Sometimes, even the best-chosen words fall short.  When you’re talking about some of the incredible wine cellars that Vintage Cellars has designed in the past, the pictures really are worth a thousand words.  Today, rather than waxing philosophical about wine tasting or discussing at length the benefits of wines from a particular climate, let’s take a pictorial tour of some of Vintage Cellars’ past projects.

I love the interesting shapes of the shelving in this wine cellar.  The curves and angles make the room so much more than racks of bottles.  And the tracked lighting does a great job of highlighting different parts of the room, showcasing the myriad different lines and textures hidden in a wine room.

I think that the cabinet really makes this wine room: its the delicate yet rustic design breaks up the racking, and the placement gives the eye a focal point, setting off, rather than distracting from, the wine around it.  And I love the display racks here, that store bottles vertically with the topmost bottle angled up, giving the wine connoisseur the ability to easily see what’s in each column.

The simple, almost Asian-style racking in this room gives it a clean, modern feel.  But my favorite detail of this room is the strong, minimalist ceiling archway.  It breaks the room up and makes it visually interesting, something that is really challenging to do in this kind of space, which, if you think about it, is really just a storage place for hundreds of bottles.

Wow.  This room is just magnificent.  There’s a lot of you could say about it, but I’ll limit myself to my three favorite things: 1. The small tasting table worked into the wall creates an intimate space in this gigantic wine room.  2. The stair-style shelving in the middle makes the wine seem to be spilling into the room from the ceiling–it just says opulence and luxury to me.  3. The special place for wooden wine crates.  They add a warm, textural feel to the room.

I love the display of decanters in this one.  They add such flowy, artistic shapes to a room of angles.

These Spanish-style doors are just gorgeous.  And how cool is it to have glass doors leading into your wine cellar? To be sure, the Vintage Cellars team has to work hard to ensure that these delicate glass and wrought iron doors seal just as effectively as heavy glass ones, but isn’t the beauty worth the effort?

This is a perfect example of a small space used well.  The different dimensions created by the shelving really make it visually interesting: it’s a corner rich with wines from around the world, which have traveled from hand to hand and place to place to come together here.

Curves are always a great addition to a wine cellar, because they help break up the visual monotony of racks upon racks.  But this sweeping staircase goes far beyond.  It truly gives the room a dramatic, elegant flair.  And small details like the wicker-covered wine jug in the foreground really add a personal touch.  These are stairs you could linger on, pondering your wine selection, for hours.

The wine and wine storage industries are not immune to tough economic times. I read a statistic not long ago that showed the consumption of wine is up (by volume) while revenue is down roughly 25%. Basically that means we are all drinking more wine–that’s a plus. The bad news for the wine industry: the market has moved to less expensive, lower quality wines. The even worse news for the wine storage industry: those wines are consumed and not moved to long term storage.

People still needs wine racks to store their wine.  The average wine collector still wants a quality place to store their wine. But in many cases, the luxury of a custom cellar is no longer attainable.  How can you get a custom-looking wine cellar at a kit price? The answer: Vintner Wine Racking Kits. The kit side of the wine storage has always been plagued by the lack of adaptability.   If a kit is 72 inches high, it’s 72 inches high.   There is no real design, spirit or imagination that accompanies a kit design.  

Vintner Wine Racking Kits have solved that problem.   They come in 4 foot and 3 foot high sections to adapt to different ceiling heights. An individual or designer (like myself) can add some wine racking imagination with stackable kits. There are also different base heights, molding options and a center trim molding to create a custom wine cellar feel.  Recently, to help Vintage Cellars customers fit into a specific budget, I have designed a specific wine cellar using Vintner Kits. I’ve been impressed with the results. If your budget does not allow a complete high quality custom design, semi-custom wine racking kits are your next best option. It’s flexible, design-friendly and high quality. Sound like the solution for you? Call me and let’s discuss your new almost-custom wine cellar design.

jake

Vintage Cellars just had a unique custom wine cellar featured in the Wine Spectator. Actually, Jeff Strauss of the Pamplemousse in Solana Beach, Ca was the true feature of the article, but it was a Vintage Cellars design and build.

This was a totally unique custom wine cellar project. There are curved display features, 3 rows of high reveal display, coved shelves, pull out storage, wine glass display and even a mirrored solid archway. The custom handmade wine cabinetry in this cellar really highlights the display of wine.

