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 begin converting your closet into a wine cellar consider the position of the closet relative 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 abode can be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature from season to season. 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. A gradual change of a few degrees from winter to summer won’t cause damage to your wine. A similar change each day will hurt your wines and age them too quickly.

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or fluctuations. You’ll notice damage of this nature 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 similar to having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this occurs, very small amounts of wine may be expelled along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the neck of the bottle) allowing air to seep in. Once air comes in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation will begin and your wine will be ruined.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age gracefully, enabling it to fully develop as the winemaker intended. 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! Be tough … 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 appearance than efficiency.

Individual racking is usually considered the most convenient way of storing 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.

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