If you are a wine aficionado, you likely find yourself collecting bottles of wine with some regularity. For example, you may do something as simple as read an article about a vintage and decide you want to try. Thanks to the internet, vineyards the world over are available to you.
You might find yourself travelling. In that process, you may make a practice out of visiting vineyards. Like many people who follow that course, you may pick up a few bottles while on site, or you may order a good many of them to be sent to your residence.
No matter the manner in which wine bottles end up in your residence, you may have reached a point in time when storage has become a real issue. You may be wondering what steps you can take to properly store wine in your residence.
How do You Know When to Invest in Special Storage?
There is no firm guideline to follow as to when the time has arrived to invest some money in wine storage at your residence. A number of factors do come into consideration.
With that said, if you are spending $4,000 or more annually on bottles of wine for consumption at home, you probably do want to take at least some steps to better protect your purchases.
If you are purchasing more expensive vintages, you really must take a close look at how you are storing wine at home. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to invest a huge sum of money in constructing a wine cellar at your residence. However, there are options available to you in which you can reconfigure part of your basement, or even some other space in your home, to serve as a fully functioning “wine cellar.”
The Ins and Outs of a Wine Cellar
When it comes to storing wine, including constructing a wine cellar or special storage are in your home, there are three primary factors that come into consideration, to varying degrees.
First, you must make sure that a wine cellar, or similar storage space you create in your residence, is capable of maintaining an ideal temperature for the storage of wine. The ideal temperature range for storing wide is between 45° F and 65° F. With considerable frequency, 55° F is cited as the ideal temperature for wine storage.
The reality is that as long as the wine is not kept consistently at a temperature lower 45° F and isn’t stored at a temperature over 70° F, you will be properly storing your vintages. The reality is that basement levels in residences do provide solid spaces which render maintaining the ideal temperature range on a consistent basis a fairly easy task to accomplish.
Second, you also need to pay some attention to humidity in your residential wine cellar. With that said, unless you actually live in the desert or the artic, you are not likely to have real issues with humidity in your wine cellar. The reality is that as long as humidity is kept in the 50 percent and 80 percent range, you will be keeping your wine appropriately stored.
Finally, you do need to pay attention to keeping your wine bottles stowed horizontally. This does serve to keep corks moist and does prevent them from drying out. Storing horizontally also allows you the ability to keep more wine bottles in a readily accessible zone.
Sprucing Up Your Wine Cellar
You can take the creation of a wine cellar or storage area a step further. You can spruce it up to make it an appealing addition to your residence. For example, if you have some sort of entertainment room on the lower level of your home, you can create a wine cellar directly off of that space. Indeed, the spaces can enhance and compliment one another.
One addition you can make to your residential wine cellar is to add iron doors. This addition adds a true level of class to your wine storage. In addition, it ups the overall appearance, feels, and value of your residence.
When it comes to iron doors for a wine cellar, you have a tremendous selection from which to select. Indeed, stating that “there is something for everyone” simply is not an understatement when it comes to iron door options well-suited to a residential wine cellar. As an aside, you will also be able to find iron door selections in a variety of price ranges. Not only will you be able to find an appealing design, but one that fits within your budget.
Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who writes for Abby Iron Doors. Abby Iron Doors specialize in designing and manufacturing wrought iron entry doors, wine cellar doors, windows and balconies for residential and commercial customers.