I keep some of my wines in a passive cellar at a friend’s weekend house. The natural temperature has stayed between 46F and 58F, which is great. However, the humidity is extremely high because the cellar was build with some of the bedrock exposed. The unglazed tile floor is moist to the touch at some points in the year and water kind of oozes out of the rocks.
I build some little pallets to raise the cases off the floor, and put some stacks on top of plastic milk boxes. Everything was fine for more than two years. But in recent months I started getting a lot of mold build-up in some cases.
I realize that the ultimate solution may be a dehumidifier, but I’d like to get the mold under control, and I’m not sure how to do that.
Would mopping the tile floor with bleach help?
I’ve considered buying those Weinboxes, which would allow air to circulate more freely
FYI, several wood crates that were at the bottom of their stacks on the pallets have gotten particularly moldy inside. And the pallets, which were supposed to provide some air flow, proved to be a perfect mold breeding ground. Plainly they weren’t high or open enough.
The cardboard boxes seem immune to the mold, though the cardboard weakens and even delaminates over time because of the dampness.
The way to get rid of humidity is a dehumidifier. I suppose a fan could help distribute the moisture throughout the cellar better, but clearly the basement is rather humid and the floor is cold, such that the moisture condenses out, stimulating mold growth.
John - you get TCA when you combine mold and bleach. I don’t think that should matter, as your wine already has corks in the bottles, but if you care, use trisodium phosphate. You can get it at Home Depot or Ace.
Or you can ignore it. There’s plenty of mold in most of the caves I’ve seen in Spain and Hungary. If you have black mold, you want to get someone else to get rid of it - no need to breathe that stuff yourself!
Our basement was quite moldy at one point and we had it removed to preserve the safety of the house. We had to hire people and it was an expensive process. Dehumidifiers will keep humidity from developing so that the cellar develops mold. I do not believe they are powerful enough to make it so dry as to dry the mold out, nor would you want a wine cellar that dry.
Will bleach do that with all molds? I always assumed it was some fungus unique to cork. But trisodium phosphate sounds safer.
I can’t really ignore it because it’s producing a thick layer of spores on the wood boxes, pallets and some bottles. Some bottles I brought down to the city a month ago have infected my wine cave at home.
It does look as if I should get rid off all the wood – boxes and pallets. But then I’ll definitely need something plastic Weinboxes or metal shelves because I’ve got cases stacked up.
As for moldy European cellars, I’ve been in my share. But their bottles are unlabeled, so they the luxury of washing them until they’re pristine.
FYI, here’s what I’m up against – a rather unique cellar construction:
(To reassure you, and protect my reputation, the box of Apothic Inferno in the upper right is NOT mine. I think it’s left over from a party my friend’s 20-something son had. I’ve been trying to educate him but it’s been going slowly.)
It’s not just the labels that are the issue. I need to bring it under some kind of control so the place doesn’t become a health hazard. (I probably should have worn a surgical mask when I was cleaning up this weekend.)
Also, mold likes to be enclosed, so I’d be hesitant to wrap any bottles that might already have some mold on them.
What do people think about using Weinboxes or plastic milk crates so there’s air flow? Do you think that would help if I can get the overall mold level down?
Sounds like you’re aware of this, but I used to stack cardboard boxes sideways in a passive cellar with medium humidity. After time some of the boxes at the bottom started to buckle, with some bottles threatening to slide out. Those have been replaced with styrofoam mailers without the cardboard outer- the only time I was glad to have shippers that will never degrade! While these aren’t air tight, I couldn’t tell you if mold would become an issue over time.
I don’t think you could seal it, because the rock appears to be somewhat porous. I think you’d have to build a moisture barrier box/wall around it and the floor, and perhaps the walls.
Now that you mention it, though, there were mold issues in a basement bedroom here and a contractor who was working on some other projext sprayed some kind of bleach on the exposed soil in a utility room adjacent to the bedroom. That and a good airing out in the summer seemed to make a big difference. That bedroom doesn’t stink of mold the way it did three years ago.
FYI, I left the cellar door open overnight, since the air was quite dry yesterday. That brought the humidity down from nearly 100% to ~75%. The only problem is that I was awoken by a text alert from my temperature/humidity sensor at 6 am saying the temp had dropped to 38F. It’s inching back up toward 40 now that the door has been shut for six hours. I’d guess that it will be back up to the high 40s by week’s end. Even though it wasn’t built with any sophistication, and the door isn’t well insulated, it’s quite good on temperature. In a heatwave in August, it maxed out at 58F.
a properly built and ventilated cellar has no issues with humidity. Additionally, there’s no ventilation in the clay pipes (those are drainage pipes and historically only used because of the cheap nature of the product) a proper cross ventilation and climate control would solve the issue but would entail a structural construction effort. A powerful aircon system that drains the excess humidity to the adjecent room would be a work around as well.
That’s an easy answer to a question I didn’t ask. Everyone hopes for temp and humidity control, but this isn’t my house. My question was simply how to get the mold under control. It wasn’t a problem for the first two years my wine was in there and I’m hoping to get it back to manageable levels.
(FYI, the clay pipes are simply storage slots that my friend uses. They’re closed at the back. They don’t seem to have any mold!)
It’s inching back up toward 40 now that the door has been shut for six hours. I’d guess that it will be back up to the high 40s by week’s end. Even though it wasn’t built with any sophistication, and the door isn’t well insulated, it’s quite good on temperature. In a heatwave in August, it maxed out at 58F.![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}