Tag Archives: wine cellar cooling units

How to Know that the Wines in Your Wine Cellar Have Gone Bad

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Wines need an effective wine storage space in order to be kept safe. Without an effective wine storage solution, wine will go bad, and must be thrown away. This cannot be allowed to happen; after all, wine does not come cheap. Here are some things check for to find out whether your wines have gone bad or not.

The Two Most Common Causes of Wine Going Bad in a Wine Cellar

There are many things that can cause your wines to become tainted or spoiled. The two most common are: cork taint and oxidation.

1. Cork Taint.

Cork tainting is the wine’s cork being contaminated prior to bottling. More specifically, the wine cork is contaminated by TCA, a type of bacteria that lives in cork. It is important to take note that this has nothing to do with the little bits of floating cork in wine. Rather, a wine cork with an excessive amount of TCA is what will contaminate and consequently spoil wine. The term “corked” refers to spoiled wine.

2. Oxidation.

Oxidation is a process that occurs when wine is overexposed to air. More specifically,wine compounds react to the oxygen in the air. The most common cause of oxidation in wine is improper wine storage. This is why it is very important to invest in a reliable residential custom wine cellar so that wines can properly be stored.

Cues that Indicate that the Wine in Your Wine Cellar is Spoiled

There are a few cues that you can look for to see if your wines have gone bad. To search for these cues, here are somethings that you can do:

1. Observe Its Appearance.

Simply check the appearance of your wine to gain an idea of whether it is still good, or if it is spoiled. Bad wine loses its brightness and takes on a brown hue. A bottle of red wine that has turned brown in color is either old or tainted. If a bottle of white wine has turned deep yellow in color, it has most likely oxidized.

Besides the color, observe also the wine cork. If the cork has slightly pushed out from the bottle, it maybe an indication that the wine has overheated and expanded within the bottle.

2. Smell the Wine.

This is one of the quickest ways to check for spoilage. If your wine smells moldy or musty, it has most likely been spoiled. If your wine smells like sherry and it isn’t sherry, it has probably gone bad. Other scents that can indicate spoilage are stewed fruit,and/or a heavy raisin smell. If you detect a strong vinegar or sulfur smell,similar to rotten eggs, this is a sure sign that the wine has gone bad.

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Vancouver Canada Residential Wine Cellar Renovation Project

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The collection of every wine lover, whether he has few, a hundred bottles or more, deserves to be displayed elegantly in a wine cellar. One’s residential wine cellar must be climate-controlled to protect wine from being ruined by harmful external factors such as light and vibration.

The demand for wine cellars is on the rise in many parts of the world because of their important role in preserving wine’s quality and the fact that they add resale value to your home. Shawn Li is one of the residents in Vancouver, Canada who wanted to have both a functional and beautiful wine cellar in his own home.

The extensive experience and skillful hands of the Blue Grouse Wine Cellars design and installation team resulted in another remarkable wine cellar renovation project in Vancouver, Canada.

3D Custom Wine Cellar Design – Shawn Li Project Canada

As a standard operating procedure, the custom wine cellar design process started with interviewing the client to know every detail of his space, wine storage, and aesthetic requirements. Since Blue Grouse’s installer and the owners didn’t speak the same language, this process was not easy. However, the nanny and a friend of theirs performed the role of the translator, so Blue Grouse was able to know exactly what the owners wanted their wine cellar to look like.

Wine Cellar Construction – Achieving Proper Wine Storage

The house was old, and their previous wine cellar builder was not able to meet their specific requirements, so a major renovation was needed. The challenges included straightening and leveling the room’s existing framing, framing the supporting beam, and adjusting the bulkheads above the racking to match the height of the wine racks.

As a solution to the unleveled concrete floor, level bases with scribed trim were built so that the wine racks would have a platform to stand on. If the owner wants to level the floor sometime in the future, the existing wine racking need not be modified or removed.

The ideal environment for wine has a temperature of 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity of 50-70 percent. Proper wall insulation and vapor barrier installation are required to meet these conditions.

A tightly sealed wine cellar door is also important in preventing external factors and temperature fluctuations from ruining the wines. Blue Grouse Wine Cellars used a door of exterior grade with weather stripping to keep the cool air in the wine cellar.

