Do you enjoy having a glass of wine in your own home-or having some wine on hand when a guest drops by to visit?  Or maybe you drink red wine for medicinal purposes ?!?  Well, I am also a Registered Pharmacist and not too high on prescription drugs unless for a dangerous situation.  So my husband’s MD put him on red wine to lower his cholesterol, along with a few other non-prescriptions.

You may just be passionate about wine and are wondering about having a wine cellar built in your home. There are a number of factors to consider  when taking on such a project.  Space is a major consideration as well as the size of your cellar and rack system.  Be sure to add the additional weight for the wine, which averages about 3 pounds per bottle.

When building a new home the best time to install a wine cellar or room would be during construction.  Specs for a cooling system, shelving and racks, and storage should be included then.  For existing homes, find a good place for storage and plan it out from there.

Temperature is probably the single most important factor when planning or storing.  The degree and temperature change are critical to successfully storing and aging wine.  I have read and studied that without temperature control,  the wine cellar won’t be worth the wine stored in it.  Special wine coolers are often employed to obtain ideal storage temperature of 55-65 degrees.  A  system that controls temperature and humidity are required to keep the wine tasting perfect.  These coolers can be free standing, built-in with the wine cellar, or hidden under the counter.

Home owners in the Luxury market may spend large amounts of money to have a custom built-in wine cellar.  There is an increasing interest among wine lovers and the luxury home owner to have their own cellars in their homes.

An alternative to a full cellar is to build in a smaller modular wine rack.  These are great investments as they can be modified to fit any space, not so expensive, and come in many different finishes and grains.  Just remember to store the wine bottles on their side to keep the cork moist and they should not be exposed to vibrations.

So go for the wine cellar or wine room in your home.  It could be a great re-sale point when you market your home for sale, as well as a very enjoyable room/space for you and your guests.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Real Estate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.