Building a Wine Cellar

Wine is drunk all over the world. It is pervasive even in the most orthodox of cultures. As far as the layman is concerned they are broadly classified into "white wine" and "red wine." But the wine connoisseur will let you on a secret - there are thousands of ways in which wine can be classified into. Wines have been associated with romance and love. They have been called the perfect aphrodisiac. It has become fashionable to acquire a varied collection of wines. In order to have such a collection it is imperative that one owns a good wine cellar. There are many advantages of keeping and maintaining a good wine cellar.

A wine cellar allows you to purchase wine when it is young and not very expensive. The wine can be stored properly for years together. As a wine gets older its economic value increases and it can be sold at a profit later. The business model for wine is similar to that of artwork. Another advantage is that it gives one a better choice of wines to suit different occasions; the cellar owner and his/her guests can drink fine mature wines without having to hunt for them. The problem of availability of wine at a particular time is defeated. The appropriate wine can be drunk at the moment. Financially it helps because a cellar means that the advantages of economies of scale will happen. The wine can be bought in bulk at a cheaper rate. Commercially hotels and restaurants all over the world have show-off their pedigree by the quantity and quality of wines that they possess. It is rumored that the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo has more than 600,000 bottles. Wine when stored in a cellar tastes better because most red and white wines retain their light and fruity texture when stored in a cellar.

The first step in building a wine cellar is apportioning the space required. A room having dimensions of (3 X 3 X 3) meters would be more than enough to have an adequate private collection. The temperature that is maintained within the cellar is extremely crucial because wines wilt when subjected to extreme heat or cold. 18 degrees Celsius is the ideal temperature to store wines. A reliable air conditioning system is very important. If there is a chance that the air conditioner goes out of order or there is a loss of power, large blocks of ice would be handy in maintaining the temperature. If the collection is very expensive then a generator will be required. Humidity is also an important factor. In cellars that are too dry, corks tend to shrink and this lets air into the bottles. In such cases it would be prudent to keep a humidifier on hand. If the environment is extremely humid cardboard boxes will get spoilt and any labeling on them will become unreadable. The lights in the cellar must not be very harsh. Darkness prevents the penetration by natural ultraviolet light and bright artificial light that results in the premature aging of the wine. The wines should be stored in a place that is stable without vibrations of any sort. Before the cellar is built it is important to calculate the number of bottles that would be stored at any given point of time. This can be ascertained by the number of parties that the cellar owner intends to throw within a given span of time, the number of guests who will attend and the amount of wine consumed per guest.

The storage spaces of wine cellars are divided into bins and racks. Bins are large open shelves or spaces on the floor where large quantity of one wine is laid bottle on bottle. Racks are specially designed storage spaces meant for holding different types of wines. These are either single-bottle slots, or diamond shaped slots (multiple bottle capacity). Wines must be stored on their sides. The size of the bottles that are being stored will determine the shape of the slots. 75 cl. bottles are the accepted global standard. But there will be occasions when bigger bottles will be required. Adequate provision needs to be made. It is imperative that the cellar owner devises an accounting system to keep track of his wines. This would help in his inventory management.