A lot of people dream about having a wine cellar in their home. It’s not always a practical reality. Are alternative smaller scale options though. In the past, we have looked at examples of dedicated wine fridges and today we’re even going to look at some wine racks. The picture below shows a typical storage shelf in a wine cellar. In most cases, bottles will be stored in a horizontal position. A horizontal position, for a bottle, keeps the cork moist on the inside and therefore helps the cork to avoid drying out. Over time if the cork dries too much it can shrink and become loose and cause leakage in the bottle.
Sometimes bottles can be stored for decades, even centuries. By and large, most people believe that wine taste improves, both in flavor and complexity as it ages.
It has to age under the right conditions, though. Generally temperatures between 55 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal with a relatively high humidity. The outside of the cork of a bottle can also dry out if the ambient room temperature around the bottle is significantly less than about 70% on average. In summary the ideal condition for a very long storage of wine and natural beverages requires several specific conditions.
Another one of those conditions is light. If the bottle is stored in bright light, even with dark glass, the wine inside of the bottle will break down from exposure to ultraviolet rays. Wine cellars provide all of these ideal conditions very well. The ambient temperature of the earth, at a depth of about 30 inches or more below grade is around 52 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, we’re going to look at a few examples of wine shelves and wine racks that are made for areas other than dedicated wine fridges and or dedicated wine cellars. Wine fridges are great for people who are aficionados and want to have wine stored in an ideal condition at all times. Wine cellars are also perfect for an enthusiastic, aficionado, and dedicated wine collector. The problem with wine cellars is that they take up a lot of space in a building and are expensive to create for something that is only used for more long-term storage.
Wine refrigerators are also a little bit pricey and take up a good chunk of high demand real estate right in the middle of a kitchen. As an alternative, wine racks can often be incorporated in space that is less critical. For example, even where a wine rack is displayed right in the kitchen cabinet space, it can utilize space underneath of Cabinetry so that it’s not in the critical countertop or base cabinet space. In the picture below, a wine rack is installed in the wall cabinets, but still allows enough space for a relatively thin cabinet to be installed above the wine rack.
This particular location is still prominent and adds a bit of aesthetic interest to the kitchen. Wine racks have a bit of visual interest and prestige associated with their presentation. By and large, until the big fad of microbrews about 20-30 years ago, wine had a more prestigious cachet. Wine is still considered a bit fancier and now beer just a little bit of the foothold in dinner pairings and fancier circles.
Wine cellars and wine racks generally fit best in cellars and into kitchens and homes where there is a tendency for inviting guests and entertaining. If someone loves to cook but basically lives alone and never invites anyone to visit, and has no plans for resale, the design of the kitchen should be focused on functionality. In that type of circumstance a wine rack might still be useful, only if the person drinks a lot of wine by themselves. In most normal cases though, wine racks add to the ability to to use a kitchen to host guests and entertain.
As a functional tool, a wine rack is still useful because it presents the different wines that might be used for pairing with food.
The use of a wine rack in that functional example is that it can present the wines as if it were a real life live menu. Essentially showing the options so that the cook or the host can make decisions based on pairings with the meal at hand at that specific time. Different types of wines pair differently with different types of foods.
Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help
As dedicated and local DC metropolitan kitchen and bath builders and installers, we pride ourselves on turning your visions into reality. Your kitchen and bathrooms can reflect your unique style and be designed with personalized aesthetics. It can be a process from creative designs to the realization of your dream space. Specializing in kitchen and bath construction, we bring expertise and skills to every project.
If you’re contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, We’re happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience.
You can visit our company website at https://dupontkitchenbathdc.com/
Here at our website you will find a simple and convenient web form that you can fill to contact us quickly.
