There are lots of people who want to start their wine collection. If you want to start your own wine collection, you need to understand that you cannot begin without first making sure that you have a place to store them. Wines can’t just be stored anywhere because they need specific storage conditions for them age properly. The best place to store wines is in a residential custom wine cellar in Orange County, California.
A custom wine cellar in California can adequately provide the ideal conditions for your wines to mature tastefully. Learn about the basic elements to proper wine storage by reading through this article.
1. Lighting
It is imperative that when you have a custom wine cellar built in California, you keep it away from exposure to direct sunlight. There should be as little light as possible that reaches your wine bottles. There are various organic compounds within wine that are essential to its structure, aroma and flavor. Direct exposure to light, especially ultraviolet light, can potentially destroy these compounds and degrade the quality of your wines.
2. Vibration
Vibration isn’t really a big problem. It can occasionally be a problem when wines are exposed to too much of it like for example, when you keep your wine bottles on top of the kitchen refrigerator. Besides the risk of the bottles breaking, excess vibration can also prevent sediments from settling, and may affect the flavor of your wines. To protect your wine collection from vibration, store it in properly constructed custom wine racks in Orange County, California.
3. Humidity
Wines need to be kept in an adequately humid environment. Ideally, your custom wine cellar in Orange County should have a humidity level that ranges from 60% to 75%. Adequate humidity is necessary because too much and too little humidity can both damage your wine collection.
When humidity is above the ideal levels, moisture builds up and can ruin your wine bottle labels. Mold can form, too, and contaminate your wines. One way to prevent mold formation is by wrapping your wine bottles in saran wrap. Some people would use hair spray and other sealants, but these have unpleasant odors. Saran wrap effectively keeps mold out without having bad odors.
On the other hand, when the humidity is too low, corks may shrink and allow air to enter the bottles. When air comes in contact with the wine, oxidation happens, and this ruins the flavor of your wines. Wines that have been exposed to air often have a rusty taste to its flavor.
If your area has a very dry climate, or if your house is heated and cooled by central air, a good way to have humidity inside the custom wine cellar in CA is by placing a saucer of water inside.
4. Temperature
Temperature is the most important element to wine storage, and the most important consideration when building a home wine cellar in Orange County, California. Wines require a wine storage room wherein the temperature is maintained between 55 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit. There should be minimal to no fluctuations in the temperature level, because frequent fluctuations will negatively affect your wines. Have a quality wine cellar refrigeration system installed in your home custom wine cellar in CA, so that you can be sure that your wines are kept in the ideal storage temperature.
Hey, we are at Dana Point California today and we are going to look at a residential wine cellar project that we wrapped up just this last October. As you can see, this is a 2-car garage and we actually took a portion or a segment of approximately 5′ long and 5′ wide, and we were able to store some 675 bottles.
We had a few obstacles to overcome besides all the bicycles and all the storage things because of the garage door and the track that it rolls on. We had a limited height to work with, but we were able to maintain some of the storage as you can see above here.
The Wine Cellar Door – Tuscan
Tuscan Wine Cellar Door
All in all, the wine cellar design came out really nice. The clients are very, very happy. The entry is our Tuscan wine cellar door.
It is a radius or true arch with a wrought iron gate and you can see some of the fine detail on the wrought iron with the grapes and the grape leaves. It’s a really nice theme, a very popular theme.
Operable Wrought Iron Wine Cellar Door
One of the nicest features of our Tuscan wine cellar dooris that the wrought iron is actually operable. You can lift this little latch here on a hinge for cleaning purposes, so you can keep the dual pane glass free of dust and still create a nice view right into the wine cellar. The latch very simply attaches back to the wine cellar door.
We’re really happy how this all turned out. The customer picked out the paint scheme. It’s kind of a wine color that looks very, very nice with the Premium Redwood.
Cork Wine Cellar Flooring
See the subtle color variations in the wood. It really looks nice with this Pinot color scheme. The flooring is actually, although it looks like its wood, is cork floor, so it has a little bit of gist to it.
As you first enter the residential wine cellar, this particular client has lots of these wooden boxes for magnums and even for certainly larger wood cases for 12 packs and 6 packs, but we start off the run here with a solid quarter round display shelf.
