Garage to Wine Cellar Conversion

Most people assume that wine cellars are in the , well, you know- cellar, but at Joseph & Curtis Custom Wine Cellars we are always looking for innovative places to create a custom wine cellar. We are doing more and more wine cellars and custom wine racks on the main living level from new construction where an entire room is specified by the architect near the kitchen or dining room to retro-fitting a wine cellar into an existing (and underused) butlers pantry which we completed recently in Holmdel, NJ - watch for upcoming blog.

The garage project however was a first. We were contacted by the homeowner Phil who told us ' it doesn't have to be elegant or fancy, but it does need to store and organize as many bottles as the space will allow' and will need a wine cellar cooling system that will maintain my collection at 56 degrees' for his extensive wine collection.

We met Phil and surveyed the room he had in mind, an approx 10'x10' annex to the garage that would be a perfect space for a wine cellar once the room was prep ed with the proper vapor barrier and insulation. We designed the space for maximum storage and were able to give Phil upwards of 1800 bottles! A space that might otherwise be full of old lawn chairs, fishing rods and rusty bicycles has been transformed into a wine lovers tour of France, California, Italy, South America etc.

Fancy or not we still produced beautiful Redwood custom wine racks and Phil loved the display rows we gave him that allows him to easily locate the wine he is looking for since you can see the label and the bulk storage above and below that bottle for wines he stores a quantity of.

Phil loves gardening and has a massive vegetable garden and commented that the cellar would be a perfect environment to store his canned harvest. So if you happen to be wandering through Phil's cellar don't be surprised if you see a mason jar sitting proudly beside a '86 Mouton Rothschild.

Hmmm, which wine do we drink with the pickled beets?

Cheers!