My new wine cellar

I just realized that I have not written any Wine Ramblings since November of last year.  I have been busy with the renovation of our home.  This is probably my last renovation of this house and perhaps the last renovation in my lifetime.  Part of the renovation is the building of a proper wine cellar for myself and my wine collection. 

The wine cellar was not the main intention of the renovation, but rather the accidental consequence of having to rebuild the basement and to move a bathroom, which was in the way of the exit of an elevator we wanted to install.  This part of a plan for our future staying, and aging in place, in this house.  Previously my wine collection was stored at one corner of the storage area in the basement.  Although the area was enclosed by walls, and a small chiller was installed by the previous owner of the house, it was no bigger than an oversized closet.  My wines were stored, and stacked in boxes, four or five high in front of some Ikea wine shelves lining the walls.  It was extremely hard to get to some of the wines at the bottom of the stack.  I sometimes had to move four or five boxes to get to one bottle of wine I wanted to drink.  So, when the basement had to be re-configured and re-finished, I jumped at the opportunity to design for myself and my collection a new home!

I am very proud with the result.  The new cellar is now occupying an area of about 10 feet by 21 feet.  Being part of the basement, there were heating ducts overhead which reduce part of the ceiling height from 7 ft. 4 in. to 6-1/2 feet.  It does feel like a cave a little bit when entering.  As a result, I decided to name the cellar – La Cave de Phil.

Over 30 lineal feet of wine racks was purchased and installed in the cellar.  They came as modular pieces of California Red Wood and delivered in kits, which I had our contractor put up in the cellar space.  The most fun I had in the designing and building of the cellar was the sizing of the chiller.  I ended up doing heat load calculations using my mechanical engineering background and purchasing a WineGuard DO50 unit, installed in the mechanical room next to the cellar and have the chilled air piped into the cellar.

My collection currently totals 1,600 bottles with the majority being 1,000 bottles of Bordeaux.  I have been buying and collecting Bordeaux since the 1982 vintage.  My rest of the collection is made up with about 70 bottles of Burgundy, 40 bottles of Rhone, 300 bottles of Italian and the rest from Spain, Chile, Portugal and other parts of the world.

If any of you need help, advice and help in designing and building your cellar, just contact me.  I will be happy to help.

Here are some pictures I would like to share with you:

Stay tuned for more of Phil’s Wine Ramblings!

Drink safely,

Friends of the Vine