Custom Wine Cellars California: Design Considerations
When designing a custom wine cellar, the wine bottle itself is worth thinking carefully about. Typical wine bottle types are:
- 750 ml wine bottles are the most common, though there are splits which are one quarter these sizes.
- Then there are Magnums which are twice the size of the 750 ml wine bottles
- Jeroboams which are equal to four 750 ml wine bottles
- Methuselahs, typically the largest in common use equal to eight 750 ml wine bottles
As your collection may include a mixed range of these sizes it's vital to plan ahead and think carefully about what type and what quantity of each type you are likely to collect.
In addition you may wish to consider the type of wine in context to the bottles look and location in the world they originally came from. For example:
- White wines based on Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and dessert wines like Sauternes come in clear or light-green Bordeaux bottles.
- Bordeaux wines from France usually have the 750ml appearance, and New World wines based on Bordeaux grape usually do as well. Red wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot usually come in dark green Bordeaux bottles.
- White wines based on Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and dessert wines like Sauternes come in clear or light-green Bordeaux bottles
- Italian wines like Chianti or Californian wines such as Zinfandel may also use this type of bottle. What's good about these wine bottles is they're easy to store in a wine rack. You don't need to use bulk storage and can therefore maximize storage capacity, which can be critical if you have a small storage space like a wine refrigerator or custom wine cabinet.
- Burgundy wine bottles are elegant, slope-shouldered, and dark-green, with a wide body.
- Traditional Burgundy grape varieties are Pinot Noir (red) and Chardonnay (white).
- New World producers of these grape varieties also use this same bottle shape. Other French wine-producing regions use a similar bottle, like the Loire Valley and the Rhone. Consider that the Rhone bottle is not quite as wide and the slope is more severe than a Burgundy bottle.
- In general, Bordeaux wine bottles are three inches in diameter, while Burgundy bottles are three and a half. Since most wine racks are designed for the former, Burgundy wine bottles can cause a lot of storage problems. The good news is that some custom wine racks are especially designed to hold these bottles, be careful to select those.
- Champagne wine bottles, Turley, and Magnums can be very similar in appearance to Burgundy bottles. Like Burgundy bottles they are also 3.5 inches in diameter or more, they are however much thicker and heavier bottles, with big indentations in the bottom of the bottle. This is because these bottles are designed to withstand ninety pounds per square inch of pressure, which is astonishingly, three times the pressure in a typical car tire. Champagne wine bottles can have storage problems very similar to Burgundy bottles however with the right balance of large format wine racks, diamond bin wine storage racking or even case bins these bottles can be turned into a feature within your custom wine cellars core design and the solutions are the same (either adding large format wine racks or using diamond bins or case bins).
All these factors are things to take into account when designing your custom wine racking. Obtaining the ideal final look of your display balanced with function in your wine cellar is important to carefully plan up front for. With these factors carefully balanced your custom wine cellars design should achieve good functionality, appeal to the eye achieving your dream design balanced with affordability.
Lastly it's important to mention the following points of consideration when storing your wines for long periods in custom wine racking:
1. Keep your bottles stored in wine racks in such a way as to keep your corks moist
2. Store your wines in a room which has a stable and consistent temperature and humidity level, around 70%, with little to no vibrations
3. Avoid potential odors which could infiltrate your wines when stored for long periods. Insidious odors can often be brought directly into your wine cellar through the very racking itself by using the wrong stains, wood species, and possibly even paint finishes.
About the Author:
Follow this link and get experienced help with designing your dream Californian Custom Wine Cellar.Holly Peters is an avid wine collector and Custom Wine Cellar Designer.
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