7000 bottles completed in 1985. Redwood Rack System.All wine ready to drink...

2500 bottles. Genuine Mahogany Rack System, Black Limestone countertops.

Paul Wyatt

4500 bottles completed in 2003.Jarrah rack system with solid onyx countertops. Designed by Paul Wyatt, Custom Cellar Co.

Thinking About Wine Cellars…..

The number of wine cellars, wine cellar builders, wine cellar catalogs, and just plain articles and books about wine, and wine cellars has been growing by leaps and bounds in the USA, Asia, and Europe. This market has been growing almost as fast as the growth in new wineries, new wines, and new wine regions. My father told me that they are even growing grapes and making wine in England now, something that has not occurred since the Romans left. (Of course these new English wines are probably not much better than those made by the Romans).
Quite a number of books have been published about actually building wine cellars as home projects. They mostly cover the basics of construction, insulation, vapor barriers, and generally clunky wine rack systems in some detail and then go on to talk about collecting and tasting wine. Most of the writers seem to have built their own cellars and then write a book from the experience gained, with photographs taken during construction and while celebrating afterwards.
If you think that a wine cellar is just a special room or refrigerated closet where you keep wine safely until it is ready to drink, and you want someone to tell you how to drink it when it is ready, then any of these books will be adequate for your purposes. You could get started right away, open a bottle to see if it is ready, skip over my convoluted ramblings and just read the good bit at the end.
I would like to get to the drinking of properly aged wine with good friends and special food items in my wine cellar eventually, but I have to ask questions, and these questions often lead to more questions than answers. But why, you might ask?
All of a sudden, I have this compulsion to behave like a small boy and ask the very same question. I will now have to explore a winding road back to the beginning of time to find out. (Perhaps not the beginning of time, but at least to a time when we lived in caves if we were lucky)
Given the choice of living at home and going to the local school, or being packed up and sent to board at a formal English Public school in Winchester for several years, my decision was an easy one. At eleven years old, I was to leave home for the first time, go to a boarding school hundreds of miles away (well not hundreds perhaps, this was in England after all), knowing nothing except that it was a very big change in my life. This somehow seemed more attractive than the certainty of going school with Noddy Hardy, the big guy living up the street, who had promised to get me for some perceived transgression. Perhaps it was for using long words in sentences, but I do not remember.
At this point, I must apologize because I have suddenly perceived endless vistas of paragraph headings and realized that this subject cannot be covered with one bottle, and this one is empty. This was supposed to be a sort of synopsis of a book about wine cellar design that I am writing to package around color plates of wine cellars from my archives but I got stuck last week and really need an editor now.


Please be patient, and I will try and release a chapter or two every now and then... If anyone has any feedback or questions to add to my list, please write.
© Paul Wyatt 2007.

Wine Cellars Are Like Sailing Boats.

Sunday, January 28, 2007


Many serious wine collectors are successful alpha males living very busy lives. They understand that a wine cellar can be far more than just a place to store wine and that a large yacht offers a lot more than simple transportation on water.

Wine cellars and large yachts are similar in many ways. While appearances are very important, both of these creations may be subject to powerful forces that require proper engineering to withstand earthquakes and storms while protecting the valuable contents. They must meet stringent performance requirements, keep the occupants happy and always look good.

During the development of a functional design, considerations regarding structural integrity, strength, and flexibility, are essential when creating an elegant solution. When a client selects a designer for a project, he trusts that the designer will first consider the functional necessities before adding elements that might improve the appearance of the finished product.

Designs for large custom wine cellars in locations that are subject to earthquakes must consider that the masses of wine and glass may move significantly within the cellar. Since the cellar is a container for this mass and is often part of a larger structure that will also move, it is essential to properly engineer its perimeter. It must withstand the stresses exerted by the outside structure, while containing any stresses imposed upon it by the large masses of wine and glass within.

Modern wine rack systems have evolved from an English design that supports each individual bottle while allowing good airflow through the rack. The primary function of this seemingly fragile and flexible rack system is to support the wine properly while allowing each bottle to become part of a large thermal mass linked by continuous airflow. This large thermal mass, contained within an insulated structure, makes it possible to maintain the very stable storage conditions so necessary for the proper aging of wine.

One of the characteristics of this rack design is that the entire mass of wine, glass, racks, and other contents in the cellar becomes a very live load during an earthquake. The flexibility of the rack system allows it to deform and move with the wine, supporting it until the event is over. Repositioning the rack system and repairing a few pieces of laminated trim is readily completed. In cellars with rigid rack systems, the wine will still move by falling out of the rack, or breaking it.

Because the structural integrity of the ideal rack system is the primary design consideration, the shape and dimensions of the cellar perimeter must necessarily determine the rack system layout. The next requirement is to ensure good access to the cellar and each rack space. The capacity of the rack layout and the type of container to be stored, whether it be a single bottle or a wooden case, is not a consideration at this stage and does not require any input regarding the special needs of the client.

The initial primary design or designs may be modified so extensively that they may bear almost no similarity to the original plan while still maintaining some of the functional requirements. Curved corners can become stone pillars, openings and arches may be inserted into the rack system, and racks can be broken up into blocks within stone alcoves. Each departure from the original solution becomes a trade off between form and function.

I have designed and built many thousands of wine cellars for special clients all over the world over a period of twenty-five years. Experienced collectors and new enthusiasts understand that their collections may evolve beyond their existing capacity and I develop suggestions for targets in the various bottle sizes. The primary structural designs are almost always accepted in the same way that the lines of the hull for their new yacht would be accepted.

The cost of a wine cellar is not a factor in the design since the goal is to produce the best possible solution for a client. The value of the proposed design is something that the client must decide for himself. When considering the full cost of the wine, cellar construction, climate control, security systems, and racking systems, we get to large numbers. The differential between low cost wine racks with free designs, and fully developed high quality racks systems that will be admired for generations is not a significant consideration in the market that I serve.

To be successful in any serious sales opportunity one must first have excellent knowledge of the product. From my experience, how you feel in the sale is more important than what you actually say. Remember that you are asking for money in a fair and even exchange for goods leaving both parties satisfied. It will help to remember that it is not your money, it is the client’s money and he must make the decision to buy. If you think that you are asking for too much money, everything will be fine because you will probably not make the sale.

Paul Wyatt.
www.customcellar.com

© Paul Wyatt 2006