Weekend Warrior: DIY Wine Cellar
We got this email on Sunday night from a reader in Clinton Hill: We wrapped up a fun and easy and cheap project today that might be of interest to wine geeks—setting up that little front basement room as a wine cellar. The husband re-attached the original door to this little storage room in the…
We got this email on Sunday night from a reader in Clinton Hill:
We wrapped up a fun and easy and cheap project today that might be of interest to wine geeks—setting up that little front basement room as a wine cellar. The husband re-attached the original door to this little storage room in the front of the building, which is good because that room has a nice, cool exterior wall (door was sitting in rear of basement) and slapped some insulation on the back of it. Ideal long-term wine storage temp is 55 degrees, and our boiler makes the cellar pretty toasty. So far it’s working great, at least in winter. We’re steady at 58-59 degrees, which is fantastic. Need to figure out the humidity—we have a gauge on back order.
Racks are mail-order from wineracksamerica.com —reasonable prices, really easy assembly, and tons of capacity. In a room that’s about 6-by-8, we can handle about 450 bottles now, and could add more racks if we wanted to. As you can see, we have a ways to go just filling up the racks we have. But today’s piece-de-resistance: The chandelier (photo on the jump), formerly hanging (ridiculously) in the front parlor of the house. Way too small, too junky-crappy for a parlor, but delightfully piss-elegant for a teensy wine cellar. Also added a blessedly needed outlet to cellar, too.
Has anyone else undertaken a similar project without the help of a contractor?
I’ve been wanting to do something like this but can’t get it together. We keep cartons on the floor and piled up. Not great, I know…
But, one of the best wine cellars I have been in is in a small town in the Jura region. The family used to be been wine merchants but ended the business. They were left with a huge stock with bottles going back 50 and 80 years. The place would strike anyone as a huge mess in the cellars. There were boxes disintegrating in all directions. The dad would rummage around for a good bottle like one might fish around in a huge, unsightly pile of clothes looking for something to wear and then pulling out a sable coat. Unbelievable.
I was asked: what year was your mother born? (in the 20s) Voila, a bottle of wine from that year.
We had a bottle of champagne form the 19-teens that had aged to brown and was, of course, flat.
Again, this huge wine cellar was a mess by the time I saw it and the cellars were being converted to making Gruyere. They were stone and deep so they had a very even temperature with slow changes through the year.
You say alcoholic, I say my new best friend.
Cheers! Enjoy it! I’m jealous!
Screams out Alcoholic.
ONE WORD (repeated): Insulate, insulate, insulate!
We see the waste pipe going through the space–a source of heat, or at least a factor that will make the temp fluxuate.
Insulate the ceiling, walls and door!
As long as the temp does not go sky high, by keeping it stable and having it fluxuate over slowly over long stretches, you should be okay.
Question: Does the furnace and pipes/ducts or hot water pipes throw a lot of heat into the basement during the heating season?
Very cool–love the chandelier.
nice. At first i thought that I’d certainly finish the door, insulate/disguise the pipes, and do something (Flor tiles) to the stone floor. You know, make it pretty: I pictured us having guests down there and we’d drink and smoke and if i had too much, i may get all “the cask of amontillado” on them…LOL. Seriously, love the rough-hewn look.
totally cool.
It puts the lotion on its skin then puts it in the basket or it get the hose again.
“silence of the lambs”
What a great idea. Love the old chandelier to finish the room off.