Convert 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 begin converting your closet into a wine cellar consider the position of the closet relative to the rest of the house.

You should not convert 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. Select an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a 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. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or fluctuations. You'll notice damage of this nature straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's just like having the cork removed and replaced every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined.

Stored at a temperature range of 55º to 58ºF the wine will age as intended, and develop fully. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow the ageing process. Your wine will be irreversibly damaged if it is stored at a temperature above 82ºF for as little as 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 ruthless ... sell / give away / move all the present contents and start with a blank slate!

Cheap wine racks can be purchased from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you'll have a simple but very effective mini wine cellar.

Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density; price variations have less to do with efficiency and more to do with appearance.

Individual racking is the most convenient for selecting bottles. If you have 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.