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Proper Sealing of Florida Custom Wine Cellars

Wine cellars are essential when you want to get serious with your wine collection. Wine is a delicate and complex substance, and it requires just the right elements to come together to make sure that it is stored well and aged properly.

Options have been made available on the market that will help aspiring wine collectors replicate the ideal conditions in the wine cellars in the chilly French countryside.

When constructing a wine cellar, you must ensure that the crucial conditions for proper wine preservation are present. Two important facets of proper wine cellar construction are installing a proper vapor barrier and making sure the doors, walls, and windows are completely sealed.

Things to Keep in Mind in Sealing Florida Wine Cellars

Vapor Barrier

A vapor barrier keeps the warm air from the outside or from adjacent rooms from seeping through the walls of your wine cellar. If this happens, condensation will occur, and over the course of time cause mildew and mold to form inside your cellar, affecting wine’s quality.

The vapor barrier stops this from happening. You can typically use a 6-8 mm plastic sheet for the vapor barrier, available in most Home Depots. They should be wrapped around your wine cellar on the warm side of the insulation. Note that the cool side of the wall is the one which actually encloses your wine collection. This essentially covers your wine collection from heat and humidity.

Wine Cellar Door

Another aspect of sealing your wine cellar is making sure that your wine cellar door is airtight. The wine cellar door should be weather-stripped on all four sides of the door jam. There should be a bottom door-sweep to prevent outside air from flowing into your wine cellar when the door is closed. Solid core doors or full glass doors are recommended. But, if you prefer a glass door, it should have double-pane insulated tapered glass. Premium grade silicone caulk must be used to seal door casing to the wall.

Window

Just as your wine cellar entryway, the windows must also be sealed. The use of quality insulated glass, good sealant, and a high quality frame is recommended. A reliable window foam sealant is recommended to prevent the intrusion of warm air, thus preventing wine faults.

Walls

Other ways you can ensure an airtight wine cellar is to build an extra wall that is made out of waterproof materials and leave a 1cm airpocket in between the two walls. Another way is to apply polyurethane on the wall that is already there and then cover it with cement and plaster panels.

Sealing is very important to make sure that your wine cellar cooling system will be able to perform its job efficiently which is to maintain the ideal temperature and humidity in your Florida custom wine room. This is especially critical if you live in an area with a warm climate such as Florida. Florida wine cellar owners need to make sure that their cellars are completely sealed in order to protect their wines from harmful external factors.

Wine Cellar International is a Florida wine cellar builder that offers its clients the best wine storage solutions available. Visit their website at http://www.winecellarinternational.com/ for more information about their products and services.

Wine Accessories – Enjoying a Lavish Wine Lifestyle with Stylish Accoutrements

Written by wholecellar

Savoring the wine lifestyle to the fullest requires stylish and trendy tools that will enhance the wine tasting experience. Wine accessories are designed with wine geeks in mind. These accoutrements are primarily used in the serving and storing of vintages, and range from cork poppers to bottle stoppers to serving vessels.

Wine Bottle Openers

Wine bottle openers come in the form of corkscrews, carbon dioxide driven poppers, and screwpull levers. These tools are used to pop open wine bottles that are sealed with corks. A sommelier knife or wine key is the tool of choice for most wine lovers, because it is quick and easy to use. It resembles a folding pocket knife, and includes a small blade for cutting the foil and a bottle screw for drawing out the cork.

Decanters

Decanters as Wine Gifts

Decanting accessories allow wine to breathe and removes sediment that will essentially bring out the natural bouquet and taste of wine. As serving vessels, decanters make for an elegant presentation of wines when entertaining guests. These glass vessels have flat bottoms and broad necks that facilitate the proper aeration and pouring of wines.

Wine Stoppers

Wine Stoppers Wine Accessories

Leftover wines need not go to waste. Wine stoppers help preserve wines for later enjoyment. These tools provide an airtight seal that will help keep leftover wines fresh until the next consumption. The bottom part of a wine stopper can be made from cork, rubber, and/or plastic. The top section of the stopper can come in wacky and colorful designs that will make storing wine a fun experience.

Glass Stemware

Wine Glass Stemware

Glass stemware is an important component of the wine tasting experience. Wine glasses are vessels for holding and tasting wines. Different types of wine require different shapes of glass stemware. The glass shape and style not only affect the taste of wine, but also impact its perception. Red wine glasses have wide bowls, to introduce more oxygen to improve flavors of red wine, while white wine glasses have small mouths that preserve the crisp flavor of white wines.

Wine Drip Collars

Wine drip collars catch drips that may trickle down the bottle after pouring and prevent the staining of linens and table surfaces. Drip rings are typically made of plastic or stainless steel that fits snugly over the neck of the wine bottle. The ring has an interior lining made of felt cloth, which soaks up the drip.

