Turn A Closet Into A Mini Wine Cellar

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 start your wine cellar construction it is important to pay attention to the position of the cupboard in relation to the rest of the house.

Avoid converting a closet against an outside wall into a wine cellar. The outer walls of your home can often be subjected to wide temperature fluctuations across the seasons. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere.

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.

A major rule when storing wine is to avoid large (or quick) temperature changes. You’ll notice damage of this nature 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 just like having the cork removed and replaced every day. When this occurs, very small amounts of wine may be expelled along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the neck of the bottle) allowing air to seep in. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined.

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 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! Be strong … remove all the present contents (give away / auction / move them) and start with an empty closet!

Purchase some inexpensive wine racks 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.

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.

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