Create A Mini Wine Cellar In A Closet

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 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.

You should not convert a closet against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outside walls of your house or apartment can often be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature from summer to winter. 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. The gradual change of a just a few degrees between summer and winter doesn't matter. A similar 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 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 like having the cork pulled in and out again 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. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age as intended, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow 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 worry about being ruthless ... sell / give away / move all the present contents and start with a blank slate!

Wine racks can be purchased quite inexpensively from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you'll have a simple but 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 generally thought to be the most convenient way of storing and selecting your 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.