Cellar Construction advice: racking choices

Berserkers,

Getting ready to do a big home renovation and will finally have room for a real cellar. It’s an L-shaped room and I need to store a lot of bottles, so there are some challenges. Need to balance high storage volume with it actually looking nice and increasing the value of the house.

Will likely do a combination of double deep racking and some display racks. I have only a few dozen case OWC’s to accommodate but a fair number of mags, 3L and champers bottles to deal with.

Any thoughts on best traditional racking companies that have a good balance of affordability and aesthetics as well as good options? I have Vigilant and Apex on my radar. Any tricks and tips appreciated. I am good on insulation etc.

Thanks!

Hi. I have found a mix of single bottle racks, case racks and bins works best for me. About one third each.

I had custom-built traditional wooden racks in my cellar in NJ, including double-deep single slots, diamond bins and full case racks. They were very sturdy and practical. I found the mix of different racks met my needs well.

My home in Florida is contemporary, and since I don’t have a basement, I designed a glass-enclosed cellar integrated into the main living room and went with the vintage view double and triple racks there. I love the aesthetics, but getting the bottles in and out is difficult and a bit perilous! Totally impractical but eye-catching and gorgeous!

I would forego the display racks. They serve little useful purpose. Go with a combo of bins and individual racks. And on the bottom, you might want to leave enough space to put some boxes on wheels. That way if you have a few cases that you pick up for an event or something, or you have some really oddly shaped bottles or three liter bottles or whatever, you can slide them around and access them easily.

Utilize double deep as much as possible (to maximize space) and also either racks for mags or other storage method for mags.

I got mine from Apex (via Costco). They were great help on design and gave me multiple options for rack configurations. If you give them the room dimensions they will design layouts for you. Double deep racks are great and get a lot of bottles in a small space. Display racks are nice if you have a ton of space, otherwise they take a lot of room for just a few bottles. We put some bulk bins in our cellar, but I probably would not do it again. It always seems the bottle I want is on the bottom.

I have a similar situation and shaped room. Double deep on the long wall with regular sized racking that can fit “normal” champagne bottles, single deep on the short side of the L with room for larger champagne bottles and magnums, and some room on the floor for Weinboxes to add a bit of capacity. It’s fairly efficient, and it still looks pretty nice.

I stuck with individual bottle racking instead of X-bins because of earthquake risk in california. Each bottle is held in place with O-rings.

7FB5104E-EF1C-4D47-9E99-2943FDE34B29.jpeg
display racks waste space. Double deep bins below and bins above. Whoops—picture went sideways.

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better picture. Corners hold magnums. Double deep on left, single deep on right above bins to give some counter space.

I don’t see too many or any empty slots, Alan

completely empty today—spent the weekend (with help) moving the wine out, almost 350 cases, as we are moving. New cellar is bigger and being built. Every muscle and joint hurts today.

Any comment on pricing or quality of apex vs wine racks America?

Absolutely agree on skipping the display racks. I understand you want to make it pleasing to the eye for resale purposes, but a few keen choices on the racking, the floor treatment, the door and walls can make it a beautiful room without wasting precious space on display. We had diamond bins in the old cellar and generally hated them. In the new cellar we opted for basic rectangular open bin storage that can hold either cases in boxes, or loose bottles (like in Alan’s picture), so they are flexible. You never know if you might start buying more in 6 pack or case quantity. The bins are in addition to the double deep wooden racks, where most of the wine is stored. Bins are for cases, wine we have a lot of and reach for regularly, and large bottles.

If I started over with a clean sheet, I would do large square bins (double-deep) with wood dividers (see photo of Laurent Ponsot). The versatility of bins cannot be overstated as you can fit anything in one and the wood dividers seem to be a smart way to store bottles in bins.

Plus I would do some individual-bottle racks that are large enough for champagne and PYCM bottles. One attractive option is to do metal racks. I.e., commercial wine racks. Google Wine Racks by Marcus to see what I’m talking about. So instead of individual racking, you do metal racks that are one bottle high. You will see these in restaurants.

As one who has mostly single bottle racking I would strongly support those who advocate large open bins. My single bottle racking ins a pain in the a%# because only about half of my bottles fit into the racking cleanly.

I used wine racks America for a 2k bottle cellar and was very happy with the design, service (a rack got ‘lost’ in transit, and quantity for the price. Be warned, putting it all together is no small task.

Yes, that is a problem. We had ours custom made (really easy for a wood shop with the proper equipment, so can be less expensive than you might think, though of course not cheap) and could therefore dictate the exact size. We made sure our standard racks were big enough for our largest still bottles, had a different size for the champagne section, standard magnum size, and finally a specific magnum rack even larger than than standard champagne magnum rack just for Krug and Special Club magnums, which are huge.

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It was a while ago, but I recall Apex being more expensive that WRA. But doesn’t Apex come more fully assembled? Which is a serious consideration - not sure if Noah can afford to be banging fingers with a hammer.

As for increasing home value - good luck with that. Just hope it doesn’t decrease value too much relative to cost.

On single slot vs. bins - I think a big factor is whether your collection tends to be one or two bottles of each wine vs. case lots of each. Single bins offer flexibility, but also a hassle to organize and get out the bottles at the bottom (which matters less if they’re the same as on top).

From what I’ve been told a cellar is unlikely to increase the value of the home, and it could well eliminate some prospective buyers who don’t want the expense/work necessary to tear it all out.

One thing I would do over if I could would be to increase the percentage of rack space for halves and champagne/fat-ass burg bottles. What I purchased was made for standard bdx-style 705 bottles. It’s still the majority of available space but squeezing in the necessary racks for halves and bigger bottles has been a chore.

agree. Kidding oneself that home value is increased by a cellar. I just sold my home—the buyer will be ripping out the wine cellar to make a closet. But I’m having one built in the new home!