Build A Mini Home Wine Cellar

When you are passionate about wine you start to collect 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.

Before you begin converting your closet into a wine cellar consider the position of the closet relative to the rest of the house.

Avoid converting a cupboard against an outside wall into a wine closet. The outer walls of your home can often be subjected to wide temperature fluctuations across the seasons. 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 any change in temperature are critical elements in successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees from winter to summer won't cause damage to your wine. The same 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.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age as the winemaker intended, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a temperature above 82ºF for even 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! Don't hesitate ... sell / give away / auction / move all the present contents and start with an empty space!

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 makes it easy to select bottles. If you have 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.