What Storage Do You Need in a Wine Cellar?

A wine cellar is far more than just an area to store bottles. It is a living space for aging wines from a variety of vineyards, as well as wine tools and wine cellar accessories. It is a place to nurture a passion for wine, the patience of a cellarman and the art of hosting tasting sessions.

To fully experience this art of living wine, your wine cellar needs to be carefully designed, to ensure that everything has a place and is easy to reach. So, what storage should you include in your wine cellar? How should they be organised?

This detailed guide by Architecture Intérieure du Vin provides tips about different wine cellar furniture and storage solutions. Read on to find out how to organise your wine collection in a space that meets all your needs.

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Choosing Wine Cellar Furniture and Storage

Let’s start by discussing wine cellar units, that come in all shapes and sizes, from the largest to the smallest. A true wine cellar is made up of specially designed furniture that preserves and protects bottles from the outside world.

Furniture and Storage Solutions According to Your Type of Wine Cellar

Depending on the function and layout of your wine space, you can fit custom-made wine cabinets, tasting counters, or displays to showcase your wine collection. If you work in a restaurant or hotel, for example, you could also include a cooling unit to prepare bottles before serving. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of each item of wine furniture and its storage benefits.

Avoid Unsuitable Furniture in a Wine Cellar

A real wine cabinet is a must-have for storing bottles in your wine cellar. Storing your finest bottles in recycled household furniture could cost you dearly:

risk of smashing expensive bottles,
shelves or fixings breaking beneath the weight,
unsuitable storage conditions for aging wines,
lack of reinforced structures,
measurements that don’t match the size of wine bottles,
and other frequent accidents…

Custom Wine Cabinets

Wine cabinets are the most common storage solution. They protect and preserve wine bottles in the very best conditions. A real wine cellar cabinet is designed down to the smallest detail to secure, preserve and store bottles. The materials used should be durable and robust, with a sturdy structure and custom measurements to provide the perfect home for your finest wine and champagne bottles.

Architecture Intérieure du Vin’s units are fully modular, to enable you to create your own custom-made wine cabinet to meet your needs, whether personal or professional. Made up of noble materials, such as solid wood, steel and tempered glass, our made-to-measure wine cabinets provide a stable and solid base for each individual bottle.

Our traditional yet modern wine cabinets boast a simple design and fit into any space, layout or decor. They are highly reliable in terms of preserving and displaying wine. Choose between our Essential System finish in powder-coated steel, with or without cladding, and our Wood System version in oak wood, available as a tall storage unit or as an island.

Our highly customisable wine cabinets enable you to choose and position storage compartments for your bottles and accessories as you please, whether in a home or work setting.

Wine Merchant Furniture

We have also developed ready-to-fit wine furniture and shelves. Our large Wine Merchant unit was designed to meet certain specific needs in terms of preserving and tasting vintages. It is ideal for wine shops, oenology clubs or vineyard cellars. This type of wine cabinet makes it easy to organise your wine cellar or display.

Our Wine Merchant cabinet has a large storage capacity and can hold up to 1,000 bottles. It boasts an elegant and charismatic design, measuring 2.20m high and 1.85m, 2.45m or 3.05m long. The lower part, with a double depth of 70cm, is topped with a large counter made out of oak or beech wood for preparing, opening and tasting fine wines.

This large French-made and hand-crafted wine cabinet is fully customisable in terms of storage. For example, you can choose and position your wine shelves, glass rack or metal shelves as you please. Our Wine Merchant unit will match your wine interior design perfectly and meet your personal needs, while showcasing your collection of bottles.

Wine Counters

Our Wine Counter is both ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing. It is made out of solid oak or beech and is available in 3 lengths: 1.85m, 2.45m or 3.05m. Its large wine-tasting counter-top, at a perfect height of 91cm, is ideal for opening and serving precious vintage bottles.

The lower wine storage area boasts a two-bottle depth, thus increasing its storage capacity by showcasing bottles on either side, front and back.

We recommend placing this oenological counter in the middle of a large room so that your guests can gather around it like a big family dinner table. The Wine Counter is ideal to share the art of living wine with others, combining a useful storage solution for bottles with the pleasure of opening and sampling them together.

