Wine cellar cooling tips

When it comes to cooling wine, we often get questions from customers that are in various stages of development in their wine cellar. One of the biggest challenges in creating a successful wine storage room is sealing off the space entirely from its surroundings.

Sealing off a room entirely means taking in to account every spot where air exchange occurs and plugging the hole. Some of the easiest targets are: doors (under and around them), windows (around and through them), recessed lights and light switches.

In this blog I won’t address the vapor barrier, suffice to say that without one all of the following tips won’t really help. Contact us or consult our web site www.wineracksamerica.com for questions about vapor barriers.

Wine Cellar Doors: Weather strip around the door jambs & threshold. Use exterior doors only, as interior (hollow core) doors will not provide sufficient R value to keep the cold air in.

Wine Cellar Windows: Same as door, weather strip around the jambs. Use insulating glass with at least two panes that create an insulating air pocket.

Recessed Lights: Particularly tough to seal. Make sure to seal the “lip” of the canister where it meets the ceiling material, and use closed or thermally fused canisters that will not allow air to go up and out of the fixture.

Light Plates and Power Outlets: Same as recessed lights. Pack insulation around the boxes to decrease air flow through seams in the plates. Better yet, place outlets and wall plates outside of the cellar rather than in. This allows an easy way to light and view your wine without having to open the cellar door at all.

Wine Racks America has assisted thousands of home owners, restaurants, business and wineries with the constuction of their ideal wine storage rooms. If you have any questions about cooling your wine cellar please contact me at 1-888-373-6057.

Happy cellaring!

Christian Hancock
Wine Racks America
Wine Storage Specialist

Summer – Time to Keep It Cool

One of the fastest growing areas of our business pertains to the cooling of wine. Nearly every wine cellar we design and sell includes some type of strategy for cooling.

In the olden days (5-10 years ago), wine cellar cooling units looked and acted like World War II era surplus army units. All ugly exteriors and bulky design. Well, no more. The proliferation of wine cellar construction has driven a dearth of new, attractive and innovative cooling unit designs, much to the delight of us and our clients.

These days there is a huge variety of cooling units available to address any number of scenarios. One of the best advancements has been the ducted wine cooling unit. These powerful units allow users to install the cooling unit up to 50 feet from the actual wine cellar, with small ducts leading to and from the cooling unit in order to deliver fresh, cool air and remove warm air.

This innovation eliminates all noise and vibration from the wine cellar and makes installation sleek and invisible, since from inside the wine cellar you only see the vent openings leading to and from the cooling unit.

These quality and innovative units are manufactured by Wine Guardian and proudly distributed by Wine Racks America. For detailed instructions and installation guides visit our web site or call one of us here at Wine Racks America. Happy cooling!

Dave Mulligan
Wine Cellar Consultant

Across the finish line

Greetings again and welcome to ALMOST spring! As wine cellar business ramps up again for the spring home project building rush, we are getting a lot of questions about the stain we apply to our racking. Here is an exerpt from a recent question we received that I thought would be good to share:

Question: “…I was checking out your photo gallery and found a lot of wine racks that were finished. This is the way I would prefer to go but I have been cautioned that the stain would change the taste of the wine. Is this true, and if so does it change the outcome of the cellar?” – Ron S. MI

This was a very good question that deserved a detailed answer:

“Thank you for your inquiry. Stain can definitely be a confusing step in your cellar project. While we cannot account for all of the photos we receive from our customers, Wine Racks America only uses and recommends water-based stain with our wine cellar products. We recommend avoiding oil-based stains and urethane products commonly used in furniture finishes.

Why? Water based stain does not contain the harsh chemicals found in oil stain or polyurethane, which CAN damage your wine after exposure, especially when the cellar is new (they seep through the cork).

As a result our stained redwood cellar products have a matte finish, and are medium reddish-brown in color. Our special recipe stain is semi-transparent and will even out color variations in the redwood without completely covering the beautiful redwood grain.

Consequently, our cellars look “finished” but not “glossy”, and are safe to use immediately with your wine. We have lots of great references and have finished hundreds of wine cellars with no known issues.”

While stain can be a tricky subject and there are plenty of differering approaches to it out there, this is hopefully some good information that will help those of you out there with questions about applying finish and/or stain to your wine cellar. Have a great day!

Jeff O.

Juice for the Masses

When I take a moment to reflect upon all of the people across this county that have purchased storage solutions from us here at Wine Racks America, I am overwhelmed.

To think, not long ago the idea of storing mass quantities of wine in your home was an act that only the wealthy were able to commit. Now, for a few hundred dollars, anyone can have ample wine storage.

What is it about wine and the hording thereof that is so appealing to so many Americans? In my opinion, it all stems from our own past. All cultures have dabbled with the preservation of substances that make you feel happy. For most of us of European descent this substance has always been wine.

I believe that the idea of knowing that you have a cellar full of great wine equates to knowing that one has a future of happiness. If housing prices continue to drop, if fuel prices keep rising, at least we can imagine that walk down into our cellars. We can dream of standing in front of our wall of wine deciding upon which bottle to pull out of the rack. We can see ourselves gently corking the bottle. We can imagine the sound as the wine slides into our glass. Then comes happiness as we swirl the wine around, smelling it then taking our first sip.

