The Secrets of This Modern Glass Wine Cellar in Orange County Revealed!
The use of glass in wine storage rooms holds a dual purpose – functionality and aesthetics. As a design piece, glass is a statement material that differentiates the modern wine cellar from the traditional one. As a functional piece, glass makes it convenient for owners to showcase their wine collection and harness safe levels of natural light to illuminate their wine cellar.
There’s value and potential in going for modern glass wine cellars. Orange County and Los Angeles residents, especially those living in Manhattan Beach, have had a long-standing appreciation for these kinds of wine rooms, and our team is here to provide all their wine storage needs, from conceptualization to construction, maintenance, and repair.
One of our newest projects in Manhattan Beach was in this lovely contemporary home, where get-togethers and quality time with friends and family were highly regarded. Explore the difference wine cellars can make through this home’s newly built walk-in wine closet and capture unique and favorable design ideas for your home wine cellar!
Planning This Wine Cellar in Relation to the Larger Space
From the street just outside the house, it’s unmistakable that this home appreciates design and style. With a professionally landscaped front lawn, contemporary exterior windows, and minimalist off-white exterior cladding, it’s a clear-cut decision that the interiors will have to look as good! And that’s what we tried to achieve for this new wine cellar.
Down the semi-open basement, you’ll find the family’s entertainment den, complete with a pool table, theatre area, bar section, and an enclosed gym. Our team had the privilege to work on the space from the ground up, so we were able to use the same glass enclosure design on both the gym area and the wine cellar.
At that time, the home was being rebuilt. We had the chance to reframe the walls, run the line sets, install the cooling unit and lights easily, and add insulation. The entire basement was quite spacious, and there was plenty of potential to curate the floor layout.
As soon as you walk down the stairs, you’re immediately greeted by the wine cellar and gym on either side. This layout creates a custom hallway that leads to the main area where you can find the pool table, bar, theatre, and, of course, the entrances to both the wine cellar and home gym.
The hallway alone looks aesthetic, with the framed glass enclosures on both sides.
Why Temperature and Humidity Are Priority in Wine Cellars
The skepticism in using a glass enclosure for wine cellars is because you must use specialized glass panes, custom-manufactured for wine cellars. Ordinary glass panels can heat up rooms on a warm sunny day and allow moisture to build on their surfaces.
For wine to stay fresh and age at the right pace, it needs to be stored in a cool, dry area. Ideally, it must be preserved between 50-65° F.
When wine is exposed to extreme temperatures (too warm or too cold), irreversible chemical changes can occur, which will affect the taste, aroma, texture, and overall quality of the wine.
Between design and functionality, we highly recommend putting your investment first in achieving the right temperature and humidity for your wine cellar.
Take a tour of this beautiful modern glass wine cellar!
Thermally Broken Glass Wine Cellar Doors for Orange County Wine Rooms
To provide reinforcement to the insulated walls, we employed the use of dual-paned tempered glass. All the glass panels enclosing the wine cellar are thermally broken. This is a method in which a “thermal break” or an insulating material is inserted between the glass to interrupt thermal transfer. This means no heat from the outside can meet the cold air molecules inside, causing moisture formation on the glass.
No matter how hot it gets outside, the wine cellar will stay at a constant 55 degrees.
We then installed black matte mullions to give the glass enclosure more character and added a door sweep, so the door is sealed at the bottom.
A Water-Cooled Split System Wine Cellar Cooling Unit
The type of wine cellar cooling system to use will depend on a number of factors, including the location of the wine cellar and the available walls space. When there’s enough attic space, a ducted unit can be used. In the contrary, if there isn’t much walls space available, a ductless system is best.
For this wine cellar, we were down in the basement with cement walls surrounding us. We couldn’t exhaust air directly through the walls, nor can we take in air from it. A typical split-system unit will not be able to operate and function properly in this case as it will overheat.
Our solution to this was to use a water-cooled, ducted, split-system unit. In this type of system, water is used to cool the air passing through the machine, and we used water from the home. This water-cooled system is a premium product made by US Cellar Systems.
Custom Contemporary Racking for Various Uses
After we ran the line set and electrical, we installed the plywood, green board, mudsand texture, paint, and finally the racking.
You can find two types of wine racking in this cellar:
- On the glass side, we installed metal rods supported by white oak wood that secures the rods in place. The wooden supports are attached to vertical stainless-steel posts, creating a very organized wine display. This racking choice also makes the labels visible from the inside and the outside of the cellar at the same time
- Across the room are the custom wooden wine racks, also made from white oak. This section features magnum display rows and a 750-ml bottle displays row, all with a light valance that hides the LED strip lights. There are diamond bins and case storage areas for additional storage and 750 cork-forward compartments for standard-sized bottles. We also built a drawer where the owner can store their corks. It’s a good collection too! Finally, on top of it, is a spacious marble counter where the owner can safely handle their wines, glassware, and tools.
Overall, this wine cellar can hold an astounding 1,500 bottles, with enough extra space for a bigger collection!
LET’S DESIGN YOUR CUSTOM MODERN GLASS WINE CELLAR IN ORANGE COUNTY!
Custom Wine Cellar by Steve Pantalemon
