Has your passion for “grape juice” grown from a few bottles of vino to what’s starting to look like a small winery? Perhaps it’s time to upgrade from wine rack to wine cellar. We chatted with the pros about the trends, the accessories and the innovations that are putting custom wine cellars on blueprints across the West.
Natural Beauty
When you think “wine cellar,” an image of a fabulous wine cave probably comes to mind. Fitting, if you consider this conventional guise is one of the most sought-after cellar styles. “I would say that 70 to 80 percent of people are still looking for a traditional wine cellar look—an Old World, cave-type of look with wood racks,” says Gary Daniels, co-owner and president of Texas-based Vineyard Wine Cellars.
To get this cavernous facade, custom wine cellar builders employ stone walls, wine barrels, wrought-iron accessories and murals. Jamie Dunjey, branch manager of Apex Wine Cellars, which has showrooms worldwide, also recommends using large, arched iron doors etched with grapes and vines as a way to get that time-tested look.
Glass Sass
Marty Lindert, designer at Arizona’s Innovative Wine Cellars, notes, however, that contemporary cellars are quickly becoming a hot new design choice. Lindert explains that this mod style, in which the cellar is often times enclosed in glass, is more flexible because of the way the racks are situated. The metal racking featured in such spaces allows the bottles to be placed on their sides with their labels displayed. Wood racks, on the other hand, require the bottles to be pulled out from the front. “Plus, the wine cellar itself is a piece of artwork because it’s enclosed in glass,” she adds.
A surprise benefit of transparent cellars is the degree of accessorizing they allow. “We can powder-coat the metal, [and] we can put stone in the back,” Lindert says. With this kind of design freedom (and the fact that a glass-encased cellar can be anything from a wall divider to a room fixture), it’s no wonder the contemporary look is growing in popularity. Expert tip: If you are considering a contemporary cellar, Lindert recommends placing it in a room with low lighting because direct sunlight may heat up the bottles.
Option Central
Whether you choose a traditional or a contemporary look—or something altogether different—when it comes to customizing your wine cellar, the sky’s the limit. And simply put, it’s all about assessing your needs. The pros recommend building your vino vault with twice as much space as you think you’ll require. “Once you have a wine cellar, you catch yourself picking up a bottle here and there,” Lindert says. “Next thing you know, it’s full and you have no room to expand.”
Once your storage needs are met, accessorize with options like ladders, artwork, sculptures, lighting and fountains, the last of which, Lindert says, are quite common and add humidity to the room. But the list doesn’t stop there. Just as many people are making space in their cellars for hard liquor, cigar aficionados often install humidors. “We’re doing a wine cellar right now where [the homeowner] has a cabinet to store her fur coats,” Lindert says. “It’s an ideal climate for [furs] since it’s 55 degrees, and the humidity is good for the fur.” Daniels even had a client who opted to store vino’s favorite friend—cheese—in his wine cellar. Wine books, stemware and display areas are also becoming staples.
What should be left outside the cellar? Tasting areas, advise the pros. “A lot of people want to do a tasting room inside the cellar, and we talk them out of it,” says Mike Biehler, co-owner of Arizona-based After the Vine Wine Cellars. “It’s 55 degrees and…after 5 to 10 minutes, [people get] cold.” If a client insists, though, on having their tasting area within their chilly cellar, “we simply give them the ability to turn the refrigeration off,” Daniels says. Most importantly, identify your primary needs in the beginning of the building process. “If [the cellar is] more for aesthetics, then we do more archways and glass racks and display areas for artwork inside the cellar—not as many storage areas,” Lindert says. “Then you get true connoisseurs, and they want dark rooms—not really made for entertaining—and they’ll have a lot of racking.”
Security Standard
Reds and whites might be served at different temperatures, but when it comes to aging wine in a cellar, 55 degrees is the standard. And when you’re storing hundreds or even thousands of prized bottles, making sure they stay chilled is of the utmost importance. That’s why the latest in wine cellar security technology includes systems that monitor the temperature inside the space and alert you immediately should there be a change. “What really kill wine are fluctuations in temperature,” Dunjey explains. “[When] the wine gets hot and cold, it expands and contracts and it can actually push the cork out of the wine.”
Apex’s security includes a monitoring system that customers can check on the Web from anywhere in the world. “You can also print out a graph over a certain period of time…of the conditions of that wine for the 20 years it has been kept at 55 degrees at consistent humidity.” With such state-of-the-art technology, wine investors can show prospective buyers that the goods have been kept at a steady temperature, easily boosting the vino’s value. (Some security systems track even more than temperature, which is especially important if there are children in the house who could make their way into the cellar.) With so many options—from design elements to security features—perhaps it’s time for oenophiles to take the plunge and get going on their custom wine cellar. Wine not?
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