Wine Cellar Buying Guide: Where to Place Your Wine Cellar

Wine cellars are specifically designed so as to create an ideal storing and aging environment for your fine wine and favorite bottles. With expertly crafted cooling systems, well insulated walls, and other light protecting materials, there is no question that the environment inside your wine cellar is perfect, but what about the environment outside your cabinet? Much emphasis is placed on the wine cellar's internal environment; however, in order to ensure that a wine cellar works properly, special attention should be paid to where you locate your wine cellar and how you place your wine cellar in its location.

Wine Cellars & Location

While wine cellars offer miraculous abilities to cool the air inside their expertly crafted interior to the appropriate wine storing temperature and to maintain ideal humidity, wine cellars work best when placed in locations of ambient temperature zones.

Wine Cellars and Ambient Temperatures: Wine cellars are designed to cool 30°F cooler than the temperature zone to which they exhaust. For this reason it is best to place your wine cellar somewhere where the temperature does not exceed 85°F in the summer or drop below 30°F in the winter. If such temperature variations do occur, your wine cellar will not be able to maintain the ideal zone of 55°F inside the cabinet at all times.

Wine Cellars in Living Areas: The living area of your home is usually defined as your kitchen, living room, dining room, etc. If you have the space, living areas are great places to store a wine cellar as ambient temperature zones are most likely to occur inside your house. In addition, wine cellars located in close to proximity of where you will be consuming your wine are always nice!

Wine Cellars in Utility Areas: Perhaps your home can not quite accommodate the size of your chosen wine cellar, or the wine cellar does not match your décor or you simply have the perfect garage or basement for storing a wine cabinet. Whatever your reason is for storing your wine cellar in a utility area, they are an excellent location as long the temperature in the room fluctuates no more than 30°F above or below the recommended wine aging temperature of 55°F.

Keeping ambient temperature in mind, storing wine cellars in utility rooms can be a great option as your unit does not necessarily have to resemble a fine piece of furniture. The money you save on aesthetics can be invested in other features such as a unit with an excellent cooling system or racking system.

Wine Cellars & Placement

Once you determine a location for your wine cellar, you must take into consideration the following factors regarding how to place your wine cellar in your room.

Wine Cellars and Wall Placement: Many wine cellars must be placed at least 4 to 6 inches away from the wall in order for your wine cellar's cooling system to operate properly and efficiently. Some manufacturers, like La Cache, employ unique top-venting technology that allows you to place your wine cabinet flush against a wall. However, it is important to be aware that there is enough space for your wine cellar to exhaust to between the ceiling and the cabinet in top venting units.

Wine Cellars and Floor Surfaces: Wine cellars must be placed on firm and flat surfaces such as hard wood floors or concrete in order to ensure the unit remains level. If you are planning to place your wine cellar on carpet, place a hard and level board down for your unit to rest.

Additional Buying Guides

• Protecting Your Wine With A Wine Refrigerator
• Aging Your Wine With A Wine Cellar
• Should I Buy A Wine Refrigerator or a Wine Cellar?
• Wine Refrigerator Buying Guide
• Wine Racks Buying Guide
• Wine Cellar Buying Guide: Wine Cellars & Your Budget
• Wine Cellar Buying Guide: Wine Cellars & Bottle Capacity
• Wine Cellar Buying Guide: Wine Cellars & Racking Options
• Wine Cellar Buying Guide: Cooling Systems