How to Build a Wine Cellar?

It’s not so complicated to understand how to build a wine cellar after understanding the storage conditions that wine requires:

1. Dark environment
2. No vibrations
3. No bad smells.
4. Bottles laying Horizontally (so the caps wont deteriorate quickly and let the air in, which will ruin the wine)
5. Fixed temperature.

So how do you build a wine cellar?

1. Choose a dark environment (basement or any other dark place will do)
2. Make sure there are no vibrations in that room (no big electrical equipment)
3. Make sure there are no bad smells around like a smell of gas, benzene or standing water.
4.  Build shelves. That way your bottles will lie horizontally.
5. Don’t use plywood or cardboard which absorb water.
6. Make sure that there isn’t a big temperature difference between day and night. Insulate your wine cellar so the wine won’t be damaged.
7. If you can’t sustain a temperature of up to 15 ° C (60 F) for red wine and 10 degrees C (50 F) for white wine then you should consider installing a cooling unit, preferably an air conditioner which reject the heat outside. Minimum Temperature should be 4° C (9 F) below the mentioned limit.

More things you should know:

1. The conservation of red wine can take 5 years at 18 ° C maximum, and 15 years at 15 ° C (60 F) maximum.

2. The conservation of a natural wine or a dry white wine can last 5 years at 12 ° C maximum, and 15 years at 10 degrees C (50 F) maximum.

If you need a more detailed plan you can find some great information at WineCellarSecrets.com