You take the time to collect wine, store it, and then drink it during a fine occasion down the road, which for my friend Michael simply means ordering a pizza.

If you are going to take the time to age your wine, let alone spend the money on it, the last thing you want is to see your time laid down along with money spent, go down the drain.

A couple things to keep in mind, is no wine cellar is the same, there are a multitude of variables that play a part in proper storage. The first thing people hit on is the temperature. This is a question in which you ask 10 people, you can get 12 answers! The biggest thing for wine is consistency. Avoid big temperature swings. Whether you keep your wine at 55 degrees or 62 in your root cellar because that’s what it is naturally, make sure the temperature stays steady.

The whole point in building a cellar, is to create this environment, if it doesn’t already occur naturally in your home, which unless you live in a cave somewhere, this is most likely not the case. In building out your cellar, take the time to properly plan layout, cooling unit options, airflow etc. From there you can get into the details of insulation, vapor barrier and the decision whether to add flare to the cellar in the form of a window or glass door. When introducing these things, you must account for the reverse effects as well. While wine cellars are now days meant to be pretty and allowing to play show and tell, make sure you are accounting for the heat load that it will generate on the room. This will ultimately decide what form versus function you can accept, and others you will have to leave by the wayside to not turn out with a bad outcome of your wine cellar not performing as it should. Again, remember why you are doing this and account for how to get there. You can visit the link below to identify cooling unit options for your cellar by clicking here. Stay tuned for more wine cellar tips and tricks.