Why Wine Racks Are the Key to Professional Wine Storage in Cellars
Building your own wine cellar can be a fun but daunting job. It’s a promise of things to come, quiet moments to contemplate and share the pleasure in something special. Yet the transformation from a basic storage space to the professional and elegant cellar of your dreams rests on one vital feature that is too often overlooked: the wine rack. Far from being just an organization tool, it is literally the foundation that you build proper wine storage and collection management on.
The Basic Protection, Preservation of the Environment
The fundamental task of a wine rack is to protect your investment. Wine is a sensitive, fragile, living thing that reacts to its surroundings. The key rule for long-term storage is to store bottles on their sides. This position keeps the cork moist, without risk of drying out due to contact with the wine, which can cause the cork to shrink and allow air into the bottle. Ageing wine has an enemy in the form of oxygen, which causes oxidation and spoilage. A decent wine rack is built in such a way as to securely hold bottles horizontally – and so delivering this basic protection straightaway.
A solid rack does more than provides orientation. It keeps bottles from vibrating, which can dislodge sediment in older wines and even accelerate any chemical reactions detrimental to a fine wine’s delicate structure. A rack that stores each bottle at a distinct place is effective in keeping the bottles from clanging together and breaking as they do when stored or stacked recklessly. This stable peaceful environment is just what wine requires in order to mature gracefully over the course of years or even decades.
Maximizing Space and Keeping Everything Organized Simple
A cellar without racking is just a roomful of bottles. For the professionals, wine storage ought to be equivalent to convenience and ease of access. Personalized wine racks can turn cluttered, underutilized alcove into a practical storage space. They let you use every inch from the floor to ceiling in an organized, structured method. Whether you’ve a tiny closet or a big subterranean room, taking advantage of that space is easy with racking.
Organization is another key benefit. Try hunting for a particular vintage in a collection of hundreds of bottles stacked in bins. Racking equipment makes it possible to have a rational organization of the bottles by area, grape variety, vintage or time window of consumption. It not only makes dinner pairing an easy decision; it also gives you a lovely display of your wines. You can easily tell what you have — and may need to drink soon—and where the holes in your collection are, like turning a hobby into a well-managed portfolio.
Beautifying Your Basement
Function is everything in the cellar, but form has it’s place too. The wine rack is the focal point of the room. The material and design you select — whether classic redwood, modern metal or clean acrylic — is what shapes the character of the cellar. With such racking system, it turns the space from a storage room to your display area.
What wine lover hasn't taken pleasure in walking into a cellar and beholding rows of bottles, neatly arranged, their labels speaking to terroirs and tastes? This is a visual reflection of a racking decision well made. It sets a mood and encourages you to hang out, peruse your portfolio and consider wine as much an art form as it is the sum of its parts. The rack frames your collection, making it a living piece of art.