So We Built a Joseph & Curtis Wine Cellar

I was surprised to see, during my research last year, that there isn’t much here on working with Joseph & Curtis, which are, for my money, builders of the best-looking wine cellars out there. You can see their pics widely on Houzz (where I found them) and also on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

The cellar is now done, and I documented the process in pics and wanted to share it here for anyone thinking about installing a significant cellar. This will be a bit different than the usual cellar build threads, because the work is already done, and I’m moved in. But I’ll try to take you through it step by step over several days. Also, I did not DO any of this work. We had it built for us, but managed the entire process closely. More on this below and throughout the thread.

To note: the only relationship I have with the company is that I paid them handsomely to build my cellar. I am getting nothing for this post.

An interesting complexity in our project is that J&C is based in New Jersey and does most of its working the NY / NJ area. I live in the Chicago area. I never met them. We talked on the phone a lot. But they never saw my space in person. Essentially, I GC’d the project, and had a solid carpenter who did much of the work (thankfully) but I had to coordinate all the other tradespeople. And we had every single tradesman in that room that would have worked on building a new house from scratch. All for one room.

A tiny bit about me: I am the opposite of handy, and I’m really busy running a consulting practice, with absolutely no time or ability to build something like this out myself. Even if I wanted to, and had the time, I have absolutely zero talent for doing this kind of thing. But researching the right contractor and paying for things to get done – THIS I am good at!

Here is the before picture – this was used as an office. The room is 17x15, and as you can see it had four windows AND a fireplace.

I think you can click on these pics to see them bigger.
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And here a couple pics of the end result. As built, it holds around 2,900 bottles:
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In the rest of the thread, I’ll take you through our goals for the cellar, how we planned what we wanted, the entire process. If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Why did we build a cellar?

We moved about a year ago. At our old house, we had a 900-bottle temperature controlled cellar which was a converted walk-in closed in our basement. It filled up and I add additional racking to make it upwards of 1,200 bottles. That filled up too. This cellar is pictured in my profile pic. It was a functional space only. I’d walk in, select a bottle and walk out.

Then we moved.

No cellar in the new house, so we needed storage urgently…

We boxed up and moved about 100 boxes of wine, plus another 50 or so from the wineries which we never opened.

Here are some pics of our move…

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Our Goals For the Cellar

We wanted a space we could USE, which is different than the strictly functional space we had before.

We wanted a cellar we could hang out in, just my wife and I, or with company.

I needed a humidor for my cigars.

We wanted the space to look and feel good. Darker, not lighter.

And I wanted to maximize the storage as much as possible, because I know how I buy. Which is, a lot.

Wow. Impressive. Happy for you.
That is beautiful.

I want to see the rest of the house…

Is that wrong?

Nice looking cellar!

Nice work. It’s beautiful.

Cooling system? Insulation?

I always find that in a multi use room like this, one either compromises the wine or one’s comfort. Is it kept at 56 degrees or is it kept toasty with a roaring fireplace?

Fantastic job! Congratulations, looks beautiful. Enjoy her.

Why is it a she?? Not a him or it?

I am sorry, I am going to ask the crass question. How much did you end up spending?

I’ll try to quickly answer questions in-line and then dive deeper in the chronological story as we go.

Alan Weinberg: The fireplace was there, and I wasn’t interested in ripping it out. So we worked it into the design. Of course, I’d never turn the thing on now. It’s now a space that holds our wireless speaker, corks, and some important fallen soldier bottles. Plus I think the Chevron racking around it – which, currently, only Joseph & Curtis does, although I suspect it will catch on and become popular – looks pretty cool built around in.

The cellar is kept at 56 degrees at all times.
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Michael Monie:

Insulation: R-15 with double plastic vapor barrier – behind and in front.

Cooling system: Wine Guardian Split system DS088.

no compromises! I love it. Congratulations.

Thanks, enjoy!

Beautiful cellar. Congratulations. Use it in good health.

Demolition

The room was not insulated properly, nor was there a vapor barrier.

So, we had to take down the walls.

It felt weird taking down perfectly good drywall.

But it was necessary – for insulation, and vapor barrier, and ducting for the cooling, and plumbing for the water supply to the humidor, which is plumbed in and fills automatically with water that moves through a reverse-osmosis system. More on the humidor later.

It was messy…
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Gorgeous! flirtysmile With plenty room for more bottles! That’s a lot of cigars!

And keeping that Meiomi and Cupcake at a cool 56F is going to ensure fine drinking for many years to come!

neener

Looks great, nice work.