Tag Archives: home wine cellars

Luxurious Custom Wine Cellar Design for a High-end Home in West Vancouver

Written by Holly Peters - Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver Comments Off on Luxurious Custom Wine Cellar Design for a High-end Home in West Vancouver

Luxurious Custom Wine Cellar Design for a High-End Home in West Vancouver

A homeowner in West Vancouver wanted to build a custom wine cellar utilizing wood for the racking material. Blue Grouse Wine Cellars were pleased to work on this project. The challenge was to meet the high expectations of the client, being an expert in the interior design industry. With extensive experience and creativity in building wine cellars, they were able to provide all of the requirements of the owner.

Building a Personalized Residential Wine Cellar for an Interior Designer

At Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver, we work with Blue Grouse Wine Cellars in providing practical yet exceptional wine storage solutions. Blue Grouse Wine Cellars have been in the construction industry for 20 years, serving clients within Canada.

They guide our clients to help them transform a spare room into an impressive wine storage facility. They assess the client’s needs so they can create a design that will suit their budget, space, and aesthetic requirements.

Recently, an interior designer in West Vancouver approached them to seek a little help in building a custom wine cellar in their luxurious home.

Combination of Traditional and Modern Design for a High-End Home

CAD Drawing of Traditional Custom Wood Wine Cellar in West Vancouver

The room used for this project is like a hallway. It is 96” high, 102” wide, and 87 1/2“ long. The area looks like a cathedral because the ceiling in the middle is higher than the ceiling of the sidewalls. The metal chandelier hanging from the ceiling added a European appeal to the space.

There are two long walls, with a door on both ends of the room. The owner chose the door for this wine cellar.

Assessment of the Client’s Needs

Wine Cellar in Alder Wood with Dark Brown Stain and Chandelier

The first step in constructing a traditional wine cellar is to know the specific needs of the customer. There are questions that the builders need to answer to help them create a design that will suit the client’s needs.

On this project, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars needed the following information:

how the owner buys her wines (by the bottle or in bulk)
the sizes of bottles that the client intend to be store and display
the overall appeal that the owner wants for her wine cellar

Stylish Wine Rack Features

After obtaining the important details from the owner, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars suggested custom features to be incorporated into the racking design.

They were able to determine the most suitable type of bottle orientations, lighting system, racking material, and flooring. The racking styles on both walls are the same to achieve symmetry.

When choosing a material for the wine racks, your builder must complement the existing home décor and know the aesthetic preference of the owner. On this project, the single-family home has a luxurious interior design. The owner wanted an old-world look, so Blue Grouse Wine Cellars chose the type of wood that would achieve this.

Characteristics of Knotty Alder

Custom Wood Wine Rack Design with Rectangular Bins for Wood Cases and Diamond Bins for Bulk Storage Made from Alder

To blend well with the classic theme of the home, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars decided to use Knotty Alder for the wine racks.

This wood species is known for its beautiful knots and clusters. They applied the wood with a deep brown stain and did not use lacquer, bringing out the rustic appeal in wine racks.

Knotty Alder is also highly resistant to rot and mildew, making it an ideal material for residential custom wine cellars equipped with a cooling system. With proper care, wine racks constructed from this wood can store and display your collection for many years.

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Fabulous Vancouver Custom Wine Cellar Design with Wood and Metal Racking

Written by Holly Peters - Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver Comments Off on Fabulous Vancouver Custom Wine Cellar Design with Wood and Metal Racking

Construction challenges did not stop a professional from building a wine cellar. Known as one of the top-notch designers and installers in Vancouver, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars was able to design and install a unique and functional wine room in a basement. Traditional and modern features were combined to meet the client’s requirements.

Conversion of a Basement Into an Impressive Custom Wine Cellar

Wooden Wine Racking with Bottles and Wood Cases -

Metal and Wooden Wine Racking Vancouver Installation Project

With extensive experience in building wine rooms, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars offers storage solutions for those who dream of having a safe and beautiful place for their collection.

Recently, they have converted a large basement into a traditional and contemporary custom wine cellar in Vancouver.

After a careful assessment of the client’s aesthetic and functional requirements, they created 3-dimensional drawings of the wine cellar. The images show the plan views, elevations, and dimensions of the room.

Wine Cellar Construction

Wine Cellar Room Before Construction Began

The original room had a heavy pool table and a couple of wine cabinets that had to be transferred upstairs. Blue Grouse Wine Cellars had to replace the old drywall with a new type of drywall intended for a climate-controlled wine room.

They had to add insulation on the walls and ceiling. The hidden room under the stairs, which can be accessed through a tiny door, had to be insulated as well because it will be used as an additional wine storage space.

Another challenge for Blue Grouse Wine Cellars is the window, which opened to the outdoors. They had to build a wall in front of it to prevent harmful light from coming through. After sealing the room, they started to install the wine racks, cooling system, door, lighting, and flooring.

Wood and metal wine racks were used to satisfy the client’s desire for a traditional and contemporary storage area. The wine room has two doors: one enters the residential wine cellar from the basement hallway and the other from the outdoors. They are both solid, exterior grade doors.

