Cellar racking and humidty

[Russ K]

I have a 4.5x10 foot room I built in my basement as a wine cellar, and am looking at cellar racking....narrowed down to a couple vendors for the "kit type" units, Vigilant and Grotto. I am going with Vigilant I think, as I can make it look like floor to cieling among other considerations. Any one use this product at all? thoughts? it looks acceptable, and a lot cheaper than custom. I will get about 850 bottles!!

Second question, humidity control, I have heard to be sure to use non chlorinated water or distilled water, as chlorine inth atmosphere can contribute to cork issues, thoughts? I am not installing a humidification unit, I suspect I will have enough control as I built the room completely sealed and will use vases / water fountain / wet towels as needed to keep in range (In Colorado, and the room as is sticks around 40% humidity at 53F).


Russ

[Peter W. Meek]

You would probably like that humidity a bit higher -- maybe 60-65%.

Good idea on the non-chlorinated water. I use RO myself, in a chilled miniature fountain. Chilling keeps humidity from getting too high; if it does, some moisture condenses into the fountain. Control humidity by controlling the water temperature (usually around 6-8C -- icy).

How stable is the temperature? Daily and seasonal? This the most critical spec for long-term storage.

[Eric Ifune]

I think that high humidity is not necessary given the bottles are horizontal. Now bone dry is probably not good, but around 50% is probably OK. I keep a bucket of water in my cellar and it keeps it about 55% at 57 degrees F.

[Peter W. Meek]

When I open a bottle of still wine, I can see the recent history of humidity by the expansion of the cork from the top, down to the face of the cork in contact with the wine. Very revealing as to what has happened to the wine over the past few years. I sometimes see wasp-waisted corks, indicating a dry period followed by a few years of recent humid cellarage; or Coke-bottle-shaped, indicating horizontal dry-moist-dry. From that, I think that even with horizontal storage, good humidity over the long term is important. The moisture in the cork has to come from somewhere; if it isn't from the environment, it will have to come from the wine. Any moisture that leaves has to be replaced by air (including oxygen).

If the cork is narrower at or near the face in contact with the wine, be very suspicious. This bottle may have been vertical for quite a while. Think of the width as a humidity history working in from each face of the cork.

The cork I like to see best is one that is cylindrical for about 1/2" to 3/4" down from the air face, with a fairly quick expansion, and then a slightly larger cylinder (not much taper) with plenty of resilience, down to the wine face of the cork. This means to me that it was well-cellared until recently, and then kept in a store or restaurant's ready-use cellar/racks for less than a year.

Bottles from my own cellar often have a slight flare at the air face, indicating the return, in my cellar, to better humidity conditions for a few years.

Note that these diameter changes are only a few percent, and only visible for a few minutes after drawing the cork. After that the cork expands over all to something like the original diameter unless it is very old.

[Russ K]

Thanks all,

the temp will be controlled, target of 53. Since its inthe north east corner of the house and two walls are outer walls, it should hold well and I do not think my cooler is going to have to work very hard even in the hottest of days. I put an electrionic hygrometer in there, and it seems to have settled at 50% at 55.2 F (need to fine tune the temp setting on the cooler unit to reflect temp in the room a bit more). Once I get to 53, I bet I will be low 50 percent humidity, I will also be using the bucket method I think...maybe a nice vase tho...but I will avoid the tap water.

Although I am a bit concerned on humidity, a little drier is better than too wet, I don't want to over do it! waiting on the racks, and then I can tune it all up.