How To Build A Mini Wine Cellar In A Closet
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Terrific New eBook On How To Broil Delicious Foods When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting 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. Consider the position of the cupboard or closet in relation to the outside walls of the house before you construct your wine cellar. Avoid converting a cupboard against an outside wall into a wine closet. The outside walls of your house or apartment can be subject to wide fluctuations in temperature. Ideally, choose an internal closet where your wine will be able to be stored at a more constant temperature. The degree and the speed of any change in temperature are critical elements in successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees from winter to summer won’t cause damage to your wine. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly. The major rule when in wine storage is to avoid wide fluctuations in temperature. You’ll be aware of this damage straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over a period of time the continual contraction and expansion 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, tiny quantities of wine can be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back 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 with grace, enabling it to develop fully. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. The damage done to your wine will be irreversible if it is stored at a temperature above 82ºF for even 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! Cheap wine racks can be purchased 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 appearance than efficiency. Single racking is generally the easiest for selecting 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.
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