$80k Wine Cellar

[Patrick_Taylor]

My cellar cost me ~10k for racking and holds more than 30k bottles (it’s just a large unfinished room in a basement). It uses air conditioning for active cooling in the summer and a humidifier in the winter. Temperature regulation is quite good.

First of all, I aspire to have a collection like that someday. Second, where were you able to get racking for $0.33/bottle?

It’s not all racked and I don’t have anywhere near 30k bottles. I just have room for that much. Our floor plan is mostly 1 story so I have a very big basement which is 2/3 dedicated to wine storage.

I have a lot of stuff stacked in domaine wine boxes, OWC, and original cardboard boxes, but have 20 144 bottle Lockwood metal shelves and some other shelving. Also a couple locked 600 btl le caches in a separate locked room for other stuff and a few other wine coolers.

Cellar is not at all pretty but holds a lot of wine at good temp/humidity.

Hmm. You should turn it into an AirWBnB.

[Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m]

That is high-but based on my experience this year the contractors have plenty of work, are turning away work, and can charge what they want to see if the can get it.

I have a good friend who helped with ours. Took over 5 months to complete as there was a lot of wait time for the labor to be available, and waiting on materials.

This is 10’ x 6’ x 9’-racks hold 900 bottles. Can store more up top if we want to. $20k all in.
56280984-E7A9-4EE0-A489-7E3238891A32.jpegA36A9014-B161-4AF1-9342-441C5F019191.jpeg

What are the interior measurements of your enclosure? Is it the 10’x6’x9’, or are those measurements for the racks?

[Mark_Golodetz]

If low humidity ruined the wine it would only have been by drying out the corks. So how were the corks of those 6 bottles? Normal or dry and crumbly?

I didn’t watch him open the wines as it was a blind tasting. This was in the 1990s, and they were Cabernets from California probably from the eighties. Long time ago. so my memory is a little fuzzy. I do recall one flight was Laurel Glen, a favorite then, and two of the wines seemed old.

I have found that in high humidity the labels go to hell, but there is often little or no ullage. I am not sure you can say the opposite is true in low humidity, but I would not be surprised if that was the case.

[Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m]

That seems outrageous. I built a 12x6 cellar for $10k all in including racking, cooling, and building materials. It isn’t a showpiece, but the fit and finish is far above utilitarian.

I did do all the labor myself. Would have been $20k otherwise.

Is yours 6’ across? If “yes,” do you have any issues accessing bottles in the rows closest to the floor?

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

We’re planning to finish our walkout basement and I’d like to add what I believe is a small wine cellar 7x7x10 in a nice corner of the basement. That would be the max size.

I reached out to a local wine cellar company in the Boston area and they quoted $80 to $100k for the wine cellar.

Seeing this is my first wine cellar I was expecting a much lower price range. Do wine cellars really cost this much?

At that range I’m probably looking at a DIY cellar with assistance from my general contractor.

That price is ridiculous. The cellar is smaller than mine by about 25 square feet, I have double deep racking (more costly than average), and all-in it cost me less than half that much. Contact Chris Kravitz, who is a member here and whose business is building cellars and get an estimate from him.

[T_Williams]

That seems outrageous. I built a 12x6 cellar for $10k all in including racking, cooling, and building materials. It isn’t a showpiece, but the fit and finish is far above utilitarian.

I did do all the labor myself. Would have been $20k otherwise.

Is yours 6’ across? If “yes,” do you have any issues accessing bottles in the rows closest to the floor?

I don’t have any issues getting to the lower few bottles. I do stand sideways and bend over to get things though, there isn’t enough room to face the bottles forward and squat down. I do keep my cellar tracker fairly well up to date too, so I am not hunting and pecking as much as grab and go with bottles. I wouldn’t want to be pulling and looking at bottles on the bottom few shelves for 30 minutes. I have, what I call an overflow “OF” rack for that, where daily drinkers, orphan bottles, gifts, etc… get put out to pasture.I do stand in front of that rack for 30 minutes scratching my head asking what to drink.

I did also just run down to the cellar and grab a measurement, 29.5’’ rack to rack. german reisling bottles stick out an extra 1.5", but I try to put them in the corners where I can slide the whole bottle in.

[Jon_Lawrence]

We’re planning to finish our walkout basement and I’d like to add what I believe is a small wine cellar 7x7x10 in a nice corner of the basement. That would be the max size.

I reached out to a local wine cellar company in the Boston area and they quoted $80 to $100k for the wine cellar.

