# Wine Cellar.



## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

This was last winter's project for me.

When my wife and I got married, we both had large collections of wine.  We each had "free standing" wine refrigerators in our homes.  When we moved in together, there really wasn't room for both of them, so I kept mine at my other house in a nearby town and my wifes was in our house.  Our collection grew quickly, and we soon ran out of room.

We decided rather quickly to build a wine cellar in our basement to house ALL the wine in one place.

Our basement had a dirt floor with decking over the top.  We excavated dirt to make the floor level, added 4-6" of drain rock, and poured a slab over the top.

Once the concrete was in, I started building the room.  Here are some picture of the framing work, including the 6 mil vapor barrier.  I moved that junction box from the center of the room...

I started this room on March 1st last winter and finished on May 7th.  One of the fastest projects of this magnitude that I've ever done.


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

Drywall, insulation, halogen can lights, and front door added...

The walls are 2X6 construction.  There's R19 in the walls, and R30 in the ceiling.  The 6 mil vapor barrier is on the outside of the insulation.  I used greenboard on the inside even though the moisture level is not really high, and is non-condensing.

None of the walls are shared with other walls.  The ceiling is shared with the Kitchen floor (I really had no choice since I wanted 8' ceilings, and wanted space above the racking for boxes).

The door is a solid wood exterior entrance door.  It's got really nice seals all the way around.


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

Paint, tile and lighting...


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

Painting the outside of the room....

Yeah, I know it's sorta crazy paint there...the wife and I just didn't want a big white room in the basement.  Most everybody that sees it really likes it.  A few really don't like it


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

I bought the racking and cooler from a company in Canada.  It came partly assembled.  We were able to assemble and install the racking in about 4 hours.

I should mention that I planned the room around the racking.  That is, I decided how many bottles we wanted to store (1,200), then arranged the racks to store that many bottles.  From that, I could determine the exact size of the room (length width and height).

I was pretty nervous when the racking arrived since I had already built the room...would it fit???  Would the room be too big?  Too small?????

As it turns out, everything fit just as planned.

I also placed an outlet near the tasting table.  This is for a cordless phone we keep in the cellar, and for the laptop we keep in the cellar...


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

Moving day 

This was probably my most nervous time.  We didn't break a single bottle, but we did crack a few open


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

Here are a few "final" pictures, including the tasting table.  I have since added the trim around the door, finished painting, etc, etc.

This was a really fun project to do.  Now we have all our wine in one place, which is a much better environment for the wine, as well as much more efficient.  I don't think the cooler runs more than 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes in the summer, and I rarely hear it run in the winter.  It stays at a fairly constant temperature between 55-58 degrees.  It's set at 58, but in the winter it drops to 55 at times.  If it gets much cooler, I may need to install a heater 

The humidity runs between 65-75%.  If it gets down below 50% or so, I'll need to add a water feature to increase humidity in the space, but so far that hasn't been needed.

The laptop is kept in the room all the time.  We keep an inventory of our wine so we can find it in the racking.  Columns are numbers, rows are letters.  When we're pulling wine out to drink, we usually just write it down on a notepad.  Later, we'll fire up the laptop and enter the information.

Hope you like it  

If you have any questions about anything I did on this project, feel free to ask.  If I can remember, I'll let you know...


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## guyod (Jan 31, 2008)

Cool project Looks great... 

How does the cooling unit work? what temp and humidity do you keep the room at?   Do you have a way to keep your red and whites different temps?


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## guyod (Jan 31, 2008)

oops i jumped the gun a little didnt get your last post


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## Hack (Jan 31, 2008)

guyod said:


> Cool project Looks great...
> 
> How does the cooling unit work? what temp and humidity do you keep the room at?   Do you have a way to keep your red and whites different temps?



I don't have any way to keep reds and whites at separate temps.  I store the very few whites that we have at 58, then put them in the fridge to cool them down before drinking.


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## phreaq (Feb 1, 2008)

fantastic job! sure beats my wine rack in the basement 

you obviously love wine, sounds like red is the main one. Which brands are you most proud of owning? Which wines do you recommend? Do you have a house wine?

I love the wines from Chile (mostly merlot), my house wine is "Monte Velho" a Portugese red, and I am always on the lookout for "Chateau Greysac" a great Bordeaux wine I had in Vegas and have never found in Canada since.


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## Hack (Feb 4, 2008)

As you already noticed, our collection is mostly red wines.  We have been collecting for over 20 years.

I will preface our "favorites" with..."you might not know or be able to find these in stores near you"...

That said, we are partial to:

Paloma
Pahlmeyer
Ridge
Williams Selyem
Flowers
Bouchaine
Tom Eddy
Araujo
Rafanelli
Galleron
Karl Lawrence
Pride Mountain Vineyards
Shafer
Turley
Kapscandy

to name a few    And that's just the US wines.  I also collected many French wines while living in France, but haven't kept up with the French wines since moving home about 7 years ago...


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## TheFentonGuy (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm so jealous!  I am building a wine cellar as well, but is put on hold as I finished my home theater.  Now that is done, I need to finish the basement hallway before I can get to the wine cellar.  I also make my own wine in that same area, so it is still used....

I sure hope that mine looks that good!

If you need a good website for finding barrels, let me know!


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## Hack (Feb 4, 2008)

TheFentonGuy said:


> If you need a good website for finding barrels, let me know!



If you've got a source for barrels, I'd be glad to know what it is.  I haven't made wine in a few years, but you never know...


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## ToolGuy (Feb 4, 2008)

So... when's the wine tasting party and what's the address? 

Nice job you did there. And wow! lot's of wines you got there!


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## Hack (Feb 4, 2008)

ToolGuy said:


> So... when's the wine tasting party and what's the address?



The address is 3** K**** St. in P*******, **.  The phone number is (***) ***-****....Come on over any time  

Huh, I wonder why this website prevents me from displaying my address like it would profanity


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## ryans442 (Feb 5, 2008)

Awesome project! I have been considering something similar in my house for quiet some time now. My wine collection is getting better, but once I go to Australia this next summer it should be ready for something like what you built. 

I will have to favorite this post, its great!


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## TheFentonGuy (Feb 5, 2008)

I have yet to buy a barrel for my wine making, but here is the best prices:

http://www.bucket-outlet.com/oakbarrels.htm

I know you can find used ones from CA, but shipping is horrible for the 55 gallon sized ones, whereby you can get small ones from the bucket-outlet.


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## Hack (Feb 5, 2008)

I can probably buy a used barrel from one of the wineries I know.  They sell their barrels after what they call a "useful life".  I could probably still use them...


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## TheFentonGuy (Feb 6, 2008)

Be a bit careful on the used barrels.  You may need to clean them out before you pu them in your room.  They may give off an oder and if not cleaned well enough, the bacteria could form into mold, etc.

Enjoy!


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## lilypoll8 (Feb 15, 2008)

Good construction. And its nice to know that you and your wife have similar interests.


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