Tag Archives: wooden wine racks

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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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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Vancouver Canada Residential Wine Cellar Renovation Project

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

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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