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Building Your Own Wine Room or Wine Cellar

Here we present some general advice and considerations for constructing your own wine room, based on our personal experience and research.  Along the way we'll show you some books related to wine cellars that might be of interest.

This subject was presented at the American Wine Society annual convention in Winston-Salem, NC, on November 2nd, 2007.  You can view a copy of the presentation foils here, or read the detailed pages below.  A shortened version of this article was published in the American Wine Society Journal, Summer 2006 edition (pp. 66-68).  Bracksco owner/author Fred Brack is a life member of the American Wine Society and Secretary of the Triangle Chapter.

Here are the steps involved in building a wine room (a generic term we'll be using instead of wine cellar, which implies it is in the basement, which it may or may not be).

1. Plan, PLAN, PLAN!
2. Deconstruct (if starting with an existing room)
3. Build or expand depth of walls, ceiling, floor
4. Install or reinstall door frame and door
5. Frame an opening for the cooler
6. Install electrical wiring for lighting and cooler
7. Install vapor barrier
8. Install insulation
9. Install walls, ceiling, floor
10. Seal walls, ceiling, floor
11. Install final wall and floor covering
12. Complete electrical work
13. Install racks (VintageView from Bracksco, we hope!)
14. Install cooler (Breezaire from Bracksco, we hope!)
15. Turn 'er on and fill 'er up!

Before we continue, if you are building a true wine cellar (one in the below-ground area of a home) without a cooling unit, we strongly recommend you purchase Richard Gold's book on this subject, as there are some special considerations for non-mechanically cooled below-ground wine rooms that he covers and we don't.  This is a useful guide for anyone planning a wine room, but he does assume you are building in the cellar area.

And now, let's start with Step 1:  Plan, PLAN, PLAN!

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