Wine is a great alcoholic beverage that features numerous aromas and flavors, goes well with different types of food and when it is consumed in moderate quantities, it can even be beneficial for health. In this case, there is no wonder why so many people start collecting wine bottles and store them in their houses.
Preserving wine bottles is not really that difficult these days and if you have a free basement or another unused storage area, you can actually build your own wine cellar in your property. Doing this right also means that you should prevent yourself from making wine cellar construction and design errors. Here are 8 mistakes that you need to avoid when building your personal wine cellar.
Having a very loud cooling unit
Wine cabinets, racks or cellars need to be cooled, so that the quality of the wine is preserved. In order to do so, a cooling unit has to be installed in the house. However, wine collectors should be carefully when buying cooling units because some of those can be quite loud. Usually, cooling units can run for 16 hours a day and in this case, loudness is definitely a factor to be considered.
Not paying attention to insulation
In a similar fashion, wine cabinets or cellars need to be insulated in order to keep the wine bottles in a cool environment and prevent the cooling unit from running permanently, thus consuming a lot of energy. A lot of wine collectors don’t pay attention to this aspect and later on they will encounter a lot of problems. The wine cabinets or racks should feature at least one and a half inches of top quality insulation, so that the wine bottles are protected in the long run.
Not taking into account all bottle formats
Most wine racks or cabinets feature slots of 3 and a quarter inches or 3 and a half inches for storing wine bottles. However, an increasing amount of wine types such as Burgundi, Pinot and Champagne require slots of 3 and 3 quarter inches. All wine collectors will eventually buy wine bottles that come in a larger format, so it is best to take this into account right from the start and buy wine cabinets or racks that feature 3 and 3 quarter inches slots as well.
Getting the wrong door
Every wine cellar needs one or more doors, but these doors shouldn’t be bought only for aesthetics. It is very important to preserve the right temperature in the wine cellar and in order to do this, the door needs to feature insulation properties as well. It should form an airtight seal when it is closed, so that the wine bottles remain in a good condition. Basically, wine collectors should focus on practicality first when it comes to the wine cellar door and then think about aesthetics.
Having windows in the wine cellar
The room where the wine bottles are preserved is very different from other rooms. It shouldn’t feature windows because the light and heat which come from the sun can affect the quality of the wine and force the cooling unit to work harder, increasing energy costs. If the wine collector insists on having at least one window, this window should feature insulated glass, otherwise a lot of problems can appear in the long run.
Waiting to have a large collection of wine bottles before building the wine cellar
This is another big mistake made by novice wine collectors. Basically, if one has gathered hundreds of bottles of wine in his house, he will eventually store them in inadequate areas such as in the garage, in the basement and so on. These places don’t feature the right conditions of temperature and humidity and as a result, an entire collection of wine bottles can be ruined in just a few weeks. Instead, wine collectors should build the wine cellar first and then fill it in step by step.
Not protecting the wine cellar against thieves and burglars
In most cases, large wine collections can actually be quite valuable and expensive. Therefore, the homeowner needs to protect them just like he protects any other valuable items in his house such as his car, his motorcycle, jewelry collection and so on. Therefore, it is a good call to install an alarm system in the house that will prevent thieves and burglars from stealing precious wine bottles from the wine cellar. This safety precaution is not expensive to put into practice and it will make the wine collector sleep better at nights.
Not expanding the wine cellar on time
It is a brilliant idea to think about the future and get more wine racks and wine cabinets earlier on, in order to accommodate an increasing number of wine bottles. Basically, the wine collector shouldn’t wait until he amasses tens of bottles before considering expanding his wine cellar.