Sapele Wood and VintageView Metal Wine Racks

The appeal and mood of a wine room are determined by the overall design of the racking system. At Blue Grouse Wine Cellars, they make sure that the material and style of wine racks exceed the owner’s standards. They use their passion and creativity to build custom wine rooms that can be the envy of every guest.

In this wine room conversion project, wood and metal wine racks were combined to create a storage display that suits the needs of a high-end wine collector.

Stylish Wine Racks Constructed from Sapele Wood

Custom wine cellar builders in Vancouver recommend the Sapele wood wine racks because of their stability and high resistance to rot. Since Sapele is a hardwood species that has interlocking grain pattern, it is known to be harder than other types of wood. It is also widely used by manufacturers of doors and windows.

With attractive grain patterns and natural luster, Sapele can add character to your wine storage room. They left the wine racks unfinished because the owner wanted a scent-free cellar.

Elevations B

Quarter Round Display Shelf and Racking with Wine Bottles Loaded in

Beautiful Wine Rack Design with Sapele Wood

Elevation B is the first racking that you’ll see when you enter the door from the basement hallway. It starts with a 5-level quarter round wine rack where the client can display a few bottles vertically.

It also provides a good storage area for wine accessories like decanters and wine glasses.

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Wine Deterioration Can be Prevented by Storing Them in a Refrigerated Vancouver Residential Wine Cellar

Written by Holly Peters - Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver Comments Off on Wine Deterioration Can be Prevented by Storing Them in a Refrigerated Vancouver Residential Wine Cellar

Poor storage conditions can deteriorate wine rapidly. Wine needs to be stored in a room that is installed with a climate-control system. Learn how a refrigerated Vancouver residential wine cellar can protect your wines from spoilage, and understand the function of a cooling system in proper preservation of your favorite vintages.

Wine Needs to be Kept in a Safe Place to Age

Invest in a Refrigerated Wine Cellar to Keep Your Wines Safe

Wine deteriorates rapidly when stored in a wrong environment. It is susceptible to climatic changes caused by external factors such as temperature, light, and humidity.

A storage area with stable conditions and minimal light will protect wine from damage, allowing your favorite vintages to reach their full potential before consumption. This is why many wine enthusiasts in many parts of the world, including Vancouver, invest in a refrigerated wine cellar.

How a Climate-Controlled Wine Cellar Can Protect Your Wine

In addition to convenience in accessing your precious vintages, having your own home wine cellar will give you peace of mind. It is the safest resting place for your wines because it has a stable environment. This can be achieved only when an efficient wine cooling system is installed in your wine room.

Function of the Wine Refrigeration System in Proper Wine Preservation

An Efficient Wine Refrigeration System is an Essential Component of a Wine Cellar

Wine cellars should be equipped with a cooling system that is capable of maintaining the optimal environment needed by wine to preserve its complex taste and aroma. Temperature and humidity must be stabilized to prevent wine faults.

Prevent Temperature Fluctuations

With an efficient cooling unit, the ideal temperature, which is 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit, can be achieved. It helps prevent temperature fluctuations that can dramatically ruin wine.

When the temperature in your Vancouver residential wine cellar exceeds the ideal range, the cork will shrink, allowing air leakage. This can cause oxidation, which can be detrimental to your wines.

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Vancouver Custom Wine Cellar Renovation Project

Written by Holly Peters - Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver Comments Off on Vancouver Custom Wine Cellar Renovation Project

Custom Residential Wine Cellar Renovation in Vancouver (a Processed Video Transcription)

Vancouver Residential Renovation with Walnut Racking

Beach Avenue, Vancouver

Hi. I’m Adrienne from Blue Grouse Wine Cellars. I’d like to tell you about our wine cellar project that we completed recently in the Vancouver downtown area on Beach Avenue, and here’s the picture of the area.

You will see how beautiful it is down there. We’re working in a condominium building.

The Old Wine Storage Cabinet of the Client

The client that we worked with had their existing wine cellar or wine cabinet shown in this picture here. It was built with three separate temperature-controlled wine cabinet, one behind each this door.

We’re not really quite sure why it was designed that way, because wine cooling system could definitely handle the space. In any case, they had this for a number of years, about 20 years. And we’re running to update its look, and install properly working wine cooling equipment.

They also wanted to expand the size to accommodate their ever growing collection. So we started by doing designs for them.

We went through a few revisions, and eventually ended up here with this design. These were the drawings that we created so they could see in 3D exactly what they would be getting, and how it would fit the size.

You can see that there wasn’t a whole lot difference than what they started with, but the depth was greatly increased. There was some storage area behind this cellar that we stole space from that used to be a bathroom before their first home wine cellar. So they had easy water connection for the wine cooling system.

The 3D Drawings

Looking through the drawings here. This is the plan view, the top view, so you can see exactly all the measurements, and the various elevations, A, B, and C. Elevation A is the back wall. Behind this box of this cabinet is where the cooling unit is housed.

You can see in this further stripped down view what the cooling unit looks like. It kind of a large metal box with the wall ducting coming up the top and connect to the fitting up here where the cold air blows out into the cellar.

