Create your own wine Closet

When you are passionate about wine you begin collecting it ... and when you begin collecting it you need a place to save it. 

A closet can easily be turned into a mini wine cellar to store your growing wine collection. 

Before you construct your wine cellar consider the location of the closet with the rest of the house. 

You should not convert a closet against an outside wall of a cellar. The exterior walls of your house or apartment can be subject to large fluctuations in temperature. Ideally, choose an internal closet where your wine will be able to be stored at a more constant temperature. 

The degree and rate of temperature change is crucial for success storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees from winter to summer, will not cause harm to your wine. The same change each day will harm your wines by aging them too rapidly. 

The most important rule when the wine storage is to avoid large fluctuations in temperature. You'll notice damage of this type immediately from stickiness, which often is around the capsule. Over a period of constant contraction and expansion of the wine will damage the integrity of the cork. It's like having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, small quantities of wine being pushed off the edge of the cork (between the cork and bottle neck) allowing air to seep back into your wine will be destroyed when the air comes in contact with your wine and irreversible oxidation begins. 

At 55 º to 58 º F the wine will age gracefully, making it possible to fully develop as the winemaker intended. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow the aging process. Your wine will be irreparably damaged if stored at a temperature above 82 º F for as little as a month. 

The hardest part of creating a wine cellar in a closet can find other places to store the original contents of the closet! Be hard ... remove all current contents (give away / auction / move them) and start with an empty cupboard! 

Buy some cheap wine racks from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop and you want a simple but very effective mini wine cellar. 

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

Each shelving makes it easy to select bottles. If you have racks against only one wall of the closet, you may still have floor or shelf space available to the wine you buy by the case.