No matter what goes on in our lives we know that happiness can always be found in cellars all across this great country. So after reading this blog, open a bottle and toast our economy and our “wise” leaders, because although we aint got much, we still have wine.

Drink Often,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist

American and proud of it!

Times are tough – America is in the midst of an economic downturn the likes of which have not been seen in a long time. Nearly two million people have lost their jobs so far, and more companies are looking for anyway they can to save a buck. In the difficult months/years ahead we would like to pledge our support for the American manufacturing base and the American worker, and remind everyone out there to be mindful of where they are purchasing their products and services from.

Wine Racks America is a full-service manufacturer of high quality redwood and pine wine cellar components. We manufacture attractive, durable wine cellar products right here in the U.S.A. We employ skilled and dedicated woodworking professionals, and pay an honest wage to our workers and their families.

In 2008 Wine Racks America experienced a record-breaking sales year due to the loyalty of our customers and their dedication to support American companies like us. In times like these, I am proud to work for a company that creates and supports American jobs.

Most companies will not advertise that their products are manufactured outside of the U.S., so do what I do, ask them!

Cheers,
Ian

In Case You Were Wondering

Greetings from Wine Racks America and welcome to 2009!  We are very excited to meet the new year and are grateful to our incredible, amazing and dedicated customer base.  Thank you for a record-breaking 2008!

This year we will steadily add new and improved products to our wine cellar kit racking systems.  To kick of January we have introduced our new Wine Case Storage Rack.  This sturdy yet inexpensive rack allows the user to store a variety of small and large format wine bottles, cardboard cases, and for the first time ever provides storage for wide wooden cases such as the ones you might get from Opus One.  This product is also ideal for putting large format 3 Litre bottles (Jeraboams) on display, as each shelf space will hold one on its side.

This rack looks amazing by itself or paired with other racks from our Wine Cellar Kit selection, and is further enhanced by the clear, knot-free construction and cabinet quality assembly methods that hide or do away with any visible hardware and fasteners.  View this nifty addition to our product line here: http://www.wineracksamerica.com/Wine_Cellar_Kits/Wine_Case_Storage/rectangular_bin.html

Let us know if you have any questions about this or any of our fine products, and we’ll keep you all informed as 2009 unfolds.  Have a great day!

Katie

Shake It but Don’t Break It

Good afternoon to all of you wine lovers on the West coast. If you are not “blessed” to be living in the glorious state of California, please note that this message may not apply to you.

Today I want to talk about one of wine’s worst enemies in the golden state. If you live there then you already know what I am about to say. This word strikes fear into the hearts of all Californians. That word is: EARTHQUAKE! Now I know that for most of you the last thing on your mind in the event of a 5.2 quake is wine. But let me be clear about something. If you live in an area that shakes a lot, your wine can be thrown from its comfy nest. Quakes have no respect for good taste. Whether you have one wine rack that holds 20 bottles or a cellar that holds 20,000 these quakes are after your wine, what are you going to do to keep it safe?

Please don’t panic. We here at Wine Racks America have a very simple solution for you. No, the solution is not to uncork every bottle and pour it down your throat in an attempt to rid yourself of the worry. Just take a look at this:

Yes built in California for Californians “The Quake Guardian® Wine Guard System” will keep your keep your wine bottles from flying off your wine rack in the event of an earthquake. I would assume that your walls would probably cave in before you bottles bounce to the ground.

Watch a video demonstration of how this product works.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to call me at
1-888-373-6057.

Drink Well,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist

Give a gift – it’ll probably get used

Greetings again from the owner’s desk at Wine Racks America.  As we are at the beginning of the holiday season now my thoughts have turned to gift giving, and what our company might offer to customers during this holiday season. 

I read a statistic recently that has really stuck with me, and since a lot of you may be in the market for a gift soon I thought I would share it.  According to a recent survey from a source that I honestly cannot remember, the U.S. will soon surpass every other country in the world for the number of individuals per capita that consume wine.  Within 5-10 years the U.S. will be populated with 148 million wine drinkers, which makes the U.S. a more likely place to see someone drinking wine than either France or Italy (!).  Wow, how things have changed. 

I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s and NOBODY was talking about wine (at least good wine), but now it really seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue - pun intended.  Anyway, with that many new wine enthusiasts on the scene each year, the need to keep that wine stored and organized is likely to grow and, you knew it was coming, I happen to know of this great place that makes wine racks and sells all kinds of storage-related products! 

I won’t turn this into a sales pitch, suffice to say that in our experience many new wine drinkers are reluctant to purchase racks or specialty storage items until they are more ’seasoned’ – whatever that means.  So, if you are an older experienced wine consumer and know someone who is fresh on the wine scene encourage them, point them our way, give them a lovely wine storage product from our web site, or better yet give them a wine storage gift certificate this holiday season and let them choose something of their own. 

With so many new wine aficionados every day you won’t have to look far to find a qualified recipient, and hey – it’ll probably get used.  Have a great day.

Jeff