Check out page 30 in the October 31st issue of the Wine Spectator (“A Chef’s Education) to see the feature on Jeff Strauss’ custom wine cellar and the Vintage Cellars photographs.

jake

The Stan Story

Stan’s basement was a room fit for lawn equipment, a ladder and boxes filled with holiday decorations, but hardly a place to properly cellar over 2500 bottles of wine.  Wine is a delicate matter here at Vintage Cellars and cellaring wine at an improper temperature in an uncontrolled environment just doesn’t sit well on our palates. 

 When Stan and I first met, we had to immediately attack some issues:  time and wine!  He was moving in soon and had to transfer his collection.  We needed to work fast but we needed to think about both the present and the future.  We needed to build out, properly vapor barrier, insulate and cool the wine cellar.  Elevate the racks and create a raised wood floor in case the basement area ever retained water.  We needed a custom wine cellar design that could handle a collection of Bordeaux, Barolos, California Cabs, Oregon Pinots, 750’s, magnums, double magnums, cases and growing/changing every year.  There were plumbing pipes that needed access, a rear door entering a crawl space and electrical lines everywhere.  After several revisions and conversations, the former basement was Stan’s (and his wine’s) new favorite room.

 “Vintage Cellars did this project on time and within my budget.  It’s now my favorite room in the house”.  S.G.

A Wine Cellar on a Yacht:

In late 2008, Vintage Cellars was contacted about building a wine cellar on a 124-foot motor yacht. After several meetings with the captain & the owner, we decided to take out an existing steam shower (just outside of the rec room) and create a temperature controlled wine room.

After the contract was awarded, there were still many issues and obstacles to over come:

• What is behind the steam shower?
• How are we going to insulate, vapor barrier and prepare the room properly (since the soon to be wine cellar was on the lowest deck down a narrow spiral staircase)?
• How are the bottles going to remain stable in a wine cellar on a yacht that encounters rough seas?
• Where do we get cooling equipment for a yacht with European power specs now in dry dock in San Diego?
• How do we maximize the bottle capacity while keeping safety and the highest quality standards in mind?

The Vintage Cellars design team, wine cabinet maker and carpentry team spent the next several weeks developing a design and a plan. Due to the tight space and location on the yacht, we decided to prefabricate an interior shell in our shop. Each wall would be built out of marine grade plywood with each section vapor barriered and insulated properly. Basically, we created a modular wall, floor and ceiling to seal the room. From there, we could line the room with cherry wood to keep the high quality finish consistent with the rest of the yacht.

Cooling… well there was another mountain that we had to climb. With over 20 years experience, Vintage Cellars has developed relationships with companies all over the world. These relationships were crucial for us to secure a ceiling mounted evaporator coil and compressor with enough BTUs to cool the room properly. It took several long discussions with the yacht engineer to create a mounting bracket in the bilge to support the compressor. We finally had the proper cooling for a complete wine cellar.

As the design continued, we tested and retested ways to secure the bottles in high seas. Based on that testing, we decided building individual storage on a 5 degree cant with a horizontal spacer bar at every space. We don’t ever want to test this in action, but we believe the yacht would have to flip on its side for that wine to come out. To maximize the space, and create show storage for large champagne, we developed a horizontal display cabinet on the same 5 degree cant with a face frame to hold the bottle in place. Its amazing what you can come up with when you put your mind to it. Each piece of racking was built in high grade cherry wood with a clear lacquer finish, all to maintain the same look on the yacht.

The carpentry team had to create the look, the pizazz of the cellar. Notice the sky light on the left hand side and the glass door. Each piece was custom built with dual pane thermal insulated glass. The hardware was secured from a marine hardware company specifically to match the rest of the cellar.

All in all, this wine cellar on a yacht was a fabulous success.

Check out a video of this transformation here:

Building a personal custom wine cellar has increased in popularity in recent years, but so have wine storage facilities.  There are many advantages to a storing your wine in such a facility, including 24 hour temperature monitoring, walk in or locker style storage and even pick up and delivery service.  There are equally as many disadvantages that may accompany such a facility, including access to your collection, available wine racking, rent and available rental space.  A wine storage facility can be a great short term solution or even temporary holding facility, but for the real enthusiast or budding collector is it time to consider a personal custom wine cellar?

 A custom wine cellar is the wisest investment one can make if you have a large or growing collection of wine and vintages that require aging and proper storage to reach their full potential.  Truly, a wine cellar will add to the enjoyment of wine and wine collecting.  Starting from scratch, you can design and build a custom cellar specifically for your wine collection, taking into account available space, budget, cooling unit application and the convenience of ready access to your collection. 

