Building a custom wine room is all about controlling temperature and humidity levels and creating a dedicated space for storing and aging wines for a prolonged period of time. A wine room that is designed and built properly should consistently maintain the ideal climate conditions for optimum wine storage, and efficiently organize and manage wine collections.
The Creative Minds behind this Residential Wine Room Project
This recently completed Baltimore Maryland residential wine room project shows how bringing together the right components can create a stunning wine cellar space that not only maximizes total bottle capacity, but also provides optimum environmental conditions for wine storage. The Baltimore project is a collaborative effort between Coastal Custom Wine Cellars and Lou Hogan of Vintage Cellars of Maryland.
About Coastal Custom Wine Cellars
Coastal Custom Wine Cellars
Coastal Custom Wine Cellars provides their clients with a free 3-dimensional design package that includes different views and elevations of the proposed wine cellar design. A 3D illustration shows in detail how every component ties together, and allows the client to make design modifications before green lighting the project.
Coastal Custom Wine Cellars is a full service designer, builder and installer of custom wine cellars. The company also supplies all components of residential and commercial wine rooms, such as climate control systems, wine racking systems, flooring products, and wine cellar entry doors.
Who is Lou Hogan?
Lou Hogan
Lou Hogan is a carpenter and a wine aficionado who created a one of a kind business that entices customers from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even Virginia.
In 2007, Lou Hogan IV started Vintage Cellars of Maryland, Incorporated. Vintage Cellars aims to deliver the finest carpentry services to wine lovers who plan to have a wine storage facility of their own. The company also offers just about any home improvement services.
Lou has a showroom located at the Sykesville restaurant in Baldwin Station, where he displays his creations. His projects are mostly residential, and his clients are generally wine aficionados, just like him. On average, Lou creates two wine closets and one wine cellar in a month.
According to Hogan, the first thing to consider in creating a wine cellar is the number of wine bottles to store. This will determine the size and design of the wine cellar. For him, building a wine cellar is like putting up a refrigerator inside the house.
Lou Hogan’s passion for carpentry contributes to the success of Vintage Cellars of Maryland. He is the only one in Maryland who does this job full-time.
What are the Design Specifications for this Custom Wine Cellar?
All wine racking components come in double deep configurations, to increase the overall bottle capacity of the custom wine cellar. Various wine storage and display solutions were utilized to create a wine storage space that has a total storage capacity of 4,010 wine bottles.
Baltimore Maryland Residential Wine Room
All wine racks were made from architectural grade Heart Redwood, with a satin lacquer topcoat. Additionally, all components rest on a 1 ½” toe-kick that raises the bottles off the floor, protecting them against breakage.
Single bottle storage wine racks with a high reveal display row went around the perimeter of the Baltimore custom wine cellar. A high reveal wine display holds bottles at an angle, with the labels facing front, providing ease of bottle recognition and identification. Aside from the individual cubbyholes for 750 ml wine bottles, the Coastal team also included single bottle openings that can accommodate a total of 136 magnums (or 1.5L).
True radius curved corners are installed in corner areas, in order to maximize every space available in the Baltimore Maryland residential wine room. Corner wine racks with a true radius curve provide a smooth transition between walls. Since true radius curved corners are constructed from a single piece of solid wood, they do not exhibit an angled or segmented appearance.
The Baltimore custom wine cellar features a stunning 66-inch long waterfall display. This custom wine racking provides a cascading appearance that stair steps down to a small tabletop, which can function as a work area for serving or decanting wines. Additional shelves are provided below the tabletop, for storing wine bottles or other wine accoutrements.
The Baltimore Maryland residential wine room project also features a total of 36 wooden case openings that will help manage and organize wood cases. The openings come with roller shelves that allow for ease of access and restocking.
A Barolo style door was fitted into the entryway to completely seal the residential wine room and enhance the beauty of the space at the same time. To effectively prevent cool air from escaping, a wine cellar door must be weather stripped on all sides, and equipped with an automatic door bottom. Additionally, a wine room door must be of exterior grade quality, to prevent warping and shrinkage. If the door has glass components, the glass must be dual paned, for better insulation properties.
Wine Guardian Wine Cellar Refrigeration System
A proper wine storage environment requires a temperature range of 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity levels that remain between 60 to 75 percent. A wine cellar refrigeration system is specially designed to help maintain constant climate conditions. There are various types of climate control systems that can fit the unique needs and requirements of a wine cellar space.
For the Baltimore wine room project, the Coastal team installed a Wine Guardian Model D050. This wine cellar refrigeration system is a fully-ductable, self-contained air handler that reliably and efficiently cools areas of up to 3,000 cubic feet. Wine Guardian cooling products are known to be noise free and energy efficient. They also provide remote monitoring controls and sensors that allow the constant monitoring of the wine cellar refrigeration system, to ensure that it is performing at optimal levels.
This collaborative project between Coastal Custom Wine Cellars and Lou Hogan of Vintage Cellars of Maryland created a beautiful and elegant space that is not only ideal for storing and aging wines, but also for showcasing the client’s many vintages. For this particular project, the Coastal team handled all wall preparation and installation of wine room components, while Lou handled the design aspect of the wine room.