Storage for Large Format Bottles
As we move back further into the cellar, lots of large format bottles (1.5-liter, 3-liter, 6-liter and even in the back you can see a 12-liter bottle). It was very important to him to be able to store and display these properly.
These are in a label forward horizontal display format. In the case of a smaller magnum-style bottle, we can get as many as four per opening, and two bottles per opening in a larger 3-bottle format. These wood shelves here are actually adjustable, so as his collection changes over the months and years, he can certainly adjust the shelving to their proper spacing.
Adjustable Shelves – Residential Wine Cellar
This back wall here, which is quite beautiful, also has adjustable shelves which were intended for wooden cases but certainly they’re fine for decorative features and things of that nature. The bottom portion of the shelf is a double deep lattice diamond bin for bulk configuration that certainly increased the capacity of this 12′ x 5′ wine room.
The lattice-style feature of the diamond bin allows for good air flow around the bottles and adds some nice attractive feature to the wine cellar. We come back down to the right side of the wall. We’ve got lots of single bottle storage with a high reveal display row.
15-Degree Angle Wine Display
These bottles are pitched to the 15 degree angle, so they’re liquid is still in contact with the cork. It gives the wine room a little character and it certainly shows off some of the labels. It is also a good management tool because you can put like wines above and below the display row.
This case opening here is indeed a solid case opening with a solid premium redwood tabletop. We have drawers here for every day accoutrements – corkscrews, napkins, and whatever you need for your wine cellar. More bulk storage down below in a diamond configuration.
The Wine Cellar Cooling Unit – CellarPro
Wine Cellar Cooling Unit
The wine cellar cooling unit is a self-contained CellarPro cooling unit with variable fan speeds that will deal with temperatures of up to 110 degrees. This one actually exhausts to the outdoors, so we’ll take a look at that in a moment.
The wine cellar cooling unithas an extended housing or extended cover, I should say, to protect the housing from the elements and it has a reasonable air filter as well, one that could be washed. This is the rear of the wine cellar cooling unit that I was telling you about.
It extends beyond the house a little bit, but more so than the last project that we looked at because of this added depth to protect the rear exhaust and the reusable aluminum filter that protects it from the elements. The drain line here simply drains off into the flower bed.
Are you fond of wine? Are you planning to start a wine collection? Wine racks in Orange County, California are the safest place to store wines. There are different kinds of wine racks in California. They can be made of metal, wood or glass. Learn about these basic kinds of wine racks!
Metal Wine Racks California
Metal wine racks can be made from various kinds of metals. The most common metals used are wrought iron, cast, chrome and stainless steel. Compared to other kinds of wine racks, metal wine racks have more intricate bends, as well as twists and turns. This makes metal wine racks have more flexible designs. Metal wine racks are very strong and durable, but can be very heavy for table or counter top display. One concern is that temperature and humidity inside a custom wine cellar can damage the metal over time. Metal wine racks are great for those who store wines over a short period of time. If you consume wine frequently, metal wine racks are the choice for you.
Glass Wine Racks California
Engraved glass wine racks are very beautiful. They have a dramatic effect, and come in both intricate and simple designs. One common problem with glass wine racks is that they can easily be damaged by frequent changes in temperature and humidity. Glass wine racks are best for those who only want to display wines for a short period of time, or for frequent consumption.
Wooden Wine Racks California
Wooden wine racks in Orange County, California can be made of various kinds of wood. Most of these woods are mildew resistant. This means that they can withstand the moist climate inside a custom wine cellar in California. Wooden wine racks are also very beautiful, timeless and classic. This kind of wine rack is also good for long term wine storage.
Custom wine cellars are the ideal place to store wines. As long as they are well insulated, have a vapor barrier installed and have a quality wine cellar refrigeration system installed, they are the best place for wines to age properly. Wine cellars by Coastal are among the most reliable storage places for wines. For more information on custom wine racks and other wine storage needs, visit Coastal at their website today!
Custom wine cellars are the perfect place to store wines, because they are able to provide them with the ideal conditions, so that they age properly. Wine cellar insulation is an integral part of the ability of a wine cellar to do this. A wine cellar in Orange County that does not have proper insulation is practically useless. Some people build their own residential wine cellars without any vapor barriers. If you are a genuine wine lover, you need to understand the importance of proper insulation and vapor barriers.
