Same here. Looks sharp but not showy and maximises the space. I love it!
I can attest to this. I have come very close to taking some serious falls off of ours loaded down with wine. We have a storage shelf across the top that can hold wooden cases. It’s a Cirq du Soleil effort to get them up or down without killing myself.
Another drawback to the ladder is that it is forever in your way.
Fun project, though. Good luck!
Also Brad:
Pictures of Screaming Eagle OWC and Petrus.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Depending on how you lay out the doors this could also add room for the ladder to come out a bit further since you could extend it into the room. Of course you’d need really tall doors.
OK here’s an even stranger idea. What if you essentially separated it into two rooms, one on top of the other? The lower room could be a show cellar with glass doors, double deep racking, etc. Maybe 8-9 feet high so at most you need a stepstool. Then you add a second room above it accessed via a ladder (either from within the first through a trapdoor or exterior) where you can do more bulk storage. But at least you’d be able to stand in it and wouldn’t be doing racking work while on a ladder. I imagine you’d have to do some work to get the lower room to properly bear the weight of the upper room.Also unclear where the extra 6 feet of height comes from since the living room is only 12 feet, I’m not sure how you’d get a proper height entrance into the upper area. But it’s a thought… Even the library ladders I see online only go to 12 feet so it seems like it’ll be hard to use the 18 feet of height unless you add a ceiling/floor in between.
Such an interesting cellar design, had to jump in with my first post. I very much agree with what others have said about cooling challenges with that much height, the window being less than ideal and difficulty accessing top areas via ladder. Has the foundation already been poured? It looks like there’s a dead space immediately to the right/east of the cellar…could the exterior wall be re-configured to incorporate that space into the cellar? If you could do that, bring ceiling height down to 10 or max 12 feet, nix the window and potentially even move the southern wall slightly further south to align with the laundry/pantry area, I think you would maintain the storage capacity you’re looking for but with a more user-friendly design.
Having gone through this a couple years ago, the only challenge I had was with the spray-in foam insulation. My contractor had never done a cellar before and figured a couple inches would be sufficient…had to have him redo it to bring it to the full depth of the studs.
Good luck with the cellar and the rest of the home build!
Thanks for all of the replies thus far.
The architect assures me that once I see the exterior renderings, it will make sense why both the cellar and pantry are “cut out” as opposed to having one continuous wall. I asked that same question as far as why not expand it all the way over.
As for a window, I think that’s actually a counter with racking for stems. That’s what I conveyed to him initially, though it’s definitely worth checking as obviously a window is far less than ideal.
I knew that a large ceiling would be a challenge in terms of air flow, but figured that was a “solvable” problem — even if it costs money. It sounds like it may be worth my while to engage a cellar consultant at this stage and bring them into the design process.
I also appreciate the thoughts about the ladder being a pain. Honestly I was fine with pulling DOWN bottles, but I also really didn’t think much about how bottles often come in by the case and putting a case of wine 18 feet off the ground will … not be pleasant.
I’ll ask about a split level with “show” cellar downstairs and more bulk storage upstairs. That space is unfinished in the upstairs plans (obviously, since it will rise to 6’ above the floor height as currently designed, so it’s probably possible. Of course that’s the same level where the kids bedrooms are, but they’re currently 18 months and -6 months old, so I can get a lock when the time comes 
I’m just curious…how many bottles do you plan on storing? And where are you getting your racking from? The one thing nobody has mentioned yet is the sheer weight of 18 feet of wine! I would seriously look into the engineering aspects of stacking that much juice on top of itself, before you commit to installing what I’m sure is gonna be a very $pendy set of racks!
It really seems like the simple solution is just keep it the same height as the living room and give the rest of the space to your kids rooms.
Yeah - that’s what I’d do - even if it’s just a closet. (Though without second floor plans hard to know if this works).
If you keep the 18’, what about not bothering with racking all the way up? Stop at 10’ or so. Put in a large hanging chandelier or something. Finish the walls and put in wine-related stuff - posters or OWC lids. Or decorate like some sort of vineyard trellis. Or Trompe L’Oeil painting of wine bottles or a “cave” look.
Besides the fact that doing that to a 6’ x 11’ closet would just look bizarre, you’d still have the not negligible problem of cooling that ICBM tube!!!
I have a couple of project managers and programmers working for me that could source and program for you a great ASRS with a small gantry robot that would both store to any spot and retrieve from any spot. You would never need to go inside. It would all serve through a window. This could use the entire height and you would just need a good circulator to keep the air temp even from top to bottom. It might cost as much as the house, but you would have a one of a kind. 
Liquid nitrogen!
Though you wouldn’t have to worry has much about the temperature stratification because only the bottom 12 feet would need to remain cool.
Double the size of the wine room. Otherwise, you will be unhappy sooner than you think. I thought we would never fill ours. It is now almost impossible to open the door and three people cannot stand inside at the same time.
People have been being polite. In the plan posted in the OP, the exterior wall of the wine room is no thicker than those of adjacent rooms. This clueless fact added to the clueless 18 ft height (“missile silo” is good) establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that the architect has no clue about building a space to store and protect wine. The rest of the house may be great, but get someone who actually knows wine cellars to fix this part.
FWIW, when you use close cell foam insulation regular 2x4 stud walls are fine. If you use batting or open cell foam yes need to change that for sure.
I was going to post something similar. I seriously question an architect thinking a 6x10x18 ft wine silo will work.
I scratched my head reading those dimensions and they have space to work with. Why not just square off the back of the house? Take advantage of that dead space between the wine cellar and the pantry, plus go outward.
You pretty much double up, have real room for storage, avoiding going 18’ to create storage. Lower the ceiling to no more than 9’, you go with 2x6 construction, and you have less exterior wall exposure overall. You can also use that cut out in the corner of the pantry for ducting and placing the air exchanger and having access to it. Of just use the space for more storage in the pantry.
My 2 cents.
Are the builders there just lazy or what?
Lol, from what I understand that’s driven by the water table in Florida. Most would have an indoor pool underneath them.