Wine Accessories as Wine Gifts

Wine Accessories and Wine Gifts

These wine accessories are must-have trinkets for every wine collector, and also make great wine gifts for people who have passion for the finest wines. These accoutrements allow wine lovers to sit back and savor every moment of their wine tasting experience.

Dedicated wine lovers not only focus on providing a climate controlled wine enclave for their liquid collectibles, but also create a comfortable and elegant space for entertaining. Most wine collectors spruce up their wine cellar space to showcase their artistic taste and wine lifestyle.

Wine Cellar Art Pieces

Mural Wine Cellar Art

Incorporating wine cellar art into the wine cellar design can bring out a sense of wine country within the confines of the storage space. Wine cellar art can be in the form of mural, stained glass wall or entryway, or a mosaic tabletop. It provides endless possibilities for expressing one’s love of and desire for wines.

Wine Barrel Carvings

Another emerging wine cellar art piece is wine barrel carvings. Wine barrel carving designs can be in the form of company logo, a landscape, grapes, wine bottles, human hands, and a lot more; anything that you can imagine. Wine barrel carvings are unique decorative pieces that can enhance the beauty of your wine cellar.

For more information about wine accessories, wine gifts and wine cellar art pieces, just visit Wine Cellar Specialists at http://www.winecellarspec.com/.

Essential Elements of a Custom Wine Cellar in Canada

Written by wholecellar

The design and construction of a custom wine cellar in Vancouver, Canada should be well thought out, so that it can meet the essential requirements for proper wine storage. The following are the basic parts of a custom wine cellar and how they should ideally be.

1. Wine Cellar Walls & Ceiling

Wine cellars in Canada should be properly insulated. Wine cellar insulation should be at least R20, so that the temperature and humidity levels are kept from fluctuating. The interior walls of your custom wine cellar should be as inert as possible. Many wine cellar specialists would advise choosing Urethane for your cellar insulation, because it is efficient in sealing the walls and ceiling. Mineral wood is good to use too, but it should be properly protected from humidity, because otherwise it will lose its capacity to insulate after some time. Rigid insulation panels are a good idea as well.

To maintain the level of humidity in the wine storage room, a vapor-seal is essential. Make sure that your vapor-seal sheets overlap and are secured with adhesive tapes.

The paint used on the walls and ceilings of your wine cellar should be of mold-resistant latex. Bathroom paint is the best option.

In order to make room for a wine cellar cooling unit to be installed, avoid cellars that are completely surrounded by concrete.

2. Custom Wine Cellar Door

In order to ensure that the temperature and humidity in the wine cellar are stable, an insulated door equipped with weather stripping should be utilized. Cellar doors ought to be at least R16 insulation. Tell your wine cellar designer to have a window or a thermal glass on your door so that you may be able to see your wine collection inside the cellar without needing to open it.

Some people opt to have a lock on their wine cellar door, so that they can control access to the wine cellar. This also is a good idea, so that you can control how often the wine cellar is opened. Constant opening of a wine cellar in Vancouver, Canada can cause temperature and humidity fluctuations that are harmful to your wines.

3. Wine Cellar Flooring

There are various options to choose from when it comes to custom wine cellar flooring. The material you use should be resistant to humidity. Stones, ceramic tiles and marble are humidity resistant materials. If you want to use wood for cellar flooring, make sure that it is sealed properly, so that it won’t absorb humidity.

If you plan to construct your custom wine cellar in your basement, you can make use of the soil’s natural humidity by putting holes through the concrete basement floor. But before that, you have to make sure that the soil is not water logged and that there is enough drainage beneath the basement’s foundation to avoid water infiltration. You may also put holes in the cellar walls to increase the humidity level by 1 to 2 degrees. Don’t forget to cover the holes in order to keep insects out.

4. Custom Wine Cellar Lighting

The lighting you choose for your wine cellar in Vancouver, Canada should be that which generates minimal heat. Heat can damage your wines. The best type of lighting for wine storage rooms is LED. Some wines are not favorable to light. Light dimmers are recommended, so that you can adjust the light as needed.

5. Wine Cellar Cooling System

A quality wine cellar refrigeration unit can set the temperature and humidity inside your custom wine cellar to the ideal levels. There are various kinds of wine cellar cooling units. A wine cellar specialist can calculate the heat load in your wine storage room, so that you can identify the appropriate wine cellar refrigeration system for your cellar.

Custom Wine Cellars Florida Bonita Springs Project in Naples Florida

Written by wholecellar

Custom Wine Cellars Naples Florida Bonita Springs Project – A Processed Video Transcription

Custom Wine Cellars Florida Bonita Springs Project in Naples Florida

Inspiration for Custom Wine Cellars Florida

Entering the Custom Wine Cellars Florida through a Barolo Style Door

Tim: What was your main inspiration for the whole styling and all the woodworking for this custom wine cellars Florida?

