Wine cellar feasible in 6’ x 6x room?

My wife and I are currently building a house (great timing, I know) and have a 6’ x 6’ room on an exterior wall with no windows where we are considering building out a wine cellar. The ceiling is 12’ high but we’re concerned that the space might not be big enough to make a cellar worth it. We’re going for utilitarian long term storage, not a showroom.

How many bottles could fit in the space and what would be the optimal layout (double racks on 2 walls only, single racks on all walls, etc.) to fit the most bottles? Are there any manufacturers of racks that can run up 10-12 ft high? We‘re thinking of using a split unit cooling system, but could also vent a thru wall into the adjacent room. Which would be better for the small space?

Thanks in advance for any insight or advice! This is an amazing forum.

I’ll offer up a couple of modestly informed comments. First, there was a long running thread here a year or so ago started by someone building a house in Florida who wanted to include a two story cellar with a relatively small footprint. There was much discussion about the temperature differential that would result given the tall space. Your space is not as tall but it would be worth searching for that thread to review the discussion.

Second, multiple threads have discussed the degree to which your footprint will be reduced once you build out the walls worth the necessary insulation, vapor barrier, finished wall surface, etc. Even adding a couple of inches of wall depth could be a meaningful consideration in how useable the resultant space will be.

Finally, in the Florida build thread there was also much discussion about how one would access the upper reaches of the cellar. A library type rolling ladder is the most obvious choice but a straight vertical ladder is not particularly safe or comfortable to be climbing up and down ferrying wine. An angled ladder is slightly more comfortable but you will find that there is insufficient space in a 6x6 room with double depth racking 12’ high for any sort of angle on the ladder (even assuming no additional depth to your walls, the racking on each side would be 24” deep leaving only a 24” space down the middle for access).

My suspicion is that your optimum capacity would be based on double depth racking on one wall and single depth on the opposing wall with some form of freestanding rolling ladder down the center. However, others here will have better advice based on firsthand experience.

Good luck.

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I suggest that you ask the Mods to move this to the Wine Talk forum.

For sure you can put a cellar in that space. Much racking is custom so height can be whatever you want. With that said I’d never go over 7ft where I can reach. I put a solid top on the redwood racking so I can put boxes or empty wood cases up high. Go double deep and rack one of the 6’ walls ideally. A drawing might help in case there is a better way to arrange the rack(s) in light of where the entry is.

A window type unit venting outside is the most cost cost effective solution. Venting to another interior space is far from ideal or even good. A split system is always good just a bit more expensive. A ductless mini split is super quiet if sound matters as most split systems are fairly noisy.

In terms of cooling, in our new cellar we used a Wine Guardian ductless split, and so far we’re happy with it. It takes up very little space in the room (though it does take some space on the other side of the wall behind). Definitely not the cheapest option, though.

When were planning out our space, I did a mockup of the aisle spacing using some boxes stacked together in our living room. It really helped me envision what it would feel like to have different amounts of aisle space, and figure out what the minimum we could get away with was. When I was first trying to squeeze the design in, I was looking at maybe a 24-30" aisle. While I do think I could have made that work if it was all the space I had, I found that a really narrow aisle was tricky especially for getting into the bottom few rows, working with boxes while loading in, etc. In the end I ended up with 43" which is probably overkill — it’s just what was left when I decided to go ahead and maximize the space in the room we had with double racks on each wall. Anyway, I do think you can get a usable cellar in that space, but I think it’s worth doing some kind of mockup just to see how tight it feels and if you’ll be able to work adequately in there.

I recommend reading this book

Used copies are $5 all in

The book is well worth the time

that’s about the size of my previous cellar, definitely worth it, I managed to stuff about 2k bottles in there

My cellar is a very utilitarian 6x8 cellar with an 8’ ceiling. I did floor to ceiling individual bottle, double deep racks on the back wall. It’s enough space for 924 bottles. I could have put single deep racking on the front wall on either side of the door which would have netted me about another 300 bottles, but elected not to do it. On the side wall to the right, I have a wall unit that vents into the adjacent utility room.

The may be an unpopular opinion, but the extra work and cost around insulation and vapor barrier, etc. isn’t worth it. Obviously, this is somewhat dependent on where you live and the thermodynamics of the house. I live in NJ…I insulated the walls of my cellar, both exterior and interior. No vapor barrier (actually don’t remember if there is one) and used an insulated, outdoor style, metal door. It’s been totally fine.

Thanks for all the helpful recommendations and advice. Based on what appears to be the consensus, we decided we’re going to building out the cellar in the space we’ve got. I just bought the Gold book and am now looking forward to the process. Will try to update periodically as the buildout progresses. [cheers.gif]

My passive cellar is 4’ x 8’ and about 7’ tall. I have racks on opposite short walls and it can hold around 500 bottles, although I’m nowhere near that. I have a little space for a small table that I’m going to build to hold four Bordeaux crates as something of a showpiece (and also for more storage).

Right now my door is just an extra piece of foam across it, but I plan on building one with that foam and some plywood soon (nothing fancy).

Walls are 2x6 full of Rockwool / Roxul with 2" foam insulation on the outside, fully taped for a vapor barrier. It keeps temps under 70 in the summer and spends most of the year at 60, which is fine for passive (Virginia). If I went active, it would cost about $35 a year to keep it at 55F and I left a spot for a cooler if I ever need one.

The “How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar” is a great book and was a nice reference for my soil/insulation models, which after a year have turned out to be pretty spot on.

I’m putting one together in a 10’ x 5 1/2’ space. Will easily hold 900-1000 bottles. Can get it much higher as I have some room to go up with a 9’ ceiling. Initial pics are in the Wine Cellar pic thread.

[wow.gif] [wow.gif] [wow.gif]

it was, er, a little “crowded” :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: