Some questions regarding a home wine cellar (2000 cuft):
I am aware of Wine Racks America and Vigilant as two options to order racks from. Anything else worth considering? There is a local option of Joseph and Curtis but they are 1.5x - 2x the price.
Both WRA and Vigilant have a free design option - I don’t mind paying for the design and getting some more attention. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.
Heat load calculation from Wine Guardian and Whisperkool have come back very differently. Wine Guardian says about 4500 but and Whisperkool says about 6400 BTUs. For a ducted split unit I looked at Wine Guardian DS088 and Whisperkool Quantum 9000. WG has the benefit of an integrated humidifier. It would be great to get any inputs on these two brands.
I’ve had cellars done in two different houses and used WRA for the racks both times (roughly 1600 bottles-in-racks capacity first and then roughly 3000 bottles-in-racks capacity the second time). Good experiences both times. I didn’t use design services, but instead measured myself and figured out what I would need give the space and layout (I’d suggest give some thought to half-bottle or magnum racks if you have different sized bottles, oversized bottles of Burg/Champs, etc.). The racks are designed to fit next to each other and be scalable. I found they work well and leave plenty of space on top to put OWCs or other random things. My first cellar was all double-deep racks and the second cellar was single-deep – I prefer the single for organizational purposes, but it depends on what works best for your space.
I’ve also used WhisperKool products in both cellars. The first had a through-the-wall unit that was like an A/C unit. I had it ducted out through the bathroom next to the cellar with the duct running out to an exterior wall. The only minor complaint was the need to have a bucket for the drip line and to dump the bucket out periodically. The unit was in the first-floor of a garage in SoCal and worked without any problems from 2012 until 2019. My current cellar setup has two split-system Quantum 12000FD units (we needed the larger size because the wall on each of the cellar sides is solid glass, which doesn’t hold the lower temperature as long). The units can be a bit noisy when running, but have worked well for several years.
I’d suggest hiring someone who has built a couple cellars or someone willing to research and learn about it to get things right in terms of the water vapor seals, insulation, door sealing, etc.
Rosehill is a good option for relatively inexpensive modular racking. I have their racks in my cellar. They have one size that is particularly space-efficient if you have a lot of Bordeaux and/or riesling (or others in lightweight Bdx bottles) and is much less efficient if you have a lot of Burgundy-shaped bottles or heavy Bdx-shaped bottles (esp US wines). That would be the one that holds 5 (or 4) bottles per row in 16-inch wide single rows.
I had some issues with my Wine Guardian unit, partially driven by incorrect information they gave me about installation, and I found their customer service to be a bit rough while trying to resolve it. The unit is working ok now, and it seems like a good product, so I don’t have a huge complaint. But I will say that when/if I build a new cellar, I will probably lean toward other brands. Take from that what you will.
I’ve used Wine Racks America on my original cellar and would echo the comments on the positive experience. I used the design services which was very speedy and helpful in thinking through what was required. When I sold my house in the Spring, I moved the racks to my new home but the new home owner liked the set up so much that they wanted to be put in touch with the cellar vendor and I had lost the original design in the 3 or so years it had been since I had it built. So, I called them and they still had the records of my purchase with the design document and resent it to me so I could forward to the new owner. I would also add that during the “build” process which took a few weeks, they kept sending me updates in email so I could keep track of where the racks were in the process.
I used a place called WineStackers out of Wisconsin and was very happy with them. I’m in Minneapolis, so the owner was able to drive over and do the custom install himself. Not sure how that would work if you are not in the region. He only works with pine, as far as I know, but does have finish options.
I have a Wine Guardian unit. Generally happy with it, but it does run quite loud. I needed service on it following a coolant leak, but the service tech, who wasn’t affiliated with Wine Guardian, said it looked like it may have been damaged in shipping or install. So can’t really hold that against the company.
Are you just looking for racks or cellar construction/installation? Chris Kravitz is a member here, everyone I know who has ever used him has raved about him (disclosure he is a friend).
It sounds like it’s not the direction you’re leaning in, but I did also want to mention that I had a great experience working with Vigilant. I used their design service, though I also gave a lot of input on what I wanted, so the end result is a combination of what they came up with and what I thought worked best for my needs. We ended up having to make a modification to the racking after it had been installed, to deal with the aforementioned Wine Guardian issues, and Vigilant was great about getting the additional pieces designed, manufactured, and sent out promptly. I would definitely use them again, but I’m sure they aren’t the cheapest, so if budget is a primary concern, others may be a better choice.
Good, I found them to be very open to modifying their standard offerings, for example although my standard racks are double deep and they didn’t have double deep corners the CAD /Cam agent modified the plans to use single deep curves aligned with the double deep racks to make a smooth even front.
Resurrecting this thread to ask whether you ended up buying Vigilant racking and if you liked the end result? In planning phases for our cellar and I really like their options but can’t find much info on the size of the actual openings to know if they’d be more generous to fit wider/heavier bottles. (Planning ahead for more Lagier-Meredith Syrah…)
You didn’t ask me, but the slots in my Vigilant racking hold larger bottles fine. I can fit stuff like Ultramarine (and definitely syrah) in the slots without issue. I use magnum racking for things like Krug, but most bottles smaller than that are good in the normal slots. I don’t remember the size of the Lagier-Meredith Syrah bottles specifically, but Cellartracker tells me that I have two bottles of it in normal slots…
Thanks @SeanHarding! It’s the 3.5” bottles I was worried about, as we measured some of our existing Syrah and champagne at that size. They apparently fit in Vigilant standard racking, and your info confirms it so that’s great. Hate to think about spending thousands on racking is it won’t fit our wine.
As an aside, it’s been basically a week since I found out this WB board even existed and already we are building a cellar (granted, that was in the works already) and will have bought 8 more cases between Sonoma Coast Pinot allocations we just learned about on WB and BerserkerDay… tale as old as time around here, I’m sure, but thanks and cheers anyway
Here are a couple of photos of a Lagier Meredith syrah bottle in ours (this doesn’t seem that big to me, but I’m not sure if they use more than one bottle shape), and also one of an Ultramarine, which is quite a bit larger. I’d say the Ultramarine is really about the max. Those are big enough that sometimes they rub against the bottle in the slot above. But they do fit. I try to reserve the magnum slots for bottles that truly don’t fit in the normal slots.
Happy to take any other measurements or photos that would be helpful to you.
I am working with Vigilant right now on a few custom cabinets. Their customer service in the design phase has been fantastic. Don’t hesitate to ask them directly for this information.
My cellar racking is from Wine Racks of America and they were great to work with as well. Provided these detail as well.
That said, getting real world feedback from the posters here is a good idea. Many were helpful for me.
