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 construct your wine cellar consider the position of the closet in relation to the rest of the house.

It is preferable to not turn a closet built against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outer walls of your abode can be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature from season to season. Select an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a stable atmosphere.

The degree and the speed of the temperature change are critical to successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won't matter. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most important rule when you are storing your wine is to avoid large temperature fluctuations. You'll notice damage of this nature straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's similar to having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this occurs, very small amounts of wine may be expelled along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the neck of the bottle) allowing air to seep in. Once air comes in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation will begin and your wine will be ruined.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age gracefully, enabling it to fully develop as the winemaker intended. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Your wine will be irreversibly damaged if it is stored at a temperature above 82ºF for as little as 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 … remove all the present contents (give away / auction / move them) and start with an empty closet!

Purchase some inexpensive wine racks 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 aesthetics than efficiency.

Individual racking is generally thought to be the most convenient way of storing and selecting your bottles. If you have 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.