 Recently, the wine cellar became the number one new addition to a luxury home, just passing the theater room.  Though a wine room should be built for your personal enjoyment, it does add to the resale value of a home.  A custom wine cellar can come in all shapes and sizes.  Racks can be designed using racking kits or Vintage Cellars Distinctive Series Hand Made Racking.  The great thing about a wine cellar is that it can be designed and built to fit your collection and match your personality.  Analyze how much you will grow your collection over the next 10 years, how much space you would have to rent in a storage facility, where in your house could you build a cellar.

 Back in August of 2008, I met with a client that wanted to consider turning an interior closet space into a wine cellar.  The space would hold about 300 bottles and it was going to be near impossible to install a cooling unit.  In the same meeting, we ventured into the laundry room to look at using 10 feet of wall space and closing it in glass.  Once again, project cost versus the number of bottles stored did not add up.  We then walked outside to talk about an entire addition onto the home.  What we ended up with was an addition onto a house, complete with an tasting room, flat screen TV and custom hand made wine racking for 2400 (including a library ladder to reach up to 11 feet). 

 Dream about your personal wine cellar and find a way to make it come true.

Creating the “Modern” Wine Cellar:

 You’ve finally bought that house of your dreams and that 200 bottle Eurocave just can’t satisfy your desire to grow that wine collection.  Where are you going to build your personal wine cellar?  What about the 7 ft by 30 inch deep nook in your dining room?  Sure, we must consider how to cool the environment and prepare the room properly, but let’s assume it will work out.  It’s time to consider the décor of the home, how many bottles to store, the amount of space available and how to easily access the wine.  These factors are all tools to help determine what type of racking to use. 

 Wine consumption and collection has increased exponentially over the past 10 years.  To meet the market demands and the American consumer demands for quality and choice, the wine racking market has been exploding with new and exciting products.  Classic redwood wine racks, old world terra cotta clay wine tiles, new “green” recycled wine barrel racks and modern metal Vintage View racks are just the tip of the iceberg. 

 In this particular case, the home was modern/contemporary and the desired cellar capacity was about 400 bottles.  I couldn’t think of a better idea than to use Vintage View racking.  Using a small nook in the dining room (that also has a small window area into the kitchen), we developed a plan using sliding glass doors for access, floor to ceiling mounts and Vintage View racking.  The end result was a 432 bottle capacity wine cellar with a gallery wall of wine label artwork viewable from the dinning room table.  Outside of the beautiful results, this project met another important consideration: budget.  In this design, the wine racks and the installation came in under $3,000 (this does not include doors, room preparation or the wine cooling system).   Now there is money left over to help fill the space with wine bottles.

I have two examples I want to share with everyone currently planning a wine cellar.  Whether new construction, a remodel or an addition to the home, it is important to review all aspects of construction with a wine cellar specialist.  These two examples both have to do with heat load and wine cellar windows.

 The first example is from a wine cellar on the coast in Southern California.  A general contractor was responsible for the cooling, construction and preparation of the wine cellar.  I consulted with the interior decorator and the home owner on a racking design.  The concept was beautiful with stone, artistic tile and an amazing floor.  The wine cellar windows were tinted glass. The racking was hand made cabinetry, distressed, stained and waxed to create an antique effect. 

 I recently received an emergency phone call from the client to discuss condensation building up on the outside of the cellar on the 2 large tinted glass windows.  After a brief conversation, I discovered the wine cellar window glass was a single pane glass.  55 degrees inside a wine cellar and 80 degree moist ocean air will create condensation, guaranteed. 

 The second example is from a dry desert climate.  There were many factors that had to be considered to meet the clients design requirements.  Part of that was a near invisible cooling unit.  In this example, the cooling unit was working 23 hours a day and only keeping the cellar at 59 degrees.  The wine cellar was constructed with the front wall done entirely in ½ inch thick glass.   There was not enough BTU’s in the cooling system to compensate for the heat load coming through the glass.

 In both situations, the glass was the key problem ingredient.  Vintage Cellars recommends using a dual pane thermal insulated glass for any wine cellar windows or doors.  The exterior environment can have a dramatic effect when the goal is to keep a room at 55 degrees.  Consult with a wine cellar expert before making decisions that can affect your favorite room.