If you are an expert carpenter, you can build them yourself. You would need to build a jig, or template, for the racking, and then assemble and build them yourself. If you plan to build many more wine cellars in the future, this is a good option. If you don’t plan to ever build a wine cellar again, this approach is a lot of work for not much gain.

You could also hire a professional to do the entire job for you. They will custom-build your racks exactly to your specifications, and they will install them perfectly. Of course you will pay a huge premium for the design and building of custom wine racks.

I went with the middle option: I bought a kit. With a kit the wine racks are partially assembled, so the installation time is greatly reduced. A kit still gives you the flexibility to design what you want. I believe it’s the most cost effective option: I get virtually custom made racks, at a fraction of the price of custom made.

To start, do your wine cellar planning, and determine how many bottles you plan to store. I decided that storage for around 1,200 bottles was perfect, based on the space I have available, and my expected consumption over the next few years. (If you consume two bottles a week, that’s 100 bottles per year; adding in parties and special occasions and gifts, that may double to 200 bottles per year, so 1,200 bottles is a six year supply. Of course some bottles are consumed young, and others are stored, so you will have to determine how much wine you have for laying down, and how much is for quicker consumption, which will impact on the size of your wine cellar, and the type of racking).

Types of wine cellar racking

Wine Cellar Standard Racking

The most obvious type of racking are racks that hold single, standard sized bottle. As you can see from the picture, the racks are based on long vertical support posts, with small pieces of wood inserted to hold the bottles.

If you have carpentry skills this type of rack is not that difficult to construct, but again, why bother when you can buy a kit. If you normally drink standard sized bottles, this racking is ideal. If you normally consume odd shaped bottles, either smaller or larger than normal, this racking may not be idea.

I’ve found that even smaller or larger bottles will generally fit in this type of racking.

Square Wine Cellar Racking

You can also buy racking that is simply a square, so that you can store large sized bottles, or even wine in boxes or shipping crates. In this picture the cross pieces, in the shape of an X, are removable. They are not fastened in, so you can simply pull them out to store full boxes or crates. Or, leave them in place, and you have four separate compartments per square to store your bottles.

My advice is to combine both types of racking for future growth, and for your changing needs. Perhaps you don’t drink champagne, so you don’t need a place to store magnum sized bottles. But what happens if in the future your tastes change? Having racking that will accommodate many different bottle sizes is the best option.

Wine Cellar Racking - Full View

In my cellar I combined both individual racks and a squares for boxes. As you can see in the picture, it’s nice to have a place to put boxes.

Some of your guests may enjoy beer, so being able to keep a case or two of beer cool in your wine cellar is a great option. Of course my kids also store their pop in the wine cellar, so again, some empty squares are useful for that as well.

Where to Buy Racking

Where to buy will depend on where you live. I purchased my racking, and my cooling unit, from Rosehill Wine Cellars in Toronto.

Racking in Boxes

They will ship anywhere in North America, although the farther away you live, the more it will cost. We actually made the trip to Toronto to see the cooling units and racking in person before ordering. I assume there are many other distributors around North America that can serve your needs.

The racking ships in big boxes, and the delivery man will probably be too lazy to carry the boxes downstairs for you (ours was, even though we offered him cash to do it), so be prepared to carry them downstairs yourself. I did it on my own; they are heavy, but not impossible for one person to lift.

Assembling Wine Cellar Racking

The final job is assembly. If you want to do the job in a few hours, you will need a nail gun. You could do it with a drill and a screwdriver, but since you will need to drill 1,000 holes, that approach will take you a week. If you don’t have a nail gun and an air compressor, buy one, or rent one. It will be money well spent.

Or, do what I did. Call up your brother in law, who happens to be a carpenter with his own tools, and offer him lunch and a few dollars cash, and you are away to the races. It worked for me.

It will take a while to assemble the first rack, but once you see how they go together all of the rest of them will go quite easily.

I decided on a basement wine cellar measuring approximately 10 feet by 7 feet. It was an easy decision, because we took an existing closet and converted it into a wine cellar, so the size was pre-determined.

Our basement has a support beam, so the left hand side of the wine cellar in the above diagram has a height of six feet; the rest of the cellar is just over seven feet tall. Racking will go around the walls, except of course where the door will go. The cooling unit also reduces racking space, which we will discuss once that is installed. The racking is not here yet, but I expect to be able to store around 1,200 bottles on the exterior walls, which should be more than sufficient for my needs.

The bigger the wine cellar, the larger the cost, for construction, racking, and operating costs (since it costs more to cool a large space than a small space). To determine the perfect size, consider three factors:

1 Your budget. What can you afford? If you only have a few hundred dollars to spend, you will be doing all of the work yourself, and your wine cellar will be passively cooled, since you probably can’t afford a cooling unit. Your best option may be to buy a stand-alone wine fridge or cooler. The larger your budget, the larger your cellar. Start by adding up the costs for the cooling unit, racking, and construction costs, and then set your budget based on what you can afford.

2 Available space. If you are converting a corner of your basement, the size decision may already be made for you. If you are building a new house or building, you have more flexibility in deciding on your wine cellar dimensions.

3 Your expected storage needs. How much wine do you expect to consume? How long do you expect to store your wine? If you consume, on average, 100 bottles per year, and you want to store your wine for an average of five years, a 500 bottle wine cellar is sufficient. If you consume more than that, or if you want to have bottles laying down for a longer time, you will need more space. Start by determining your consumption over the last year, and use that as a guide for projecting future requirements. If at most you need storage for 1,000 bottles, there is nothing to be gained by building a 5,000 bottle cellar.

It is important to realize that too big is as bad as too small. Even if you have unlimited money, building a 5,000 bottle capacity wine cellar to house 1,000 is not wise. The cooling unit will be most efficient if the wine cellar is close to full. Each full bottle holds the temperature, so the more bottles, the more consistent the temperature. (It is easier to keep your refrigerator temperature consistent if it’s full of food; and empty refrigerator is not energy efficient).

Of course building a 500 bottle cellar only to realize you need a 2,000 bottle capacity is also inefficient, since you will need to demolish and start again, which is costly.

So, before you start construction, estimate your needs, and your space availability and budget, and plan accordingly.