This grill here is where the warm air comes out to the unit. The return air is at the toe kick. It’s a pretty sophisticated design. They didn’t have to have grills. There’s a gap in the toekick at the bottom here where it opens so the air can feed back up to the cooling unit.

We got a shaker style door. They were looking for a pretty clean contemporary design, so you don’t see any fancy moldings or anything here.

The wine racking has some display shelves. These aren’t fold up because as you can see in this view, that the ducting is running up behind. So that hiding the ducting is what giving them some display space for the bottles that they wanted to stand up.

Custom Wine Cellar Features

Lighting

They got LED lighting incorporated at the top to shine down the display feature. They also have LED lighting over top of the display row for the individual bottle racking on either side of the cabinet.

Racking Components

Looking to the next elevations B and C, are mirrors of each other because these are the two sidewalls. They have some diamond bin storage here.

This is for the bulk wine, so when our client has wines that are all the same, all those bottles can fit into the bins here. It maximizes the storage capacity.

It wouldn’t be a good idea to include too many of these if you are somebody who buys 1 to 2 bottles at a time, because you wouldn’t want to mix the bottles in here because getting bottles at the bottom can be quite tricky.

This is the display row running horizontally through the middle. This carries through the perimeter of the room. It has LED lighting over top of the bottles to highlight them.

Elevation D is the front row of the cellar, which was full frameless glass. Now this isn’t the most efficient way to build a Vancouver residential wine cellar, but it can be done and we took careful attention to make sure that the doors had really good seals around them, so we don’t have air escaping or warm air coming into the wine cellar. It’s 12 mm clear tempered glass. They got some pull handles here on the front, and some top and bottom hinges.

Wine Refrigeration System

The cooling unit in here is a really powerful cooling unit. It can actually handle spaces up to 2,000 cubic feet, which is obviously a lot larger than this wine cellar was. But with this full frameless glass wall and no R-value in the front, we do have to compensate for that.

The Completed Home Wine Cellar

View Through Glass Doors into Custom Wine Cellar

Vancouver Wine Cellar Installation by Blue Grouse

So the finished project looks like this. Just as you saw on the drawings, everything matches. That was what the racking is. The installers followed the drawings assembling this wood wine racking and finishing the custom wine cellar.

All the racking was made from walnut wood, and really high quality walnut wood without any knots. And then it had an oil finish applied to it to darken the wood and give it a richer look and feel.

The shelves up here are glass shelves that were installed on brackets. This is where the liquor bottles were displayed by the client. And they’ve got some of their featured bottles highlighted in the display row here under the LED lighting.

I’ll just show you a few more pictures. This picture here shows you the full fronts glass wall. You can see they got some nice pull handles, pretty minimal in their appearance. Brushed nickel to match their brushed nickel catch hardware for the door hinges.

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Worry-Free Wine Collecting with Blue Grouse Wine Cellars: Learn the Conditions Every Wine Collector Should Know When Storing Wine in Their Home.

Written by Holly Peters - Custom Wine Cellars Vancouver Comments Off on Worry-Free Wine Collecting with Blue Grouse Wine Cellars: Learn the Conditions Every Wine Collector Should Know When Storing Wine in Their Home.

While most of the commodities are consumed within 24 hours from the time of purchase, wines are often saved by the purchaser for long-term storage and aged. Wine is one of the things that get better with time when stored and aged properly, but it can also spoil and deteriorate rapidly if kept in inappropriate conditions. Proper storage and aging will enhance wine’s flavor, color and quality in general.

As an expert in wine storage, Blue Grouse Wine Cellars always considers the following critical factors when designing and installing Vancouver wine cellars.

Proper Wine Storage – Factors to Consider

Light

Wines, especially white wines should not be subjected to excessive amounts of light. They should not be stored under direct sunlight, and fluorescent lights with ultraviolet light in the wavelength of 325 to 450 nm.

Light may adversely react with the chemical compounds in wine and create potential wine faults or defects, which often leads to wine having a light-struck aroma (or gouts de lumiere – French for tastes of light).

Wine maintains its clarity and citrus aroma if stored in a dark room. This is why most wines are packed in colored glass and stored in wine cellars with a minimal amount of lighting.

Humidity

Humidity is another critical element of wine storage that must be considered, especially if wine cork closures are used. The efficacy of the wine cork depends upon the humidity level. While the optimal humidity range is not yet established and varies from one wine expert to the next, the often-cited ideal humidity level is between 60 and 70 percent.

The ideal humidity range will keep the cork expanded and in shape, providing a good seal to the wine bottle. When wine is stored lower than the ideal humidity level, cork will dry out, shrink or crack, allowing oxygen to enter the bottle and come in contact with the wine. Oxidation then occurs resulting in degradation of wine.

Additionally, when wine is subjected to a higher humidity level, mold may occur and while this will not affect the wine itself, the bottle and wine label will deteriorate.This provides yet another reason that storing your wines in a standard kitchen refrigerator is not advisable, since it is not designed to maintain the right humidity levels.

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