Modern and Contemporary Wine Cellar Cabinets and Designs
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Wine is no longer the stuffy beverage your parents drank, but the boisson de choix of Millennials and Gen Xers everywhere. There’s never been a more widespread, commonly-held interest in wine, both collecting and drinking, than now, but that hobby needs a storage place. Creating the perfect wine storage cellar cabinets that reflects the urbane sophistication of your interest is as simple as picking out a bottle for dinner.
Type of Cellar
Are you a white wine lover? Purveyor of the finest reds? The type of wine you prefer decides what kind of wine cellar cabinets you should build. But no matter which type you prefer, all wine bottles need to be kept away from light, especially direct sunlight and fluorescent fixtures; a basement is usually the perfect location. Make sure that wherever you store your wine, it’s well-ventilated and free from movement and vibration.
Red Wine Cellar Cabinets
High temperatures for red wines can cause them to age prematurely, affecting the flavor and balance. An ideal temperature for storing red wine is about 50-55F (10-16C), with a good relative humidity level being around 60-75%. If your wine cellar cabinets are more humid than that, you run the risk of mold growth and wood damage. Go dryer, and the cork will dry out, get stiff, crack, and let air into the bottle.
Good quality reds will have a sediment that settles over time, and the worst places for it are on the bottom of the bottle and in the cork. By turning the bottle on its side label side up, the sediment will collect on the bottom easily, letting you see if you need to cork or decant the bottle when opening.
White Wine Cellar Cabinets
The storage temperature for white wine should be considerably lower at around 45F (7-8C), with inexpensive brands, cheaper sparkling wines, and sweet white wines better at even cooler temperatures (38-46F, 4-8C). The relative humidity for whites should be around the same level as reds, at 60-75%.
Wine Cellar Design Tips
The most contemporary wine cellar designs today play around with geometric shapes, lighting and a rustic-modern combination. You can choose to go with any combination of the three, one, or none- whatever you choose depends entirely on your tastes, budget and amount of space to work with.
Geometric Cabinets
For example, arranging the shelving so it looks like a big Jenga or Pacman game gives your wine cellar an arty, off-balance look. Alternatively, if you prefer a more symmetrical look, you can build wood or wire shelving units in neat, even rectangles and sort your bottles by the color of the wine labels.
Old/New World Cabinets
A third alternative is to take the best from old world rustic design and blend it with ultra-modern stylings. Something that would result from that would have large-cut stones forming the floor, a brick or marble backsplash, glass doors or walls, and dark brown cabinetry. If you choose to turn your wine cellar into a gathering room, try using an oak barrel as a table and stools instead of chairs.
Lighting
Lighting is also important to factor in. As long as the bottles themselves aren’t expose to fluorescent lighting, the fixtures you choose are fine. Keeping perspective in mind, match the light fixture to the room, such as going with a bulky-looking, wrought-iron chandelier to offset a stone floor, or warm pot lights if you’ve got a metallic theme.