How do you start your wine cellar?

Updated on December 13, 2022

Do you have a space to store a few bottles and want to start a wine cellar? This article will help you lay the groundwork for building and managing a wine cellar. Whether you have the space to store twenty bottles or hundreds, the concerns will be the same: the choice of wines and the management method. Les Grappes offers you some advice to easily start a wine cellar and make it an ideal cellar! It's time to get started!

The ideal cellar

Before starting to build your wine cellar, we suggest that you take a look at the criteria that are essentialfor the creation of an ideal cellar.

The cellar is first of all a room in which to keep the wine. It must be suitable for optimal storage conditions: a room with a stable temperature, between 12°C and 14°C, with an air humidity level of about 75%.The room must be protected from vibrations, bad smells and light. It must also be ventilated. The respect of these criteria allows the good conservation of the wine, which will not be altered by heat, light, smells...

Then, the ideal cellar is a varied and lively cellar. From the beginning, a cellar must contain diverse wines, representative of a wide range of tastes, types of wines, terroirs... it must be complete. But the difficulty and the challenge of the cellar is that it must be alive. It must adapt to new products, discoveries, originalities: it is therefore up to you to make this cellar live as you consume.

Finally, a cellar is an investment and must be managed with care. The investment in the cellar should not exceed the value of your bottles. It must be a pleasure above all!

Starting point: define your project

The first step in building a cellar is to evaluate the potential of your cellar. This will allow you to define the scope of the project.

To do this, you must consider the space you have: how much space is there? What type of cellar is it? How to organize it? You should also study the quality of the storage space to evaluate how many bottles can be stored and in what conditions.

For example, if you store your wines in the kitchen, next to the cooking hobs, the storage potential will be different from that of a basement cellar. Indeed, you must take into account the temperature, the humidity and the luminosity of the place in the constitution of the cellar. You will be able to define the space you have and which will be able to accommodate the bottles in the best conditions then you will buy according to the available space.

This step will allow you to define a first choice of wines: according to the available space and the conservation qualities of the cellar, you will choose wines to keep or wines to drink young.

Next, you must define the budget for your cellar. The idea is to be able to fill your cellar from the beginning. This initial investment is usually between 300€ and 500€. The initial investment determines the quantity and range of wines that will be in your cellar but your cellar must be alive and evolve according to discoveries and trends. Thus, the budget is not fixed and may evolve to suit your taste.

Choosing the wines

The wine cellar is the result of a selection of wines that must be suitable for various occasions. It must therefore present a wide range of products, which can be adapted to all occasions, all gastronomic marriages... For this, think of providing your cellar with :

Wines to drink young. Perfect for an aperitif.
Wines that you will keep for several years.
Wines of various styles and ranges. They will be able to lend themselves to festive meals and accompany different dishes.

Diversity is often what makes a good cellar. To create this diversity, classify the wines according to different criteria:

You will have a wine range category: it is generally linked to the price of the bottle. It is within this category that you separate wines to drink young and wines to keep. This classification is important: if you only have bottles of mature wines, it would be a shame to have to uncork one for a small aperitif with friends...

Then, you can organize your cellar according to the type of wine. Here, you will distinguish between wines according to taste criteria and you will order your wines according to their acidity, or their smoothness, their tannin content. By doing so, you will create a diverse cellar. A complete wine cellar is a varied cellar, which offers wines that can be matched with all dishes.

That's why it would be ideal to have all these categories of wines in your cellar - and that goes for white, red and rosé wines! If you vary the types of wines, you will have a variety of wines from different regions. This will diversify your cellar and make it complete.

It is recommended to have 40% of red wines, 35% of white wines (divided between dry white wines and sweet white wines), 10% of Champagnes, 10% of rosé wines and 5% of natural sweet wines.

Of course, you must be guided by your taste but don't forget to think about the guests with whom you will share your wines, and whose tastes may differ from yours.

A good organization

A successful wine cellar is one that is well organized and easy to find. To achieve this ideal, all you need to do is to be well organized from the beginning and to keep your rigor.
From the beginning, take care to classify and label your bottles, indicating the category or region to which they belong.

You can also keep a cellar book. You will indicate the number of bottles you have for each wine, the food and wine pairing, the ideal aging. This booklet will allow you to find your way through your cellar, but also to manage the stock over time.

You must also organize your cellar and manage its space. In this case, the arrangement of the bottles must follow a logical order, while following the optimal conditions of conservation. Therefore, avoid cardboard boxes: they retain humidity and give off musty smells. Also avoid wooden crates, they present a dry atmosphere. Instead, store the bottles in racks, organized according to the type and category of wine. Often, white wines are placed near the floor, red wines on top, ageing wines are at the bottom, and wines to be drunk young are left within easy reach.

All our advice is available to you. All that remains is for you to embark on the adventure of building your cellar.