I put an offer in on a house to buy that has a small cellar. It's
perfect for wine. I don't have much of a stock yet, but I am thinking
this would be a terrific place to store wine. I can stand up in this
cellar, and it's a dirt floor and about 5x5 feet (maybe bigger). It
has a light to see, too!

I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
affordable wine storage stacking system?

Thanks!
Karen

"Karen" > skrev i melding
...
> I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
> something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
> shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
> affordable wine storage stacking system?
>
How about IKEA? Checked the US IKEA and they do have a system called GORM
which includes shelving units and bottle racks. You can stack bottles 2 or
3 high on each rack so you don't need that many for a start.
hth
Anders

There are a lot of options.
One can build diamond bins pretty easily.
Some people advocate stacking cut 3.5" PVC pipes, cheap and easy way to make
"racks" (I'd go two bottles deep). .
I put some on my extra wine in "milk crates", but I just stack the crates, I
don't make bins out of them. If you want something against wall where you
can reach in and grab bottles, probably best not having flat bottoms. Maybe
you could assemble square crates so they are in diamond formation.


"Karen" > wrote in message
...
>I put an offer in on a house to buy that has a small cellar. It's
> perfect for wine. I don't have much of a stock yet, but I am thinking
> this would be a terrific place to store wine. I can stand up in this
> cellar, and it's a dirt floor and about 5x5 feet (maybe bigger). It
> has a light to see, too!
>
> I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
> something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
> shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
> affordable wine storage stacking system?
>
> Thanks!
> Karen

Karen wrote:
> I put an offer in on a house to buy that has a small cellar. It's
> perfect for wine. I don't have much of a stock yet, but I am thinking
> this would be a terrific place to store wine. I can stand up in this
> cellar, and it's a dirt floor and about 5x5 feet (maybe bigger). It
> has a light to see, too!
>
> I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
> something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
> shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
> affordable wine storage stacking system?
>
> Thanks!
> Karen
Hi Karen,
Anders and Dale (so far) have good ideas on storage, but what intrigues
me most is the cellar. Depending on where you live, a dirt floor cellar
could provide the temperature and humidity needed for wine storage.
Tell us more.
Dick R.

Dick R. wrote:

> Karen wrote:
>
>> I put an offer in on a house to buy that has a small cellar. It's
>> perfect for wine. I don't have much of a stock yet, but I am thinking
>> this would be a terrific place to store wine. I can stand up in this
>> cellar, and it's a dirt floor and about 5x5 feet (maybe bigger). It
>> has a light to see, too!
>>
>> I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
>> something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
>> shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
>> affordable wine storage stacking system?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Karen
>
> Hi Karen,
> Anders and Dale (so far) have good ideas on storage, but what intrigues
> me most is the cellar. Depending on where you live, a dirt floor cellar
> could provide the temperature and humidity needed for wine storage.
> Tell us more.
> Dick R.
And let me add ...
A couple of years ago we visited the Truman home in Independence, MO.
It was a real step back in time because there were old magazines on
tables in the living room, and it looked like the Trumans had just stepped
out for a walk. The National Park Service maintains the home and they're
still taking inventory. The most intriguing part is that Harry often
received bottles of wine from visiting dignitaries, and since he wasn't
much of a drinker the bottles were stored in the dirt floor basement.
The basement isn't open for tourists, but it made me wonder what treasures
might be down there.

I'm Dick R. and I approve this message. :-)

Check IWA.com to see what they have available. Several years back I bought
some metal racks that bolted to the wall. I recall paying around $35.00 +
shipping each and the rack held 72 bottles. I bought 6 sets. I've not seen a
cheaper way to store wine. They took them out of the catalogue for a few
years but now they're back. I believe the price is up a good bit too but
still less than $1.00 per bottle for storage and that's still cheaper than
anything else I've seen.

Good luck.

JB


"Karen" > wrote in message
...
>I put an offer in on a house to buy that has a small cellar. It's
> perfect for wine. I don't have much of a stock yet, but I am thinking
> this would be a terrific place to store wine. I can stand up in this
> cellar, and it's a dirt floor and about 5x5 feet (maybe bigger). It
> has a light to see, too!
>
> I don't want a fancy wine rack or anything right now unless I can find
> something really afforadble. Has anyone had any success with make-
> shift racks out of storage cubes, or crates or boards or know of an
> affordable wine storage stacking system?
>
> Thanks!
> Karen

On Oct 28, 9:55*am, "Dick R." > wrote:
> Hi Karen,
> Anders and Dale (so far) have good ideas on storage, but what intrigues
> me most is the cellar. Depending on where you live, a dirt floor cellar
> could provide the temperature and humidity needed for wine storage.
> Tell us more.
> Dick R.

Great ideas here and I appreciate it very much.

My house (I hope, I hope) is a 1930 bungalow cottage in San Jose,
Calif., and the cellar the kind on the Wizard of Oz where you lift the
door up outside the house in the back yard and walk down. (scary at
first, but I plan to get used to it) San Jose climate is mild.

The cellar itself is clean and cool and around 5 foot square.

Karen

On Oct 28, 2:22*pm, "JB" > wrote:
> Check IWA.com to see what they have available. Several years back I bought
> some metal racks that bolted to the wall. I recall paying around $35.00 +
> shipping each and the rack held 72 bottles. I bought 6 sets. I've not seen a
> cheaper way to store wine. They took them out of the catalogue for a few
> years but now they're back. I believe the price is up a good bit too but
> still less than $1.00 per bottle for storage and that's still cheaper than
> anything else I've seen.

The walls are dirt, if I recall.

I was hoping to rig up something clever and cheap.

Thanks again.