Problems Caused by Poor Custom Wine Cellar Insulation
Many problems can arise from a poorly built custom wine cellar. You will have to deal with mold problems and/or the need for more moisture. Also, if your cellar is poorly constructed, your wine cellar cooling system will have to use up more energy to function. This will wear out the wine cellar cooling unit fast!
Moreover, a wine cellar in Orange County that is poorly insulated will have problems providing the right humidity for wine storage. Ideally, the humidity level in a wine cellar is 55 to 75%. Humidity is very important in a custom wine cellar in CA, because it helps keep the wine corks moist. Wine corks shrink when they become dry, and when they do, air can get in and ruin your wine.
Thermal Insulation, Air Barrier and Vapor Barrier
There are many kinds of wine cellar insulation. One of the best kinds is Closed Cell spray foam, which is also referred to as medium density or 2 pound insulation. This product is liquid that turns to foam and expands to 20-30 times its liquid size, creating an air-tight seal. Once it has expanded, it seldom needs trimming, with little to no waste. This type of insulation is very durable and is able to increase the shear and racking strength effectively. This product is a Code Approved Vapor Barrier and has a permeability rating 45ng. It is also a Code Approved Air Barrier and Thermal Insulation.
Other Factors That Help Creating Proper Wine Storage
Tim: People produce a lot of pictures where there’s nobody in it and it’s always good to give it scale and perspective if there’s somebody in the picture.
Leslie: We’re talking about my liquid children and they’re in the photo.
Tim: Indeed. So we’ve got some great pictures from start to finish. We could just take a quick tour of the wine cellar construction process. These are all to do with the cellar, right?
Wine Cellar Construction Orange County California
Leslie: Yes. Basically what I did was took some pre-photos. These were the kind of things that I was sharing with Jerry. I think I remember sharing this exact album with Jerry that basically said ‘here is what my house looks like; here’s the wall, here’s this situation, here’s that situation,’ just to give him an idea of what I was thinking about doing and where. So that was the wall, the one that you’re really on and it even says in the comments that I really wanted to ditch that wall. My goal was to ditch that entire wall which didn’t happen and honestly saved me probably $30,000.
Tim: That’s a reasonable amount.
Leslie: The AC amount would have been huge because it would have been this nice, clear open and then the wine cellar construction amount on top of it.
Tim: I’m guessing that it’s useful to see the house as the wine cellar design is done. It helps to make sure that the style of the cellar is in keeping with the style of the house.
Pre Wine Cellar Construction Photos
Jerry: Certainly with color schemes and the species of the wood. If the home is more contemporary styling then typically there’s a stain or a topcoat or a clear coat finish put over them. Some homes are a bit more rustic and have distressed areas like distressed flooring, beams in the ceiling, so we would use something like we used at Sea Smoke.
Tim: In these pictures, does it give us an indication as to where the cellar is in relation to the rest of the house?
Leslie: Yes and no. The very first photo you see is my front door. You’re looking at my two front doors while one front door is missing, my living room, and then the wine cellar which has obviously now been replaced with a wine cellar door.
Tim: Is that here?
Before Photo – Wine Cellar Construction in Orange County CA
Leslie: Yes. That’s my custom wine cellars Orange County now. I did the same thing when I renovated my house because I do so much work in social media and everyone loved the experience so much that I thought I had to do this. On my one bulletin board, it’s actually the most viewed thread this year that people have been watching. I mean, who doesn’t love watching change happen, fun change like this?
Jerry: That’s a great picture of the custom wine cellars Orange County there. That’s the closet that we’re utilizing.
Tim: Oh, okay. Now I can relate it to those wine cellar design drawings. We’re looking sort of this way and that’s where it’s built into the closet. Very good!
Leslie: I don’t miss that ugly fan one bit. I was so happy with the day I asked to be able to throw it out and they actually let me. So that was great.
Jerry: You retained that beautiful flooring, though, did you not?
Leslie: Yes, the flooring is still in there. My concern is that I tried my best to see if it had plastic underneath it because it is an on concrete slab, so I just have to hope that whoever installed the item before me did indeed put it on plastic below it. So far it’s been fine. So we’ll see.
Tim: This is the April 1st picture. This is a picture of your completed custom wine cellars Orange County on April 1st?
Leslie: Yes, absolutely done! Absolutely! I keep the wines in the trash bags that you see in the corner.
