How to Start Your Own Wine Cellar - It's Easier Than You Think

 

You can start your own wine library without aspiring to duplicate the Graycliff.

You don’t need 300,000 bottles, or even an underground vault to get things going. No, anyone can start curating a collection with just a couple bottles.

Every bottle of wine tells a story, whether it’s a cheap volume brand from last year’s vintage, or a 40-year-old masterpiece that’s been meticulously maintained for decades. Some wines, however, just have better stories that (here it comes) only  improve with age.

Collectors build wine libraries for different reasons. Some serious types use them as financial investments. If you’re reading this blog for tips, you probably don’t fit that category.

The most common collector types do it because the experience of building a collection, then tracking individual bottles to their peak can be an incredibly rewarding hobby. Others might do it for sentimental reasons – they buy vintages that coincide with important life events.

Whatever your purpose, there’s one rule any wine librarian should reckon with before starting – don’t drink the inventory.

Take personal stock of your self control. You can’t hoard wine if you drink it before it makes it to the rack. If you’re buying several bottles of a certain vintage at a time to pack away, but suspect you might break out the corkscrew and glassware before it’s time, grab an extra bottle for now.

In fact, that’s a good idea anyway. You can write tasting notes now that could come in handy later when you’re comparing the same bottles.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, it’s time to discuss the basics of building your wine cellar.

 

Pick your spot

Basements are great because, generally speaking, they’re naturally cooler, darker and more humid. You want to keep the wine in the mid-50-degree range and relative humidity high – like, really high, around 60%.

Humidity keeps your corks from growing brittle. So unless you have a naturally damp basement, consider installing a humidifier.

That’s the ideal scenario, but of course, not everyone has a basement.

For a few thousand dollars, you can invest in a plug-in wine cellar. The big ones hold more than 100 bottles, and offer unending options for where to put them. They also control humidity and temperature perfectly. As long as a storm doesn’t knock out your power, a plug-in wine cellar takes all of the guesswork out of building your library.

That said, not everyone wants to drop $3,000 on a tall refrigerator that doesn’t even come with a cheese drawer.

If you’re willing to peel back on your expectations, a closet or even windowless hallway is better than nothing.

 

Pick your furniture

Here’s a step that DIY types can really get into.

Your goal is to keep the bottles horizontal. You’ve probably heard that wine resting against the cork keeps the cork from getting brittle. Maybe it seems like we spend a lot of time talking about protecting the cork, but think about how it would crush you to reach for a bottle of wine after patiently turning it for years, only to have the cork crumble inside because it dried out.

Trust us. That’s not the kind of sediment you want at the bottom.

So if you’re handy with power tools, or know someone who is, consider building shelves, with stackable square boxes, turned on their side like a diamond, so that you can stack horizontal bottles inside. If you’ve been to Olive Garden, you probably know what we’re talking about.

Otherwise, there’s no end to custom or some-assembly-required options for storing many bottles of wine at once. You can spend thousands of dollars or a few hundred bucks and get the exact same level of function. It comes down to preference.

 

Pick your wine

Now for the fun part. You’ve set aside the perfect place for your wine to rest, added furniture and done your best to control temperature and humidity.

Finding the right wine to shelve is a science unto itself, so the best advice we have for you here is that not all wines age the same.

Some varietals do better than others, and some vintners just produce age-worthy wine. Likewise, some wines have longer aging potential than others. Generally speaking, reds age for longer than whites, but that’s by no means a universal rule.

Do your homework. You want a balanced wine with good structure. Winemakers who produce age-worthy wine can gain a reputation for it. So if you find a bottle you like at your local shop, do some research to see if you should scoop up a case and set it aside.

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