Mini Wine Cellar In A Closet

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.

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

You should not convert a closet against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outer walls of your house or apartment can frequently 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 speed and the degree of the temperature change are critical elements to successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter shouldn't be a cause for concern. A similar change each day will hurt your wines and age them too quickly.

The major rule when in wine storage is to avoid wide fluctuations in temperature. You'll notice damage of this type immediately from the stickiness that will often form around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's just like having the cork removed and replaced every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Your wine will be ruined once air comes in contact with your wine and the irreversible process of oxidation begins.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age as the winemaker intended, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow 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! Be tough ... sell / give away / move all the present contents and start with a blank slate!

Buy inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you'll have an easy and very effective mini wine cellar.

Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density; price variations are 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 place 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.