Planning a Wine Wall or Cellar: Zones, Venting and Racking

Most wine storage projects start with a number of bottles and work outwards. That is the wrong end. The temperature you need, the opening you have, and whether the cabinet can breathe where you want to put it will decide the purchase long before capacity does.

Serving and cellaring are two different temperatures

A cellar holds bottles steady for years, somewhere near 55 F. A serving cabinet holds them ready to pour, which means whites cooler and reds warmer than that. The Wine Cellars and Bars range spans 35 F to 68 F, which covers both jobs, but no single zone covers both at once.

So the first question is not how many bottles. It is whether you are keeping wine or pouring it, and whether you need to do both in the same cabinet.

Zones decide the cabinet

A single zone holds one temperature throughout. It is the right answer for a pure cellar, or for a household that drinks mostly one thing.

A dual zone splits the cabinet so you can cellar in one half and serve from the other. The Wine Cooler range offers single or dual zones in every size, and the 72 inch 164 bottle dual zone refrigerator is the full height version of that idea.

A triple zone appears on the wider Wine and Beverage Center, which is a serving station rather than a cellar: two or three independently set areas, holding 91 to 161 bottles or 389 to 630 cans depending on configuration.

Front venting decides whether it can be built in

This is the specification that quietly kills more installations than any other. A cabinet that vents through the front can sit under a counter or inside cabinetry, because it draws and exhausts air at the toe kick. A cabinet that vents at the back or sides needs clearance that a joiner's opening will not give it.

Every unit in this range is offered for built in or freestanding use, and the stainless steel bar refrigerators in 24, 36 and 53 inch widths are explicitly front venting and commercial grade. If your cabinetry is already drawn, confirm the venting before the opening is cut.

Size by the opening, then check the bottle count

The range resolves to three heights, and the depths are not identical, which catches people out against a standard 24 inch counter run.

• 24 inch under counter: 23.43 in wide, 22.76 in deep, 34.06 in high.
• 47 inch column: 23.43 in wide, 27.56 in deep, 47.24 in high.
• 72 inch column: 23.43 in wide, 27.36 in deep, 70.87 in high.

Those deeper 27 inch bodies will stand proud of a 24 inch counter. That is often fine against a bar wall and a problem in a galley kitchen, so measure the depth, not just the width. Weights run from 52 to 103 lb for the single cabinets and about 152 lb for the wide upright centre, which matters on a suspended floor or a staircase.

Wine, drinks, or both

If the room is a bar rather than a cellar, a beverage refrigerator behind a low E glass door does more work than a wine cabinet: cans, mixers and bottles, reachable without opening the kitchen fridge. If it is both, the combination centres exist in under counter form at 30 to 48 inches and as full height uprights.

Inverter compressors, LED lighting and quiet operation are common across the range, which is worth knowing if the cabinet is going into a living space rather than a utility room.

Racking is the other half of the room

Refrigeration holds what you are drinking this year. Racking holds everything else, and it is what makes a cellar look like a cellar.

• Classic timber racks are freestanding and configurable from 12 to 130 bottles, which makes them the straightforward answer for a first cellar.
• Modular layer racks expand a layer at a time, so the storage grows with the collection instead of being bought all at once.
• Sloped racks angle the bottle so the label faces you, which is display as much as storage.
• Wall mounted steel rails hold bottles at a single bottle depth, turning a wall into storage without taking floor space.
• Custom timber racks come in natural pine, mahogany, rustic hardwood and black onyx finishes, and are the route for an under stair space where nothing standard fits.

The five things to confirm before ordering

• Venting. Front venting for anything going into cabinetry, full stop.
• Door direction. Several models are offered with a choice of hinge side. Getting it wrong means a door that opens into the walkway for the life of the cabinet.
• Power. A dedicated outlet behind the unit, positioned so it does not foul the cabinet depth.
• Route in. A 72 inch column has to reach the room. Measure doorways, turns and stair widths before the truck arrives, not after.
• Floor. A loaded full height cabinet is heavy and concentrated on a small footprint.

How it arrives

KingsBottle orders take 5 to 7 business days to arrive and ship curbside by freight to the continental United States. White glove delivery is available as a paid upgrade, and it is worth considering for the 47 and 72 inch columns, because curbside means exactly that: the unit reaches the end of your drive and the rest is yours.

Most units include the supplier's two year warranty where offered.

A sensible order of decisions

Decide whether you are cellaring or serving. Pick the zone count that follows from it. Measure the opening including depth and confirm venting. Then, and only then, look at bottle counts and pick the racking that finishes the room.

If you are working from a floor plan or an architect's drawing, send it over. It is far easier to tell you what fits than to guess from a bottle count.