Jody: Well, we like Italy. We all like the Tuscan days and we rent a castle out in Napa. It was an all stone castle. We saw a room and we liked it. We liked the atmosphere and we thought we’d do something similar to that.

Tim: It really comes across that.

Jody: It’s like a little dungeon. I call it my little man dungeon. I figured we could fit about 2200 bottles in this custom wine cellars Florida.

The Wine Collection

A Collection of the Client’s Favorite Wines

Tim: You’ve got some really nice features in here, as well. So you just acquire these?

Jody: Just about everything we picked out we picked out when we go someplace. We’ve got some French wines that I picked up from France. When we go to Napa we go to the wineries and if we like it we join the wine club and buy different styles of wine. Our latest one is Merlot.

The Wine Tasting Room

The Cozy Wine Tasting Room

Tim: It’s very cool in here, you can feel it. You’ve got a separate area (wine tasting room) where you can sit and enjoy the wine and still feel it because of this whole big glass here.

Jody: This is the biggest piece of tempered glass we could find.

Tim: Dual paned and tempered?

Jody: Yes. We centered the wine cellar cooling unit in the middle so the whole thing can be cool at one end and stays pretty consistent throughout.

Wine Barrel Flooring

Wine Barrel Flooring – Custom Wine Cellars Florida

Tim: I think you’ve done a really tasteful job in here. This wine barrel curvy effect is very unusual.

Jody: These are all recycled wine barrels. Everything’s recycled in here. For the green people, I mean, you know, everything is recycled. It’s natural stone off the ground, racking and wine barrel flooring from recycled oak wine barrels.

Tim: What really stands out to me is the coloring. They’re not all the same.

Jody: Some of these are from red wines and white wines. You’ll see this was from the inside of a red wine barrel. You’ll see the straps. This is from the outside of the barrel. If you look at the inside, they’re a different red because red wine was inside the barrel.

Tim: It has a beautifully aged, stylized look. The wine bottles are also stored the other way around which is interesting as well.

This wine cellar project is located in Naples, Florida and was designed and constructed by Wine Cellar Specialists. To see more wine cellar projects in Florida and other wine tasting room design features, click on this link – http://pinterest.com/winecellarspec/.

How To Store Wines in Florida

Written by wholecellar

Wine is one of God’s gifts to men. It is a wonderful beverage, meant to be enjoyed and shared with friends and family. It is one of tastiest beverages. In order to make sure that wine tastes good, it is very important that you understand the essentials of wine storage. Here are the basics to keeping wine.

KEEP WINE COOL

There is nothing more damaging to wine than heat! When the temperature is above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, wine ages prematurely. This, in turn, causes it to taste awful. The ideal temperature range to store wine in is between 45 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

COOL IS GOOD BUT TOO COOL IS HARMFUL

A regular household refrigerator is not ideal for wine storage. The average refrigerator is configured to store perishable goods and other food items. The temperature in a regular fridge can fall below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature this low can cause the wine corks to eventually dry out, thus allowing air to seep into the bottle and ruin the wine.

Wines should never be kept in locations where they could freeze. Wine expands when it turns to ice. When it expands, it may push the cork out of the bottle.

To provide the right temperature for wine, you need a custom wine cellar with a wine cellar refrigeration unit installed. Only a wine cooling unit can provide the right temperature for wine storage with minimal to no fluctuations.

LIGHTS OUT PLEASE!

Ultraviolet light is another enemy of wine. Ultraviolet light degrades the quality of wine by causing premature aging. This is the reason why wine bottles are dark tinted; wine has to be protected from this kind of light. Sunlight and fluorescent lights emit ultraviolet light. LED lights are the best option for custom wine cellars in Miami, Florida.

HUMIDITY MATTERS

Ideally, wines should be kept in a wine cellar in Florida that has a humidity level anywhere between 50 to 80 percent. Too humid of a location can allow mold and mildew formation. Although mold and mildew may not necessarily affect wines that have been sealed properly, it can most certainly damage wine labels. Humidity levels that are too low can dry out corks and cause the oxidation of the wines.

GO SIDEWAYS!

Having your wine bottles rest sideways on your wine racks has two benefits. First, it makes sure that the wines are in constant contact with the corks, to prevent them from drying out. Second, horizontal wine racking saves a lot of space. This is especially good for those who want to store hundreds to thousands of wines.

NO SHAKING

Constant vibrations can be damaging to wines because shaking speeds up many chemical reactions in the wine. This, in turn, causes wine to age prematurely. Keep wines in a wine storage room that protects it from vibration.

Wine Cellars International provides more tips on how to build the perfect wine storage rooms for your beloved wines. They offer various kinds of custom wine cellars in Miami, as well as different designs of wine racks.