By: Perry Sims
Wood is the most versatile material to use for building custom wine storage systems. With it, you can create shelves, bins, and racks in a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs for a truly unique and accommodating display.
Besides wood racks that suit individual bottles, shelves and bins provide storage and display for cases or multiple bottles of the same type of wine, large or odd-sized bottles, and selections within your collection that deserve special attention. Partly filled bins, however, are less space efficient.
Wooden Display Shelves
Display shelves provide aesthetically pleasing wine storage and give relief from uniform vertical racks. Shelves present individual bottles or, like bookshelves, hold wooden wine cases. Build them into and under counters or sections of vertical racking or create stand-alone shelves in other areas of the cellar.
So-called slant display shelves are flat or slightly tilted. They have a neck support and bottle stops-slightly raised or indented sections of wood -to secure each bottle and prevent it from rolling from side to side. A slight tilt to the shelf allows you to display labels while keeping the bottles' corks submerged and their ullage below the shoulders.
Case storage means either freestanding units secured to a wall or deep recessed shelves built into a wall. Wooden Bordeaux cases are packed with their bottles lying horizontally, and shelves to hold them should accommodate cases set in that position. Case storage is nearly as efficient as individual bottle racking, and it also adds visual interest by showing each winery's insignia branded on its cases.
Wooden Bins
Wooden wine storage bins are another way to create visual interest in your cellar or other wine storage location, and they can be easily configured to store multiple and odd-shaped or oversized bottles. Most bins are either rectangular or diamond shaped, and they hold bottles horizontally, stacked directly on top of one another. It is generally best to store one type of wine in a bin, avoiding the necessity of shuffling one wine to access another. Use bins to divide different wines, varietals, or vintages.
Use caution when you store wine in bins. When bottles are stacked horizontally they can easily slide out of the bin; this is especially true of tapered bottles such as those commonly used for Burgundy or white wines. Bottles in bins also touch one another; use care when you stack them in the bins to avoid breakage.
Rectangular Bins:
Rectangular bins typically are four bottles wide and three bottles high, and they hold a full case of loose bottles. They also can be built in a variety of other shapes, sizes, and designs. Most are open-that is, without sides, a solid back, or even a top-allowing the wall behind the racks to contrast with the bottles, but some feature glass-front doors that help keep the bottles free of dust, hold them in place, and permit easy viewing and selection.
Freestanding bins are more akin to furniture or the cabinet islands found in kitchens, and they often include storage drawers, space to hang glassware, and a table- or countertop for opening and decanting wines or for quick tastings. Wine storage, however, remains the priority; configure your bins to accommodate as many bottles as possible, fit otherwise unused spaces in your cellar, and retain easy access to your wine. Consider using double-deep designs that store bottles nose-to-bottom.
Diamond Bins:
Diamond bins are a visually appealing option for wine storage. Left backless and open, they allow contrasting wall colors or other features in the room or wine cellar to shine through the open bin, can be structured for use as room dividers, and facilitate airflow through the racking to keep the bottles at proper aging temperature and humidity. As a pure design feature, they also help break up the monotony of a long wall of individual wine bottle racks.
Custom-built diamond bins accommodate the unique and special needs of your wine collection. Built as open boxes, they are fitted with diagonal inserts that securely hold multiple bottles in a horizontal position. Some diamond bins come with half-bin dividers that slide vertically or horizontally into the diamond, dividing it into two sections. Plan to stock each section or the entire bin with the same wine. That way, you can remove the top-most bottles instead of searching the bin for the label you desire.
Build your diamond bins of the same materials and with the same attention to detail as your other racking components for a consistent look. Mix bins and shelves with racks for individual bottles, countertops, archways, and case storage to create visual interest in your wine room. Use bins for long-term storage and aging, then move bottles to individual racks for easier access as the wine matures.
Wooden Individual Bottle Racks
Wine racking systems designed to hold individual bottles are the most common and generally considered the best home for your wine. By far the most modular of all storage options, they can be built to conform to almost any room dimension or configuration. Wooden bottle racks permit air circulation around each bottle, secure the bottles in a stable location free of breakage, and accommodate small or large collections in an efficient, single- or double-deep, free-standing or wall-mounted system with maximum flexibility.
Most wooden bottle racks are open front and back. They hold each bottle horizontally with side rungs along their entire length. The distance between the vertical uprights are wider than the bottle diameter, while the spaces between the rungs are narrower. Individual bottle racks are often built as a complete rack system that extends vertically and horizontally along a wall. Modules are assembled right in the wine cellar, tilted up against the wall, and secured to the room's structure with screws into the framing behind the wallboard, or they are placed freestanding in a back-to-back configuration and anchored to central supports. Fasten multiple racks together before you secure them to the wall.
Measuring about 12 square inches (77 cm2) at their openings, the narrow dimensions of each individual rack assembly allows you to wrap modules around outside and inside corners in pleasing curved configurations; simply install pairs of ladders, taper the side rails, or build them up to maintain the proper width to securely hold each bottle.
Bottle racking systems are commonly one bottle deep and extend 12 to 14 inches (30 to 36 cm) from the wall. Two-bottle-deep configurations, 24 to 28 inches (61 to 71 cm), are ideal for below-counter locations. Use them as you would wall-mounted base kitchen cabinets. Inventory and record your wine collection to identify and find bottles placed behind others in a two-deep racking system.
From the book The Home Wine Cellarby Perry Sims et al. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by arrangement with Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group,www.perseusbooks.com. All rights reserved.