Wine and Champagne Tasting Counters

Our Tasting Counter stands out for its beautiful curves, inviting guests to draw nearer and taste a fine wine or champagne. Its storage capacity is smaller than the Wine Counter, but it can easily hold and display bottles for a tasting session.

Used as a wine storage solution, it showcases collections, as well as the wine cabinets and shelves around it. Its convivial beauty helps to organise a wine cellar space or function room. Our Tasting Counter is hugely popular with oenophiles and has a champagne bucket at either end. When placed in a large wine cellar, it can help divide the space, with an area dedicated to champagne and sparkling wine, for example.

Wine Collection Counters

The Wine Collection Counter enables cellarmen, collectors or wine lovers to preserve and display their finest wines and rarest vintages like works of art in a gallery. With a thick tempered glass top supported by four solid oak legs, this oenological table was designed to enchant both wine experts and novices.

The counter proudly displays a few exceptional bottles in a row, held in place by a powder-coated steel wine rack. Its minimal style enhances your collection. The Wine Collection Counter by Architecture Intérieure du Vin guarantees an extraordinary tasting session, for a special moment with guests.

Wine Racks, Shelves and Compartments: The Main Wine Cellar Storage Solutions

Let’s now turn our attention to the different kinds of storage solutions for bottles and wine cellar accessories.

Architecture Intérieure du Vin’s shelves are agile and modular, enabling you to use several different types of shelves in the same cabinet:

bottles of the same vintage stacked together,
bottles stored in individual compartments,
wine cases stored in individual drawers,
vintages displayed on a sloping surface or on their sides,
etc.

Personalise your storage by choosing wine shelves and bottle compartments according to your oenological collection and cellar organisation.

Classic Shelves

Our classic horizontal wine shelves are available with a length of 60cm or 90cm, providing you with several storage options. Our Classic Shelf in powder-coated steel is designed to ensure optimal storage for 75cl bottles.

The storage shelves require vertical ladders at either end, with or without panels, to secure the rows of stacked bottles, as well as a cross-brace to reinforce the structure. Our Classic Shelves are also ideal for storing magnums.

Slanted Shelves

Our Slanted Shelves are perfect for storing wine while displaying their labels so as to easily identify and showcase each bottle. They can be positioned above a storage shelf with bottles from the same vineyard, for example.

Display Shelves

Our display shelves store and display bottles horizontally, lying on their side, to ensure that the labels are clearly visible. These shelves can be placed close together in the same column to maximise the number of bottles.

Drawer Shelves, For Wooden Wine Crates

Our Drawer Shelves are particularly appreciated by wine merchants. The sliding drawers are the perfect size to hold crates of wine. This system prevents fragile bottles from moving around. Our drawer shelves enable to display a winery’s name and visual identity and decorates the shelf or wine cabinet. You can also place the bottles directly onto the sliding shelf and add a plaque with the vineyard’s stamp.

Glass and Bottle Racks

Our Glass and Bottle Racks are an ingenious and decorative storage solution. They serve a double function: individual wine bottle storage at the top and tasting glass racks at the bottom. This Glass and Bottle Rack is therefore a two-in-one solution to store bottles and glasses for tasting.

Vertical Bottle Holders

When a wine cabinet column is dedicated to a single vintage, you can add vertical bottle holders to elegantly showcase the wine. In large wine cellars, these vertical bottle holders provide a simple and clear visual cue to easily find a specific wine.

Wine Cellar Storage for Tasting Tools and Accessories

Wine cellars aren’t only for storing bottles. Indeed, to ensure that your wine space is functional and to facilitate tasting sessions, you’ll also need accessories and tools to open, decant, aerate, serve, taste and preserve the wine.

Wine Tool Drawers and Full Drawers

A wine tool drawer is the perfect place to store your bottle openers, foil cutters, pourers, aerators, stoppers, vacuum pumps and other wine accessories. A simple full drawer can hold and protect other useful objects for your wine cellar, such as documents or glasses.

Tasting Countertops or Extendable Worktops

If you don’t have a counter or table in your wine cellar or space, you can fit an extendable worktop or countertop in metal or glass, for tasting sessions. The countertop could also be used as a shelf for decorative items or books, such as photo frames, books about wine and grape varieties, etc.