Tips for creating a homemade wine cellar

A homemade wine cellar can be a great place to store and protect your wine. However, you’ll want to make sure you build it correctly. Read on to learn some tips for creating a homemade wine cellar to ensure your wine is safe and becomes a luxurious addition to your home.

Key wine cellar elements

Before you start building, you need to understand the key elements of a wine cellar. If your wine cellar does not have these elements, then your wines will not be safe.

Temperature and humidity control: Your cellar should be kept between 45-65 degrees Fahrenheit and between 50-70% humidity. Lighting: too much light can spoil your wine, so your cellar should be kept semi-dark. Storage: Your cellar should have space for wine racks so that you can store your wine horizontally, keeping the cork moist and preventing too much air from reaching the wine. Stillness: Vibrations can interfere with the maturation process of your wine, so keep your cellar away from areas that can cause structural vibrations, such as washing machines and stairs.

Pre-construction inspection

The first step in building is fairly simple. Whether you are converting an existing room into a wine cellar or building a new one, check the area for air, water and light leaks. To keep your wine safe, you must control the temperature, humidity and light, so making sure there are no leaks is an important step.

Start of construction

The next steps are more labor intensive. Start with a sealed concrete floor to keep moisture out. For the walls, install a vapor barrier and flashing prior to the insulation to better control temperature and humidity. Drywall and electrical wiring are next. After that, select exterior grade doors that are at least 1 ¾ inches thick and provide you with enough space to apply weather stripping and proper thresholds. Check for any air leaks before proceeding.

Closing work

Most of these latter steps are decorative, but still necessary. Paint or finish your wine cellar walls and allow the space to be fully ventilated before installing a cooling system and introducing wine. Your wine cellar cooling system should have a thermostat, monitoring capabilities, backup power and refrigerant to keep your wine cellar cool. After cooling the space, you can install storage shelves, arrange furniture, decorate and introduce the most important element: your wine.

If you keep these key elements in mind, perform all the right pre-construction inspections, build properly and finish strong, you can have a safe and beautiful wine cellar. These are the most basic tips for creating a homemade wine cellar, but they are important to allow you to safely add this element of luxury to your home.

A homemade wine cellar can be a great place to store and protect your wine. However, you’ll want to make sure you build it correctly. Read on to learn some tips for creating a homemade wine cellar to ensure your wine is safe and becomes a luxurious addition to your home. Key wine cellar elements…