Seeing this is my first wine cellar I was expecting a much lower price range. Do wine cellars really cost this much?

At that range I’m probably looking at a DIY cellar with assistance from my general contractor.

I assume they will be supplying metal racks finished is 24k gold for that price? Seriously though, that quote is ridiculous. Sounds like you are willing to do some of the work yourself and that you have a GC who can help you so I would seriously think about doing this yourself with your GC.

I am on my 4th cellar now. My current one is in a new construction house that GC’d myself so I can give you some decent insight.

You are basically going to build 2x4 framed walls, add some lights/outlets, spray foam the entire shell, install a door, a cooling unit and maybe some tile and racks. Given the size you are contemplating, I would go with an off-the-shelf wine cellar cooling unit that will fit in an opening in the wall. I have used Whispercool units. The older ones tended to die after 5 years, they have gone through a few redesigns since then, but when you compare it to the cost of installing a specialized split system, annual maintenance, etc, you will come out ahead with the Whisperkool, even if you had to replace it every 5 years. The unit will warm the basement slightly, but in MA that should not be an issue. Figure $5k for the framing/drywall/painting, $1k for electrical, $2k for closed cell spray foam, $1k for the door, $4k for the Whisperkool. Excluding tile floor and racking, you are under $15k for an operational wine cellar. Costs are all local, but your GC should be able to give you some pretty firm prices and he could probably do most of the framing/drywall/painting himself with your help. I pay $8sf for tile installation, the actual tile can run you anywhere from $2 to $20/sf. For racking, I like 3 deep vintage view racks. They are very space efficient and allow you to see the labels as opposed to capsules.

Alternatively, you could go with stand alone wine fridge (I have had good luck with Eurocave). The downside to that is we all seem to outgrow them eventually. Specialized wine cellar contractors are still an option (excluding Mr. $80k), but they make more sense when you are building bigger, require specialized cooling/humidification and want a showcase, pimp my house, custom racking type of a cellar.

The attached pictures show the vintage views racks in action. The wall with the presentation racks was 13’ long and held almost 700 bottles which is why I think these are very space efficient.

So the question now is what wines are you going to buy with the $60k you will be saving?

[Mark_Golodetz]

I agree the price is ludicrous. Around $160 a bottle. I am not sure where you live, but there must be commercial storage around, and you can a large Eurocave for $10k that will store half the bottles.

EuroCave Pure Double L Wine Cellar

Or go the whole hog…

EuroCave Revelation L Quad Wine Cellar

[Tom_R_W]

Wow! I thought this thread was going to be about a cellar with $80K worth of wine (which seems normal to me), not $80K to build (which seems insane)!

[AndrewH]

Agree with others this seems way high, even for a showpiece cellar.

If you have a GC who can help, it’s not super tough. You need to frame the walls, spray in foam insulation, hang a door, install some flooring, deal with cooling and lighting, and then buy some racks. The walls, insulation, door, and flooring can be basic contractor stuff or DIY. Functional lighting is the same. Cooling for a smaller space like you want can be a through the wall wine cooler unit or even window AC + Coolbot. Racking will probably be 50% of the expense, but various places can get it to you and you can assemble or pay contractor to do it (again - pretty basic Ikea level stuff). There are a ton of threads on here (you can look for mine - the preceding basically describes what I did . . . for my time and about $3000 in materials when they were more affordable, and more than that for racking).

[John_Morris]

Where are you? Near the coast in Portugal?

300 meters away from the sea, yes. We do have a dehumidifier downstairs, which helps with stabilizing the temperature even further (we have mild winters and cool summers).

That is a very different, less extreme climate than the Northeast U.S.

[MChang]

We’re planning to finish our walkout basement and I’d like to add what I believe is a small wine cellar 7x7x10 in a nice corner of the basement. That would be the max size.

I reached out to a local wine cellar company in the Boston area and they quoted $80 to $100k for the wine cellar.

Seeing this is my first wine cellar I was expecting a much lower price range. Do wine cellars really cost this much?

At that range I’m probably looking at a DIY cellar with assistance from my general contractor.

BILD wine room might work well for you.

[Jonathan_Jetter]

I think $100k is nuts, especially for something utilitarian.

Constructing purpose-built recording studio space comes in at a lower price per square foot. And that’s with de-coupled floors, triple-thick walls, soundproofing, etc.

[John_Morris]

Why not attempt to determine temperature and humidity ranges over the next several weeks/months to determine what is absolutely necessary with respect to a build out?

