A Wine Cellar In A Closet

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.

Before you start your wine cellar construction it is important to pay attention to the position of the cupboard in relation to the rest of the house.

Avoid converting a closet situated against an outside wall into a mini wine cellar. The outer walls of your house or apartment can frequently be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere.

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 between summer and winter shouldn't be a cause for concern. A similar change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The major rule when in wine storage is to avoid wide fluctuations in temperature. You'll be aware of this damage straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over a period of time the continual contraction and expansion of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's like having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may 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 properly, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. The damage done to your wine will be irreversible if it is stored 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 / move all the present contents and start with a blank slate!

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 vary in bottle density; price variations have more to do with aesthetics than efficiency.

Single racking is generally the easiest for selecting 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.