storage system to house their wines. They might not even need a wine cellar at all, because they only keep a carefully selected collection of bottles in small quantities, which they drink regularly. There are, however, wine collectors who stock more than just a few bottles, and they might need a dedicated wine cellar at home in which to keep.

For those who feel a wine cellar is necessary, there are some things that need to be taken into consideration when setting out to come up with a convenient wine cellar design. These factors include: light, humidity, vibration, size, and temperature and when it comes to larger collectors, size.

When purchasing a wine cellar, there are certain factors you must consider, among them: size, light, vibration, humidity, and temperature. Size refers to how large the wine cellar will be, and to how many bottles of wine it can hold. This may be related to the amount of space you have available for your wine cellar, as well.

Vibration, light, temperature, and humidity all need to be controlled in order to keep your wine at its best possible level of quality. For instance, if you get too much sunlight or fluorescent light, it can damage the wine. Because of this, most wine cellars are located in a darkened, storage space.

Another enemy of a wine is vibration. If you have too much vibration, it will just rock the sediments in the wine and cause it to change color or taste. This is especially true with the more delicate wines that are more susceptible to both vibration and light.

Humidity also needs to be taken into consideration as having too much of it will cause the wine to mold, and having too little humidity may cause the corks to shrink leading to wines spillage and spoilage. The optimum wine cellar would have humidity for the wine at about 70%.

Finally, temperature is another important factor, as temperatures that are not ideal will decrease the flavor of the wine, and temperatures too low may cause the wine to freeze.

The easiest way to create a wine cellar in your home is through the purchase of a self-contained wine-cellar unit, which can range in size from 2×3 feet to 10×12 feet, and up. (If you are considering a very, very large wine cellar for your home, it may be less expensive, in some cases, to have it custom built for you.)

Small wine cellars can hold as few as 24 bottles, while the large wine cellars can hold up to 2500 bottles. Prices for the smaller wine cellars can begin at around $500 and go all the way up to $4000 for the large custom-built models.

There is a variety of exteriors when it comes to wine cellar designs. They can range from super-sleek, stainless steel to rustic oak or pine with additions such as interior lights, glass panels, locking doors, and the like. All of this adds to your price, so you need to take that into consideration when looking at wine cellar designs.

When deciding to purchase a wine cellar, you should first determine a few things.

- How many bottles you would like to store.

- How much space you have available for your wine cellar.

- How much control you need in terms of light, temperature humidity and vibration. If you are planning on housing expensive wines, you are going to want to invest in more sophisticated controls.

- Is the wine cellar going to be tucked away in a room or placed out in the open? If you’re going to play set out in the open your going to want to invest in higher and finish so that it matches the rest of your house.

When it comes to purchasing the perfect wine cellar, it comes down to balancing the features versus price and space, you want to take in account your own personal drinking habits and purchase the best wine cellar you can afford. It should have all the features you want to fit your current needs with a little extra room to expand and upgrade.