Which comes first the wine or the cellar....

[PghMike]

Now pushing past 200 bottles with a bunch of futures on the way next year, time to put in more storage. Going passive and should be about 580 maximum capacity when done. Doing double deep racks. I'll be making the racks myself, conveniently this room is close to my woodshop.

Won't be a magazine feature cellar, but won't cost me much at all, especially with the lumber for the racks mostly being free.

Not bad for a few hours of work tonight I think!

[Racer Chris]

580 seems kinda low. That's only 48 cases.
Do you have a plan for the overflow yet?

[JimHow]

Looks like a nice cozy wine cellar Mike, send us pictures as it progresses!

[DavidG]

Nice start, hope you enjoy building it.

[JoelD]

Definitely the cellar. Four years back, my buddy said I should drive up to Jersey and get one of his mom's 10 year old Eurocave's that she was selling. A steal at $500 a piece. I got 2 of the 4. My only regret was not getting all 4.

Whenever I buy a place and build a cellar, I'll want lots of extra space, just in case. It would seem to be a lot harder and more expensive to alter it later on. But thats just a guess.

[Gerry M.]

In hindsight, the best advice I ever got was build it to accomodate double what you think you'll ever need. I failed to listen and now Im in trouble, lol. I built it to fit 1000 and now at 1100 and slowly climbing.

Looks like you're off to a great start!

[AKR]

If you are in a region where seismic activity is a risk, consider that in the design as well.

I'm always worried that delicate wines might be jostled around, which would interrupt their years of slumber.

[jckba]

Out of curiosity in what region do you live in and are you planning on building a passive cellar or one with active cooling?

I will also jump on and say that it would be wise to add some additional space if at all possible, so if you run out of racking space, you will have space to case stack on the floor which kind of follows your utilitarian theme.

Good luck and looking forwards to seeing the progress and end result!

[PghMike]

Wish I could fit more but I'd have to sacrifice wood shop space or main basement space which is kid territory. By the time I have overflow I'll either have to do more coolers in the main basement, offsite or reclaim space allotted to kids someday.

For location it is SW PA, so no seismic risk. Basement stays dry and cool. Going to go completely passive. I do have the option to run AC from the main line if I need to. The basement wall it is against has a sunroom over top of it so the soil there stays cool in summer. Highest I've recorded in there is about 68 degrees. Should stay around 63 degrees max once isolated.

[DavidG]

Sounds perfect Mike.

[PghMike]

Progress today. Primed the walls and got the lights installed and wired up. Knocked out a cutting board too.

[PghMike]

Door and first layer of insulation up. Soon time for a ton of repetitive milling and cutting of lumber for the racks.

Decided to go with Cherry for the racks since I can basically get it for free and already have a pile.

[PghMike]

180 cherry sticks later plus all the rails for the first set of rack ladders. Next on to nailing the sticks to the ladder rungs.

[DavidG]

Nice! That’s a lot of cutting and nailing, much respect. Sizing some for mags, 375s, or fat-bottomed Champagne bottles?

[PghMike]

These racks are only about half of one side which is all I really need right now and will accommodate Bordeaux and most Napa bottles. For halves I'll make little slide in and out inserts that sit in a typical slot. Need to do this for halves since these are double deep racks, would be tough to reach a half bottle stuck at the back.

For bigger bottles I plan mags to hang horizontal on the side wall of the room and on the other side of the room i'll do double deep racks again with some slots that are around 3.75"- 4" wide for the pinots and champagne.

Hopefully my all in cost for this whole cellar will be less than $500.

[DavidG]

Sounds fantastic Mike. Love the idea of sliding inserts for 375s. Post pictures when you do it. I use cardboard shipping tubes to hold 375s in my double-deep standard size racks. Not ideal but OK.

[Blanquito]

Sounds like your cellar is coming along nicely.

