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An underground wine cellar.

A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae or plastic containers. Wine cellars are usually located completely underground, and often have direct contact to the surrounding soil via a gap in the foundations.

Wine cellars offer the opportunity to protect alcoholic beverages from potentially harmful external influences, providing darkness and a constant temperature. Wine is a natural, perishable food product. Left exposed to heat, light, vibration or fluctuations in temperature and humidity, all types of wine, including red, white, sparkling, and fortified, can spoil. When properly stored, wines not only maintain their quality but many actually improve in aroma, flavor, and complexity as they mature.

Wine can be stored satisfactorily between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, provided any variations are very gradual. Temperature centered around 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 degrees Celsius, much like the cool caves used to store wine in France, is ideal for both short-term storage and long-term aging for all types of wines. Note that wine generally matures differently and more slowly at the lower temperatures than it does at the higher temperatures.^[1] Between 50-57 °F, or 10-14 °C, wines will age normally.^[2]

Residential wine cellars can be either active or passively cooled. Actively cooled wine cellars are highly insulated and need to be properly constructed. These types of wine cellars utilize specific wine cellar conditioning and cooling systems to maintain the desired temperature and humidity. Many systems only control the temperature and not the humidity so it is important to look for a system that actively controls both with temperature and humidification integrated into the unit. Passively cooled wine cellars take advantage of naturally cool and damp areas (such as basements with uninsulated outside walls in cool and temperate climates) when minor seasonal and diurnal temperature variations can be tolerated. Passive wine cellars may be less predictable, but cost nothing to operate and aren't affected by power outages.

Some wine experts debate the attention given to humidity in the storage of glass wine bottle. For Wine Spectator, writer Matt Kramer noted a French study by Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 University that the relative humidity within a bottle is maintained 100% regardless of the wine closure used and if the bottle is stored upright or on its side.^[3]. This is not the consensus of the profession. Synthetic corks are said to be too permeable for aging.

Lichine maintained that wine cellar dryness is not essential, as a certain humidity is sought after in order to prevent organic corks from drying up prematurely. An inch of gravel covering the floor periodically sprinkled with a little water was recommended to retain the desired humidity.^[2]

An example of a wine rack

A wine rack is a storage device that holds bottles of wine horizontally, or at any angle where the wine remains in constant contact with the cork, and are often found in wine cellars^[4].

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