cellartracker dot com solved my problem. It’s a fantastic tool and also has a phone app, which makes removing a bottle a breeze at the time of consumption. You can get a free account, which I used for a couple of years, but I now pay the voluntary contribution to 1) support the platform because it’s worth it, and 2) unlock the “premium” features.
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So far so great. Yes, “Hack” wasn’t meant in a derogatory way, just looking for inventive solutions to be shared.
Joe, is that a cold cellar? Cement walls or tile? Can’t quite tell from photo.
Clint - very impressive. You have serious finishing skills.
Tim, that’s great. My crawlspace is just 52" high, so no chance of my doing that.
Gerhard, Any chance you would share a photo or two with a fellow M. Gros drinker?
No, (I´m already registered there … but didn´t find it suitable), the problem is simply to afford the neccessary time and care to update my access file (which otherwise works perfectly).
I´ll try to shoot a pic tomorrow …
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I’m with Gerhard. The question isn’t whether CT (or some other tool) provides a capability to keep track on what goes in and comes out of the cellar. Lots of tools do that. The problem is that the lazy SOB who owns the cellar – me – never makes the appropriate notations. I’m good about logging things I buy, less careful about marking things as delivered when received, and terrible at marking them when they are drunk. CT says I have way more wine than I do. 
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that is one of the most impressive self constructed cellars I’ve seen. Awesome
Thanks. I’ve thought about doing a thread of my start → finish pictures. Not as an ego stroke (ok, 1%), but to show that it’s not impossible for someone with no experience to build something nice. Go slow, think/measure twice and cut once.
You should.
No, that’s a CellarPro 1800 XT unit.
It would be great if we could get a thread going with people’s cellar builds (step-bu-step). I find these fascinating.
IMG link wouldn’t work due to some image sizing thingy- I am not bright enough to solve for that. Here is a raw link.
A flooded basement is an opportunity in disguise… Where do people stand on a split system versus all-in-one?
We moved in to our current house a little over two years ago. One of the first things I did was start building a cellar. At our previous house I had a passive cellar that was very simply constructed, at this house I decided to do a little more but still keep it relatively simple.
A portion of the old cellar
When we sold the house there were a few more cheaply constructed units built, total capacity of about 300 bottles. (I am not sure why this picture posted upside down)
The new cellar has official capacity of 400 but there are closer to 700.
The left side
The four to six bottle gaps on the left are for Becklyn and Myriad which should be arriving shortly.
The right side
Match up the bottles of Belle Glos (one of my wife’s selections) to get a better feel for the small size of the cellar.
The “deep cellar”. This is an area under the stairs that was sealed off when we bought the house, we thought it a shame not to utilize it. Over Thanksgiving I will build another rack on the left so the bottles are not simply stacked, they are hard to access right now.
I am 5’-4" and pretty fit so while this area is only about 36" tall and looks inaccessible, I can fit nicely.
We use a CellarPro 1800 XT to cool it. I have a Wireless Tag system to monitor it.
I framed, insulated, wired and sheetrocked it myself, though my wife helped me do the ceiling sheetrock. I finished the sheetrock myself but had someone else paint it as I hate painting. The flooring is floating cork. The light is on a timer and dimable. I have some finishing touches to do, a little trim here and there and I am going to build racking for 375’s, mainly Sauternes. I also want to leave room for a few glasses and a decanter.
Overall it is a ver compact space but it works for us. My wife had limited my to 365 bottles in stock but that went out the window when we sold the previous house and I knew I would behave more room in this one. In a way I would like a larger and nicer cellar, this one suits us well and I can afford to overstock it.
Along with storing chocolate and Nola’s olive oil, my wife sometimes stores fruit in the cellar. I am ok with anything other than peaches, I can’t stand the smell.
Wish I would have thought of that. ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Nice Paul. Your under the stair area is similar to what I have in my crawlspace, although I use some shelving vs. bottle racks. Works fine for me now (in my 40’s) but I suspect as I age, I’ll be less keen to use it much as it’s in a corner about 20 ft into the crawlspace, so I have to crawl 20 ft each way to access.
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Chris, I am 46 and agree it works for me now, in ten years maybe not. I only have about eight feet to crawl so it isn’t a big deal, 20-ft is huge. I keep trying to reduce my purchases and get my holdings below 600, but it is slow going.
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When you think you have more space than you need, you build it with 2X6 pine/fir and plan on renting out the left half as lockers. Carrie filled it up before I could install the locker doors and we are out of space.
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Far too many pretty cellars here. Behold, my basement. Wooden utility racks were there when we bought the house. Picked up a couple of additional racks from a guy on craigslist for $50 Totally passive-I imagine the fluctuation is something like 60-68. More than meets my needs.
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My cellar is very basic and completely overfilled and looks like a mess but with a little time I can find every single bottle that I have in CT. Cooling unit is at the other end
Very little fanciness but I love it
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All you need is a dark, cold, stable, humid room with a floor to stack cases on…
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