Innovative Saunas And Cellars Featured Wine Cellar [Coral Gables] (Residence)
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Wine is a lifestyle. It has a variety of scents and flavors and all of this is possible through the delicate balance of how its produced. It's important to maintain that balance to not end up accidentally ruining or damaging the wine.
This is also true for those wines that you keep as an investment and are meant to age over several years. You would want to have protective storage for your valuables and so you should always consider getting protective storage for your precious and delightful wine collection.
What goes into proper wine storage?
Wine needs to be stored at a specific temperature and humidity. The best is around 55 to 60 degrees, with minimal fluctuations. That means the temperature needs to stay constant. If it starts to cross 60 degrees, it can start deteriorating the wine, at an exponential level for each additional degree.
Humidity is another item to consider and it needs to stay around 70% humidity to keep the cork expanded and as air-tight as possible. It also helps the cork from drying out which can lead to other complications as well.
It can go higher, but there are some cases where mold can start to grow. The mold is benign towards the wine, but can be unpleasant to look at and will require safe removal before consuming the wine. Better to keep your wine ecosystem as stable as possible.
Another item to consider is the light. Light and UV rays specifically can actually rearrange the molecular structure of the wine, and change everything about it, from its taste to its mouthfeel.
It also can prematurely age the wine, and not all wines can last very long. Having the space where the wine storage will happen should be constantly dark, with minimal lighting only to view and select a wine, and then turn off the lights once again.
Sometimes, especially with white wines, we tend to store them in a refrigerator or someplace cold, because we want to enjoy them at a cooler temperature.
That's ok for a little bit, but long-term storage over a few days will also start to affect those wines. The vibrations of the refrigerator and the smells or odors in the fridge can both adversely affect the flavors and structure of the wine.
There’s also additional consideration in how to store wine and at what angle. Storing wine upright does nothing for it except leave a potential gap for air to fill in through the porous cork.
Wine should at the minimum be stored at a horizontal angle, and benefits even more at a 45-degree angle, cork side down. This helps keep that cork airtight with the wine itself pushing against it.
How to store wine properly?
Unless you want to enjoy wine properly purchased one bottle at a time, consideration should be given to getting a wine storage system in your home. Yet the major issue that happens is that wine storage or wine cellars are not a common fixture in most homes, and can be a daunting option to consider building out.
Who has that concrete stone cellar to begin building out a wine cellar to store those wines? One can assume not many.
That's where a customized wine cellar can come in. Thanks to some modern innovations, and fully understanding what goes into proper wine storage, and what makes a wine cellar such an ideal location, it can be done in various different locations in the home.
A wine cellar traditionally comes from favorable conditions in Europe where the temperature and humidity are maintained by natural elements and stored via underground stone cellars.
This isn't always possible in every region as the natural conditions are not a guarantee. What we can do instead is artificially recreate those settings, and actually maintain it better, since we can actually keep the consistency of temperature, humidity, lighting, vibrations, and aromas all synced up and not changing.
What we do at Innovative Saunas & Cellars is taking what you have, which is space, and handle the rest for you. As you can see in the example image, what we have done is to convert a bedroom to the perfect modern-day cellar.
Want to know more about the process we go through in order to build one of our custom wine cellars?
In the gallery below we’ve included photos of our custom wine cellar building process showing the space: before, during, and after our team of wine cellar builders put their high level of craftsmanship into the room.
All of the elements that can add variance can be removed as needed. In this instance, we simply had to remove all the drywall to help with the temperature and humidity management.
What we then did was add closed cell insulation to take back temperature control into our hands as we see fit. Then we do some electrical renovation to help accommodate the LED lighting (which is much better than traditional lighting solutions or natural light). From there we installed a whisper kool Quantum split system to keep it at a constant, never shifting 55 degrees.
Add to that some additional insulation from the glass doors and make it nearly airtight to regulate the airflow and thus the humidity. Now you have yourselves a wine cellar that can basically be constructed from any spare space you have in your home, whether it's a spare bedroom or a den, or some other unused area. We convert it into a traditional and modern-looking space with forwarding racks that will help keep it at the right angle for proper storage.
In addition, the Vintage view labels and information will be easily visible so you will be able to easily find that wine bottle you want to use for the day. We also added some traditional wooden racks to provide that aesthetic look, while placing backlit wall panels so that they aren't glaring on your wine bottles but still allow you to view your collection easily.
Not only do you get a fantastic-looking wine cellar that fits the confines of your available space, but our construction will help maintain the longevity and usability of your wines as long as their actual shelf life is.
Plus since our systems also handle the humidity and keep it at around the 70% range, no need to start getting unappealing mold on some of your collection, keeping the aesthetics of the location at the top for yourself and when you have guests over.
Want to see what the finished product looks like?
We’ve included a gallery below with photos of this custom wine cellar in Coral Gables, Florida. You can see the level of craftsmanship and quality design that goes into each of our custom built wine cellars.
How long can wine last?
This is an excellent question, as many believe that wine can last indefinitely and gain better flavors and even value in some cases. That’s absolutely true for some types of wines, and there are even some brokers out there that can help have you purchase those wines as an investment.
Yet those need to come directly from vintners and brokers that are specifically in the business of wine investments. When that is not the case, most wines actually only last a few years. Even less when they aren’t being properly stored.
That means for those that are serious about their wine, and want to ensure that they are able to enjoy it during the lifetime of that wine, should always consider proper storage space for it.
It's also a fantastic way to add value to your home, as it is a unique setup, that allows for a controlled climate environment, which can help when it comes to selling your home.
