Building Your Own Wine Rack

Whether you are a true wine lover with a collection worth thousands of dollars or are simply a person who occasionally enjoys a glass of wine with your dinner, the storage of your wines is of major importance. To protect your investment and to keep your wine tasting as it should, it should be stored under the correct conditions (50 to 65 degrees) and at the proper angle in order to prevent seepage from a dried out cork.

Of the many types of materials used to build wine racks--wrought iron, stone, concrete, plastic, wood and a variety of other options--wood is easily the most often used material. Wooden wine racks have been built since the very beginning of wine making and wine storage because of its many advantages. Those advantages include: wood is easy to use, easy to assemble, relatively light weight for the strength that is needed, it can be made to match any decor (with stain or paint), wood is very durable, it is available in many different species, it is a renewable resource, and it is readily available to the average woodworker. The major disadvantage of a wood wine rack is the fact that it is not fireproof, but that can be overcome by treating the lumber with a fire retardant.

The most popular species of readily available wood that used in the construction of wine racks are as follows: pine, cedar, spruce, fir, hemlock, oak, and a variety of other American hardwoods like cherry or maple. Any of these woods make magnificent and sturdy wine racks. When deciding upon the type of wood you plan to use, it is essential to remember a few notable facts. Avoid woods which have wide spaces between growth rings, since trees which have grown quickly may be great for house framing material, they are not ideal for use in wine racks. Greater strength and less warping is directly related to the higher number of growth rings per inch. look for a minimum of ten growth rings for each inch of wood.

You will also need to ensure that the wood to be used has been properly dried. The wood should have no more than 12 percent moisture content. In many cases, there will be a stamp on the lumber that reads "S-Dry," which means that it has been dried down to a moisture content of 19 percent. The lower the moisture content, the less likely the wood will warp when it undergoes the process of equalizing with the humidity level of your home environment. Your local lumber yard will have a moisture meter which you can use to test the actual moisture content of your wood.

When you construct your wine rack, do not use cross sections that are too small. Each cross section should be at least 3/8" x 3/8" in order to carry the stress imposed upon it by a full bottle of wine. While your wine rack needs to be sufficiently strong, so does your flooring structure. According to most wine sellers, the average 750 ml wine bottle weighs about three pounds. Therefore, if you built a wine rack to hold 1,500 bottles, the contents of the rack would weigh approximately 4,500 pounds. In addition to the weight of the bottles, you need to add the weight of the wine rack itself. A good estimate is that a wine rack will add a half pound for each bottle that is stored or roughly 17% of the weight of the wine. In this example, your collection will have nearly 5,300 pounds of weight. That is equal to parking an SUV in your home. Check to make sure that your floor joists are in good shape, add additional bracing, or build your wine rack on the concrete floor in your basement for added peace of mind.