I put a wireless temp/humidity tag in the basement over a year ago. The humidity stays in a good range all year but the temperature gets in the low 70s on hot summer days.

Did it drop at night? If it stays that high at night, the warmth will build up in the basement floor.

Something I learned is that concrete conducts heat moderately well, so if the rest of the basement is in the 70s, that will slowly be conveyed to the floor of the wine storage area – partly offsetting any cooling you get due to the ground under the floor and the exterior walls. My wine room floor doesn’t get over the high 50s in the summer, but it’s not cold enough to keep the room as a whole below 60.

None of that matters if you’re going to install a cooling unit, but it is highly relevant if you’re trying to go passive, as I have.

[D_Zurcher]

That is high-but based on my experience this year the contractors have plenty of work, are turning away work, and can charge what they want to see if the can get it.

I have a good friend who helped with ours. Took over 5 months to complete as there was a lot of wait time for the labor to be available, and waiting on materials.

This is 10’ x 6’ x 9’-racks hold 900 bottles. Can store more up top if we want to. $20k all in.
56280984-E7A9-4EE0-A489-7E3238891A32.jpegA36A9014-B161-4AF1-9342-441C5F019191.jpeg

What are the interior measurements of your enclosure? Is it the 10’x6’x9’, or are those measurements for the racks?

Actual interior measurement is 61" deep, 121" wide, 108" high. When I ordered the racks we used 60" x 120" x 78" high.

[Adam_For]

yes pricing sounds about right

[HoosJustinG]

This sounds like a “I don’t actually want this job” price to me

[Victor_Hong]

We’re planning to finish our walkout basement and I’d like to add what I believe is a small wine cellar 7x7x10 in a nice corner of the basement. That would be the max size.

I reached out to a local wine cellar company in the Boston area and they quoted $80 to $100k for the wine cellar.

Seeing this is my first wine cellar I was expecting a much lower price range. Do wine cellars really cost this much?

At that range I’m probably looking at a DIY cellar with assistance from my general contractor.

For this price to store a small collection, just go out to restaurants with good wine lists.
You would not only save money to drink the same stuff, but get free food, service, and clean-up too, and any corked bottles are not your loss.

[Peter_Chiu]

Are you looking for it to be a showplace, or do you want good storage with utilitarian looks?

Just looking for good storage. The GC we expect to hire knows some of the basic work that is needed.

It is an actual basement? One corner of my “finished” basement serves as my wine cellar. It ranges from 55-65 degrees through the year. Lots of stacked cardboard boxes. It cost me $0 (other than the cost of the house, of course), is fully functional, and has worked flawlessly for protecting and aging wine for the last eight years. So if you are just looking for good storage…

The history of my wine cellar is similar to ChrisJamas.

I live in Montreal, Quebec and my cellar was designed and constructed by me personally - after reading the book : Making Sense of Wine by Kramer - page 14 Chapter 2 : Wine in the Cellar and society; and then Chapter 5 : The Wine Cellar - a Brief History.

After many considerations and after discussion with my wife…I settled down with one main purpose : looking for good storage ( and nothing else).

It is in the part of the unfinished basement. It ranges from 55 - 62 through the year ( with a too short summer, may I add ). Lots of stacked cardboard boxes, wood shelves and concreted wine tubes ( disposed by friends ) and an enclosure of 12 ft by 12 ft of 2 concrete walls and 2 plastic curtains. It cost me around $100 in materials ( plus the cost of the house, of course). It is fully functional and it has worked flawless for protecting and aging for the last 35 years of most of my burgundy wines - in a similar environment ( or situation ) like the natural wine cave in Gervey. I love it …and friends visiting it was wondering …what I was doing !!

[James_Sanders]

Corner area bounded on two sides by underground walls. Had a carpenter build racks and shelving and then supplemented with some DIY racking from https://www.winecellarinnovations.com/wine-racks. We’re in the Pacific Northwest, so passive delivers 55 or below 7-8 months a year. For the warmer months, we use a $250 Kenmore air conditioner for cooling. Though you need to trick it by putting a heat source near the thermostat in order get down to 55 in the warmer months. But when you hear all the horror stories about the fussy, specialty wine cooling units, the Kenmore seems like the way to go.

I had a friend who also used an ac unit. The problem was that the unit took away much of the humidity, and although he tried to compensate, I was never entirely convinced that the wines had evolved well. In one tasting, six out of eleven wines were way more advanced than they should have been.

More than 15 years in and I’ve yet to see a single bottle show any signs of premature aging.