Install Wine Cellars

If you’re looking to stay on top of future building trends—the features that the homebuyers and owners of the near future are going to want you to build for them—then you might want to start investing in wine cellars. “There’s a huge market right now for wine cellars,” says James Deckebach, owner of Wine Cellar Innovations, a Cincinnati-based designer and manufacturer of wine cellars and components. “You wouldn’t believe that such an esoteric product would be in such high demand.”

Deckebach was a builder himself in 1984 when a customer wanted him to build a custom wine cellar. By 1989 he dropped out of construction to focus solely on his current business. He explains that the market has changed dramatically in that wine cellars used to be only a high-end amenity, but now the top 10 to 15 percent count wine cellars as a must-have.

“Now we’re even seeing more modest-income families on the West coast including them in their homes,” Deckebach says.

Many homebuilding trends start to catch on in both the high-end and West coast markets. Ten years ago, outdoor kitchens and home theaters were seen mainly in estate homes in California, but now they are in many mid-level homes across the country. That’s what is beginning to happen with wine cellars.

“We offer them as a part of our custom-home building business,” says Allen Albanese, project manager for Kurlemann Custom Building Group in Mason, Ohio. “Just about all of our customers expect them.”

Not Just in the Cellar
Basements are the classic location for most residential wine cellars, but more and more they are becoming part of the living space, such as near the kitchen or dining room. “We’re seeing a lot of empty nesters who don’t want to move take a spare bedroom and turn it into a wine cellar,” Deckebach says.

Albanese adds that wine cellars are becoming even more of a focal point in the home. “We put them off foyers and hallways quite often,” Albanese says. “We’ve even installed some pretty elaborate wine ‘rooms,’ where there are tables and chairs for the residents and their guests to sit among the racks and sample different wines.”

A Cave in the Home
An effective wine cellar, Deckebach says, strives to create a “cave-like atmosphere.” That means a room should be between 55 and 75 percent relative humidity and often temperature-controlled to stay between 55 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit. For young wine collections that will not be stored for more than two years, a constant temperature of 70 degrees will suffice.

There are no elaborate techniques or equipment required to build a wine cellar, just typical components used in a somewhat atypical fashion:

• Six-millimeter plastic sheeting is required on all four walls, the ceiling and floor as a vapor barrier.
• Insulation also is required around all six sides. Deckebach recommends blown-in insulation to seal all cracks and crevices to an R-13 on the walls and R-19 on the ceiling.
• Moisture-resistant drywall, or “greenboard,” instead of typical drywall.
• An exterior-grade door, with thermoplane glass and with weather stripping intact.
• A condenser unit to maintain humidity, and if preferred, some sort of temperature-control.

Wine Cellars Age Well
The general price for a modest wine cellar installation could be as little as $10,000, but many more are much pricier. “For our higher-end buyers, $30,000 to $40,000 is quite common,” says Keith Lewis, sales manger for Wine Cellar Innovations. “And we’re seeing a lot more in the $70,000 range and up. That shows that the value of wine cellars is increasing as well, as three years ago $30,000 was the extreme high end.”

Albanese says that while his company does not market its wine cellars because its customers expect it, it does use wine cellars in its marketing efforts. “They are very dramatic rooms and make for great photo opportunities in our brochures and flyers,” he says.

Deckebach’s final advice to builders is to first educate yourself on wine storage, as your customers who are interested will probably know a lot about it themselves. Second, he encourages builders to use it in their marketing efforts, either as subtly as Kurlemann or in your model homes or even touting it more loudly. “Target the mid-range buyers and up at first,” Deckebach says. “The demand is there.”