Wine Cellar Insulation – Installation of Vapor Barriers
Tim: What are they doing here? Ripping out all the insulation in there?
Leslie: All of the drywall had to come down and all the insulation. Obviously I didn’t think it through but it had to come out of the ceiling as well. So this was day one and all they did on day one was rip it down and take out all the insulation, and then of course we had closing the window, taking the AC out. We had to cap the AC and move it. All that fun stuff.
During Wine Cellar Construction
Actually my power went off that day. It was pretty funny. This is the wall where the AC sits now. You’ll see that you can see half and then not. The top actually goes to my bedroom because I’m in a tri-level house. So that leads to my closet and that leads to my bedroom and below is walk-in storage that goes the entire width of my house. It’s kind of funny when this photo was taken. I had no idea just how much my bedroom fed into that level, but that’s how much it feeds into it.
Tim: You’re so good, so many pictures.
Leslie: Oh, I tried. So April 4th was a fun photo. I came home and I’m like, “Wow, that’s interesting.” Obviously the day that the window came down, it actually had termite damage on the window and they were going to enclose the entire window again and I said to them no because if I do sell the house in the future and if they don’t like wine, I want to try to be able to put this room back. So they actually just reframed it and I think two or three photos in from here, you’ll see that they actually reframed it to still be a window. My hope is that it never happens or happens many, many, many, many years down the line, but it is actually framed within the dry wall to be a window again if needed.
Jerry: That show’s it all boarded up and framed up.
Tim: Clearly thinking ahead there.
Framed Up Window to Ensure Airtight Seal
Leslie: Well, you know, the thing is that I either depreciated this house by quite a bit or I appreciate it for someone who buys this house in the future. My hope is that I live here many, many, many years from now very happy and all that good stuff. If I was looking for a house and I saw a custom wine cellars Orange County like this, I would probably think about changing cities to head to a house and I realized that those people might be out there, but not everyone’s like that.
Tim: April 4th, April 6th
Leslie: A little bit more progress with the wine cellar construction. They closed up the window which for the longest time they forgot to paint which was pretty entertaining. This was interesting; they started to put up the insulation and forgot to put up the vapor barrier. I remember calling Jerry and saying, “Jerry!” He was like, “Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no! The vapor barrier needs to go up.” So they started putting the vapor barrier up and then they realized that the paper had to come down because you can’t have the vapor barrier and then paper because it creates a double vapor barrier. I learned quite a bit during this wine cellar design and wine cellar construction process.
Jerry: The vapor barrier needs to be behind the insulation in this process.
Leslie: And it wasn’t happening. So you’ll see in this photo they just started putting up the vapor barrier and then they had to rip down all the paper. Thank goodness I was posting this. In all honesty, I love my contractor but he wasn’t aware of a couple of things that he should’ve been aware of and a lot of my friends on a wine bulletin board are actually wonderful in helping out.
Tim: So now we’re on April 7th.
Leslie: It’s scary that I remember these days. You’re not going to see too much changes here, just the paper being removed in some places, more insulation being added, and then after this the lights were put in and were actually working.
Tim: April 9th through 14th
Vapor Barriers for Wine Cellar Insulation
Leslie: This is a cute story. This is when the process was going so weird that I didn’t know what to do and I was going out of town. I was going to be in Arizona for the weekend. As you know I love taking photos of everything, so I got a little concerned because I was going to be out of town. So I left my little Sony portable camera in the room and all the contractors when they came in to work actually took photos when they were done for the day. This was all of my contractors and workers taking photos, which I thought was very sweet.
Tim: I noticed they’re studiously not in the photos.
Leslie: There it is. There’s a shoulder shot of one of them.
Tim: I noticed here there are some instances where there’s paper and there’s instances where there isn’t paper. What’s that about?
Leslie: It’s just simply because they hadn’t gotten around to it yet. If you go down a few photos more, you’ll see all of the paper being removed which is how it should be done.
Tim: So this is the sheetrock ready to go in?
Leslie: Yes, that’s the drywall ready to go.
Tim: April 15th and it looks like it starting to take shape now.
Leslie: This is the weirdest thing because this is when the temperature level of this room completely changed. This was just because of the tape and the mud and everything, but this was exciting to start to see happen.