Karen

On Oct 28, 8:50*am, "Anders Tørneskog" >
wrote:
> How about IKEA? Checked the US IKEA and they do have a system called GORM
> which includes shelving units and bottle racks. *You can stack bottles 2 or
> 3 high on each rack so you don't need that many for a start.

Takk, Anders! I can't believe I forgot check IKEA... yikes. I will
check it out.

Thanks,
Karen

On Oct 28, 9:41*am, "DALE WILLIAMS" >
wrote:
> There are a lot of options.
> One can build diamond bins pretty easily.
> Some people advocate stacking cut 3.5" PVC pipes, cheap and easy way to make
> "racks" (I'd go two bottles deep). .
> I put some on my extra wine in "milk crates", but I just stack the crates, I
> don't make bins out of them. If you want something against wall where you
> can reach in and grab bottles, probably best not having flat bottoms. Maybe
> you could assemble square crates so they are in diamond formation.

oh this sounds good. How do you stack the pvc pipes so the bottle
stays in one place?

Thanks!
Karen

Karen wrote:
> On Oct 28, 9:55 am, "Dick R." > wrote:
>> Hi Karen,
>> Anders and Dale (so far) have good ideas on storage, but what intrigues
>> me most is the cellar. Depending on where you live, a dirt floor cellar
>> could provide the temperature and humidity needed for wine storage.
>> Tell us more.
>> Dick R.
>
> Great ideas here and I appreciate it very much.
>
> My house (I hope, I hope) is a 1930 bungalow cottage in San Jose,
> Calif., and the cellar the kind on the Wizard of Oz where you lift the
> door up outside the house in the back yard and walk down. (scary at
> first, but I plan to get used to it) San Jose climate is mild.
>
> The cellar itself is clean and cool and around 5 foot square.
>

In San Jose you'll want to rig up something to catch bottles if the
ground shakes. When we lived in SF we had redwood diamonds/square
bins with some netting to hold bottles in.

I prefer the square bins, they hold a case regardless of funny bottles,
whereas the diamonds are hard to stack for bottles where the base is
smaller than the shoulder.

Eric W, of afw but not seen here for a while, bought the remaining
racks from me, and I hope they are still holding his favorite Zins today!

-E

Karen wrote:

> My house (I hope, I hope) is a 1930 bungalow cottage in San Jose,
> Calif., and the cellar the kind on the Wizard of Oz where you lift the
> door up outside the house in the back yard and walk down. (scary at
> first, but I plan to get used to it) San Jose climate is mild.
>
> The cellar itself is clean and cool and around 5 foot square.

Karen,
San Jose gets quite hot in the summer months and most basements there
don't go fully below ground. (For all I know, yours might be the
exception) That, coupled with the exterior access, will mean that your
cellar will probably get warmer than is ideal in the summertime (for San
Jose, that means July-Oct). It shouldn't be a problem for medium-term
storage (5 years or so) but might be iffy for long-term storage unless
you insulate. You've had some good suggestions for racking. I went
with cheapo racking from IWA:

http://www.iwawine.com/

The cheap pine racking I got doesn't look like it's still sold, but the
wire grid racking is pretty low cost ($80 for 152 bottles). For the PVC
pipe approach, see this website:

http://www.wineintro.com/products/ra.../winerack.html

HTH
Mark Lipton



--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:19:55 -0400, Mark Lipton >
wrote:

> For the PVC pipe approach, see this website:
>
>http://www.wineintro.com/products/ra.../winerack.html

Hmmm..the pipe in those illustrations looks more like ABS than PVC. It
looks rather thin, too, which lends to the ABS possibility. ABS is
primarily used in plumbing, PVC more for electrical conduit.

If you do shop for PVC there are a couple things to be aware of:

1. The price of it has recently taken a leap, as has most everything
oil-related. (The official excuse is that Hurricane Ike damaged
several large production facilities inTexas.) The larger diameter
pipe can be pricy. Call around.

2. It generally comes in 10 foot lengths. Don't take your VW down to
Home Depot unless you also take a hack saw. If your bottles
average roughly 12" long, you should be able to get 10 single tubes
per 10-foot stick.

3. Electrical PVC comes in two specs, Schedule 40 and Schedule 80.
Schedule 80 is thicker and more expensive. Of course, it's more
resilient, too, but if you're not planning on driving over a trench
with a bulldozer you really don't need it. I don't know much about
ABS, but I'm sure there are various grades of it, too.

JJ

Karen wrote:
> On Oct 28, 9:41 am, "DALE WILLIAMS" >
> wrote:
>> There are a lot of options.
>> One can build diamond bins pretty easily.
>> Some people advocate stacking cut 3.5" PVC pipes, cheap and easy way to make
>> "racks" (I'd go two bottles deep). .
>> I put some on my extra wine in "milk crates", but I just stack the crates, I
>> don't make bins out of them. If you want something against wall where you
>> can reach in and grab bottles, probably best not having flat bottoms. Maybe
>> you could assemble square crates so they are in diamond formation.
>
> oh this sounds good. How do you stack the pvc pipes so the bottle
> stays in one place?

With 5 feet between the walls, this should not be a problem.
You might want to put something on the floor to keep the lowest level
from it, then you place as many pipes as will fit between the walls.
If there is some gap, a sheet of insulating material might help.
Next layer shifts automatically and you keep piling.

You can take a look here
http://ventre-a-pattes.net/cave.html

More than two bottles deep is not recommended, unless your arms are much
longer and thinner than mine.
Best length in my opinion is 20" for most bottles, 24" for Alsace and
similar, that would leave you with 3 feet for access, quite fine.


--
Eric Lafontaine
http://ventre-a-pattes.com