Wine Lovers, Brace Yourselves: Home Wine Cellar Designs

Wouldn't you love to have a hidden room in your basement full of expensive and aged bottles of wine with a secret passage that looks like it's from an ancient castle in Southern France? I know I would! 

Wine Lovers have all kinds of ways to express their love for that happy grape juice, one of them is dedicating a whole room full of cork stopped bottles of it.

Now don't get me wrong, there are other ways to have a wine cellar in your home other than the extreme wine lover's fantasy room. Nowadays, there are refrigerators that can host as many as 166 bottles; It is the easiest way to care for your wine, as the fridge provides what is called a "passive wine cellar" environment as it already includes the proper wine storage conditions needed for wine to mature.

However, for those of you who take wine tasting and collecting as a hobby, have the space, and the extra cash, designing a wine cellar in your own home could be very exciting and plain old awesome.

Here are some tips on ideal wine storage room conditions:

1) In order for wine to mature properly over time it need to have the right temperature, lighting conditions, humidity control, and movement. The key is to have CONSISTENT rather than exact conditions for your wine to mature best. Frequent changes in conditions could damage your wine.

2) The ideal temperature and humidity for wine storing is between 45-55 degrees fahrenheit and 60%-70% humidity. Although wine can still be stored in temperature as high as 70 degrees F., which does make it mature at a faster rate. The high levels of humidity keep moisture inside the bottle, which prevents evaporation though the cork. Be careful not to go above 70% humidity levels, for it could spoil you wine.

3) It is best not to have any sunlight in the room where you are storing the wine, thus a basement room with no windows is ideal. Colored bottles prevent light from affecting your wine, which can change the temperature and therefore harm the wine. For even better results, store your wine in dark conditions. 

4) Storing your wine in a horizontal manner, helps limit movement. It keeps wine in contact with the cork, this keeps the cork moist and helps prevent evaporation. Rack should be about 20" deep.

If you have enough space in your wine cellar, it could be a great room for light entertaining. Be sure to have a nice dining table where you can host some cheese and wine tasting events for a few people.  Check out some of the badest home wine cellars out there:

www.rimanasser.com

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