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Wine Flaws and Vancouver Wine Cellar Cooling Systems

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How do you make sure that the wines you have in your collection are of the best quality? Ensuring freshness and taste quality of wine is quiet a challenging task. But, with proper wine storage, your wine will surely satisfy your guests’ palate during a party in your Vancouver custom wine cellar.

Poor storage conditions often result in wine flaws. Wine flaws are minor attributes that cause wine to be less than enjoyable. By keeping wine in a wine cellar that can stabilize temperature and humidity, proper storage can be achieved and wine flaws can be prevented.

We have this notion that the longer the wine is stored, the better it tastes. Basically, we all have to remember that only a small percentage of fine wines on the market benefit from long term aging. Most wines are best enjoyed within a few years of release.

Common Causes of Wine Flaws and Tips for Proper Wine Storage

Too Much Heat

We have to take note that it is important to keep wine cool, but not too cool. Heat is the number one enemy of wine, but make sure not to keep it somewhere so cold that it could freeze. If the storage area is too hot, wine often become oxidized and get “cooked”, resulting in flat aromas and flavors. This is why wine racks must not be placed near sources of heat such as appliances.

Vibration

Vibration must also be avoided so as not to disturb wine’s sediments. Disturbed sediments can cause unpleasant flavour in wine. Wine must also be kept in a dark area because too much exposure to light can affect the quality your most precious wines. Keeping these wines without much further consideration may result in wine flaws.

Poor Wine Storage or Transportation

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Basic Construction Specifications when Building a Custom Wine Cellar in Canada

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Planning to have a custom wine cellar in Canada? Whether it’s a commercial or residential wine cellar, there are specifications you need to follow in order to make sure that your wine storage room will function properly. Here are a few construction specifications for wine cellars in Vancouver:

1. Cellar Wall & Ceiling Frame

When building a wine cellar, make sure that the wall framing is built using standard 2×4 or 2×6 construction methods. It’s also imperative that you know and follow the building codes in your area. If metal studs will be used, be sure to place at least 5 rows of nailers horizontally in between studs at the right heights, or attach firing strips on the left edge of the metal studs. These nailers or strips are where the wine racks will be attached, so these have to be very durable.

2. Wine Cellar Vapor Barrier & Insulation

You need to install a vapor barrier and insulation to your custom wine cellar in Vancouver if it is to be chilled. Vapor barriers and insulation make sure that the cold inside the wine storage room is kept inside and remains constant.

In creating vapor barriers, you first need to apply 6-mill plastic sheeting to the warm side of the wine cellar walls. You must apply a vapor barrier on the outside walls and ceiling of your custom wine cellar. Make sure that the seams are taped and sealed before the walls are closed.

In cases wherein it’s not possible to apply a vapor barrier on the outside of the studs or joists, you must apply plastic inside the wine cellar to the outside walls. What most people commonly do is wrap the entire interior of their residential wine cellar in Canada leaving the plastic loose inside the stud cavity. In between the studs, you can apply insulation. It is imperative that all of the cellar’s walls and ceiling are completely wrapped in plastic so that vapor barrier is effective. Insulation for the walls should be R13, or greater while R19 to R30 is best for the ceiling.

3. Custom Wine Cellar Doors

If your custom wine cellar is to be chilled, the exterior grade of your wine cellar door should be solid core 1.75”. You may also choose to have glass on the cellar door; if so, you must use sealed insulated glass. To prevent warm air from penetrating the door, exterior grade weather stripping is also required.

4. Residential Wine Cellar Lighting

The best type of lights are LED lights, but if you want to use recessed cans and halogen lighting accents, you must have a good wine cellar cooling unit to remove the heat generated by these lights out from the cellar. It is important to consider also that lighting that emits more heat also consumes more power.

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Wine Storage Essentials for the Wine Collector in Vancouver, Canada

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The art of storing wine goes way back to ancient Egypt. In those days, wines that had been properly stored and allowed to age tastefully were only served to the pharaohs. Wine tastes exquisitely good if it properly stored, and that is why only the elite class of society in ancient Egypt were given the privilege of drinking properly stored wine.

Today, although good tasting wine is available and accessible to all people, we still put great value on proper wine storage. People who do not put importance in the proper storage of wine will not be able to taste wine in its best quality.

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