My 5th “cellar” is 85% done, the cool/cold temps have taken the urgency out of finishing quickly. It will have ~3000 bottle capacity when done, entirely below grade with closed cell spray foam in walls and cellaring (with 20” of fiberglass batts added in ceiling) and a Cellarpro ducted chiller. It is a finished space, but basic with painted sheetrock walls and ceiling, baseboard trim and weatherstripped door, recessed can lights, and a floating cork floor. Racking is double deep, free standing metal racks (inexpensive and very utilitarian). When done, it will be cold (55-57F), sufficiently humid (RH >50%), inexpensive (~$10k to build including Cellarpro), and functional without any beauty. Yeah baby.

[PghMike]

Racks.... Simple template for repeatability. These are about half height and will have an open shelf on top for standing bubblies and for OWCs.

[Tom In DC]

We had double deep individual bottle racks in our our old cellar. Getting to the back bottles of the bottom two or three rows required laying on the floor.

I'm too old for that $#!+. We put drawers at the bottom of our racks! They hold 60-66 bottles or so , based on diameter of the bottle. So maybe put the space for cases at the bottom somehow?

[Blanquito]

We had double deep individual bottle racks in our our old cellar. Getting to the back bottles of the bottom two or three rows required laying on the floor.

I'm too old for that $#!+. We put drawers at the bottom of our racks! They hold 60-66 bottles or so , based on diameter of the bottle. So maybe put the space for cases at the bottom somehow?

Genius.

[Tom In DC]

I have to admit that the drawer in the pic looks like I'm more an IWE than BWE.

[PghMike]

Ah great input! I have no problem getting down to floor level now but for the future I can see that being a challenge. Perhaps I'll put half bottles with slide out drawers at the bottom of the existing racks. Too far along now to integrate shelves at least on this half of the room. Might look at doing this on the other side before I build the racks.

[PghMike]

Rack installation. Made the slots smaller than standard racks to fit more bottles. Should be able to get 1000 in the room once fully done. Good thing I have skinny arms!

[PghMike]

Loaded the first hundred. Just have to finish and install more racks before the 2019 futures arrive. Temp hovering around 55F and humidity up to about 60 after putting some water buckets in there.

[jckba]

Looks like you are making good progress and for the upper racking, if you sacrifice one spot you could make a horizontal display row which might strike your fancy.

[PghMike]

Got some of the full height racks built and installed. Also a major load of 2019s have arrived. Quite a few more still to come

Arrived last and this week:

Branaire Ducru
Ducru Beaucaillou
SHL
D'Issan
Malartic
Giscours
Haut Bages Liberal
Rauzan

[JimHow]

Looks great!

[Tom In DC]

Looking good! But what are those empty spots on the racks? Nature abhors a vacuum.

[Harry C.]

Get one of those super brite screw in LED lights. When needed, bright light is a must!

[PghMike]

Get one of those super brite screw in LED lights. When needed, bright light is a must!

I put some recessed LEDs in the ceiling. Pretty bright in there!

[PghMike]

Looking good! But what are those empty spots on the racks? Nature abhors a vacuum.

Build it and the 2019s will come! I have another whole wall to fill with full height racks. Should be able to fit another 400 or so once done. Credit card will be smoking from overuse.

[ericp]

Overuse? What is this overuse you speak of?

[Claudius2]

In my case, I started buying (too much?) wine some decades ago, and had to find a safe place to store it.
Maybe stupidly, I bought too much French wine at auction and in those days, it was a fraction of the current price.
So I started off with no real plan as to how to store it and when it will be at its prime.
Things had to change, otherwise I'd ruin the wine.

At the time, there were no professional storage facilities in Sydney, so the auction house stored my wine underground for a fair price. Yet I could not keep it at home in Sydney - too hot in summer and too much diurnal variation.

When I left Australia in 2009, I had by then expanded the stash of wine and was using a professional storage facility, and luckily, there were a few in Singapore when I got here. Yet Wendy and I have agreed to not expand the storage space anymore.

I suppose I could have built a cellar under the house, but it all seemed like too much effort and cost.

cheers
Mark

[DavidG]

Great job Mike, looks awesome!