Building a home wine cellar is more work than just cleaning out your basement and adding a couple of angled shelves. If you want your vintage wine collection to continue to mature and stay preserved until the right moment, you’ve got to create the perfect indoor environment. This requires acute attention to detail, be it regarding the basement’s insulation and lighting or the type of steel door you use for your cellar.
Here are a few things you need to be mindful of when building a wine cellar in your Newcastle home.
Temperature Control
Wine bottles need to be stored in a cool, dry place, and a basement is an ideal spot for this. If your basement foundation doesn’t have soil surrounding it for insulation, however, you’re going to need some extra insulation to keep moisture out. Similarly, you should also consider using a concrete sealer for the flooring or a grout sealer if you opt for flooring tiles. Opting for hardwood paneling and creating a sealed chamber in your basement is a good idea for a wine cellar.
That said, chances are that your basement will experience swings in temperature over the years, despite these measures. The fluctuation in temperature and humidity levels inside your basement wine cellar can affect the quality of the wine inside the bottles. To prevent this from happening, you should invest in a climate control system.
Don’t forget about the wine cellar steel doors you use for the basement! These should ideally have tempered glass to prevent any fluctuations in the temperature or air leaks. Make sure you invest in high-quality steel doors for proper insulation instead of regular steel entry doors or steel sliding doors.
Interior Design
Once you’ve tackled the climate control requirements of your wine cellar, it’s time to design the indoor space as per your preferences.
Start by choosing the type of racks you want for your wine collection. Wood, textured plastic, and iron and steel cubbies are all popular options. We suggest you opt for stackable wine racks so that you can reorganize your collection as the years go by. This will also prevent you from having to mix your whites with your reds. Choose a rack that allows you to store your wine bottles on their sides to prevent the corks from shrinking.
Think of how you want to utilize the space where the racks won’t be placed. You can even create a mini wine tasting area within your cellar!
Adequate Lighting
Wine bottles need to be stored in dark areas, away from sunlight. A basement typically tends to be a darker place, which means you don’t have to do too much to block out outside light. However, you will need a lighting system to navigate through the space easily.
Recessed lights are suitable for a basement that has a low ceiling. You can add track lighting can or LED lights to accent the bottles on display when needed. Avoid using fluorescent lights or installing windows in your wine cellar.
Ready to build a wine cellar in your basement? Pinky’s Iron Doors provides a beautiful range of steel doors to homeowners in Newcastle, Oklahoma, as well as other areas within the state. Apart from wine cellar steel doors, we also offer a range of passage steel doors, steel French doors, steel entry doors, steel front doors, and steel sliding doors.
Get in touch with us today!
Disclaimer: Exposure to various elements and continued usage can affect the product in different ways. We strive to ensure that all the information provided is deemed reliable, but results cannot be guaranteed as iron products are subject to rusting, discoloration, and corrosion when exposed to environmental elements.