Build A Wine Closet At Home

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it … and when you begin collecting it you need a place to store it.

A closet can easily be turned into a mini wine cellar to store your growing wine collection.

Consider the position of the cupboard or closet in relation to the outside walls of the house before you construct your wine cellar.

Try to avoid converting a closet situated against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outer walls of your house or apartment can frequently be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature. Ideally, choose an internal closet where your wine will be able to be stored at a more constant temperature.

The degree and the speed of the temperature change are critical to successfully storing and aging wine. The gradual change of a just a few degrees between summer and winter doesn't matter. A similar change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or fluctuations. You'll notice damage of this type immediately from the stickiness that will often form around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's just like having the cork removed and replaced every day. When this occurs, tiny quantities of wine can be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Your wine will be ruined once air comes in contact with your wine and the irreversible process of oxidation begins.

Stored at a temperature range of 55º to 58ºF the wine will age as intended, and develop fully. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Your wine will be irreversibly damaged if it is stored at a temperature above 82ºF for as little as a month.

The most difficult part of creating a wine cellar in a closet can be finding other places to store the original contents of the closet! You should be ruthless ... remove all the present contents (give away / auction / move them) and start with an empty closet!

Buy inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you'll have an easy and very effective mini wine cellar.

Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density; price variations are more to do with aesthetics than efficiency.

Individual racking is usually considered the most convenient way of storing bottles. If you place racks against only one wall of the closet you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case.