Tim: I don’t understand what you mean by the temperature of the room changed.
Leslie: Someone said that when you start getting into tape and mud and all that, it creates its own kind of moisture level and this room was considerably warm than the rest of my house. I mean, it was almost stiflingly warm to be in there. This was just standard. Once this whole room was taped, it was crazy hot. I would walk in there and I almost couldn’t breathe and other people felt the same way.
Jerry: Which is a sign that it’s a good airtight room.
Leslie: Yes, someone said to me that it is such a good sign, you don’t even know. So I was happy to hear that.
Tim: What are we looking at here?
Attic Space – Custom Wine Cellars Orange County
Leslie: I had to move my attic space because my attic space was currently in the closet. So I had to move it to this area and if you look there is a crack riding across. That’s from additional termite damage. We just decided to tackle all of this at once and reput the attic access there, reframed a couple of things that had some termite damage, and took care of that.
Tim: So what is that?
Leslie: It’s just the controller screen and for the longest time it had tape all around it. Everyday I’d show up and it would be in a different position. I just loved the fact that if this thing makes it through this construction process, I’d be so proud of it.
Custom Wine Cellar Refrigeration
Jerry: We used ductless split wine cellar refrigeration system, Tim.
Tim: We’re getting there now. It’s starting to look really interesting. What have we got here?
Leslie: April 18th was when this room was just crazy. You’ll see there’s a fan smack down in the middle. It was so damp and warm in there. This was when I was getting fed up with all the dust, but it’s so fun looking back to this. Watching the progress is fun.
Tim: What’s this?
Side Storage at Leslie’s Residence in Orange County CA
Leslie: Remember what I told you about the side storage that I have? That’s my side storage and they were using that area as a pass through. I just noticed I was actually back there on that day because ATT was here because I was going to wire the house for ATT pulse and I was happy they got to pass through backup. But that’s the side storage and that is the half wall you saw on the very first photo that was completely open to my storage. You’ll see the wine cellar refrigeration lines heading down and you’ll get a good chuckle if you look all the way to the left, you’re going to see what looks like wine racking wrapped up in plastic. That would be my very first wine storage system, probably five years ago. It held 50 bottles and I thought I would never need more.
Tim: It looks like they taped off the area they’re working because you definitely don’t want dust on the nice, wide screen TV there.
Remote Temperature Gauge with Bottle Probe
Leslie: I don’t know if you guys know about this device. This is from a company called Weather Direct and this thing rocks. It is a remote temperature gauge that also has a bottle probe, so I can have it give me air temperature as well as bottle temperature. And I can set the ping amount, so I can ping it every day, ping it every hour, ping it every 5 minutes, and then I can say to it when you ping it and the parameter is not met (e.g. it’s too warm, too humid, not humid enough) send me a text message and send me an email.
Tim: This screen that we’re seeing is presented on…
Temperature Control Alarm System – Wine Cellar Refrigeration
Leslie: You’re looking at the web screen. So it’s telling you at the top it says wine cellar, it’s saying when it was last seen, and then the last measured values. Of course, the AC wasn’t on and running at this time, but I’ve got the device and it was just sitting around my house and so I had it for fun toggling at 73 degrees and you’ll see that in red it saying that the notified parameter was met on both temperature and humidity.
Jerry: So it’s an alarm system for you?
Leslie: Absolutely. And it’s also one way of testing the AC because I’m getting different temperatures obviously near the AC system to the floor to the ceiling to the wall that feeds in to my backyard. They all are varying by a tiny bit. This has been really neat to be able to take this device and move it and just get a feel for the different temperatures that are happening around the room which is great and a lot of my wine buddies who have custom wine cellars Orange County use this. It has two pieces. The part itself that goes into the cellar and there’s another piece that needs an Ethernet connection. Up in my office, I have the other part that is hooked up into my wireless router and it has reception from I believe 200 feet away. It works great and it has a mobile website. I actually have on my phone a mobile website and it will tell me what temperature my wine cellar is any time I want to know.
Tim: We are definitely dealing with a geek here.
Leslie: The AC guy told me these things are fantastic. I have to agree and it’s a whopping $60.
Tim: You could be somewhere in a different state or you’re in a meeting somewhere and you could just say, “Excuse me a moment my wine cellar is calling me.”
