We’re building a house in FL which means no under-ground cellar, of course. One of the house plans in the neighborhood we really like (we’re trying to “tweak” a plan as opposed to full design build) has an elevator shaft which essentially functions as two large closets unless you actually install the elevator. I was thinking this could be a fun wine cellar. Maybe some stone paneling on the walls, wood racks and a spiral staircase all the way to the top?
In any case, if anyone has done this, I’m curious what your bottle capacity is, or if there’s a good way to calculate capacity based on wall square footage? I’d want racks to fit basically any 750 or 1.5L bottle with maybe some shelves on top for larger formats if necessary.
Navigating a spiral staircase, while holding bottles of wine in your hands, plus maybe some non-trivial alcohol in your brain, may be more frequent yet difficult than you imagine now. Pass, unless broken bottles and bones sound good at a dinner party.
Have the elevator installed with two doors. Install the wine cellar on the side of the rear door. Have the elevator programmed to simulate the elevator going to the “basement.” All it will do is bump the elevator and then the rear door will open and you can walk into your “basement”cellar. Voila the $90,000 solution to a functional design problem you didn’t know you had.
I read about this as an option offered by an Arizona custom home builder many years ago.
Not sure an elevator shaft would accommodate a spiral staircase.
Anyway, the easiest way to calculate how much racking you can get in a rough way is to figure that racks will be about 1 foot deep, and you need to leave room for a door and forget the corners (curved racks take up almost as much space from either end as they get you in terms of bottle space). Then figure each linear foot of racking can hold a about 3 bottles wide x 3 bottles per foot of height (less once you start with mags and such).