Wine Rack Construction, advice requested

I am looking for some advice on the dimensions for individual bottle wine racks. I have found lots of information in the postings here about cellar construction but very little on wine rack construction once the cellar is built.

Due to the desire to put money into wine instead of racks I have decided to build my racks and have done quite a bit of browsing looking for information on dimensions. Most rack suppliers list the width and height of their racks and with a little math one can derive the column spacing but no one goes into fine detail on the individual "slot" dimensions, the width of the rails etc.

Since I am building the racks I've been wondering if I could come up with a formula for column width combined with rail width that would allow me to use a slot for standard 750ml bottles as well as magnum bottles.

Has anyone with individual bottle racking come across a rack that handles standard and magnum bottles at the same time? If so could you tell me:
> The column width between stiles
> The width and hight of an individual rail

Thanks for your time!
Lance

You probably have 4 bottle diameters that you'll be interested in - the "standard" 750 ml Bordeaux type, the larger 750 ml Burgundy type, a smaller half-bottle size and magnum. If you have bottles of these sizes, measure their diameters. You'll want about a half inch space between bottles. The space between supporting bars needs to be about 70% of the bottle diameter. It can be quite a bit smaller, but not much larger.

Does that get you going?

You probably have 4 bottle diameters that you'll be interested in - the "standard" 750 ml Bordeaux type, the larger 750 ml Burgundy type, a smaller half-bottle size and magnum. If you have bottles of these sizes, measure their diameters. You'll want about a half inch space between bottles. The space between supporting bars needs to be about 70% of the bottle diameter. It can be quite a bit smaller, but not much larger.

Does that get you going?

There's also a fifth bottle size that's important to take into account: the "vanity"-sized 750 mL bottles increasingly used by CA and OR Pinot Noir producers as well as e.g. Chateau Beaucastel. I find that I can't fit them into most of my racks aside from the diamond racks and two that have "flexible" widths.

Mark Lipton

Lance
Worth keeping an eye out for general auctions (and indeed wine auctions), where sometimes great bargain wine racks can be had - perhaps even cheaper than home-build.
regards
Ian

If looks aren't all that important, you could do what a friend of mine did. He obtained the cardboard carpet tubes from a local carpet installer and cut them to length, then stacked them in wooden frames.

Hi Lance,
I don’t know if you are handy or not, or if you have access to wood working equipment, but common pine 1 X 6- 48 inches long with 12- 1 ½ inch diameter holes down the center, then cut in half make excellent front runners and 1 X 6- 48 inches long with 12- 3 inch diameter holes then cut in half make excellent rear runners. All you have to do is make sure the bottles are cradled securely and properly. .

Salute

>> the "vanity"-sized 750 mL bottles increasingly used by CA and OR Pinot Noir producers as well as e.g. Chateau Beaucastel.

I haven't seen that size myself -- I guess I'm just stodgy. Or is it the size that I described as "Burgundy". A little fatter than the regular 750 and slope-shouldered?

My Vinotemp has mostly 10-wide cells and 3 rows of 8-wide cells that take the slightly fatter "Burgundy" bottles, but aren't big enough for a magnum.

Lance,
the "universal" slot width is now 3.75". That size will handle up to things like Turley 750s and other big wide assed bottles. Burg and Champagne are typically 3.5". Many stand-alone wine cellars (like Le Cache) are going with 3.75 as standard size.

I'm not sure what the width requirement is for mags though.

Um, this isn't related to wine racks, but did you grow up in Phoenix, Lance?

>> the "vanity"-sized 750 mL bottles increasingly used by CA and OR Pinot Noir producers as well as e.g. Chateau Beaucastel.

I haven't seen that size myself -- I guess I'm just stodgy. Or is it the size that I described as "Burgundy". A little fatter than the regular 750 and slope-shouldered?

No, John, these are definitely not standard issue Burgundy bottles, which comprise about 50% of our cellar these days. No, the vanity bottles I am referring to are a variant on the Burgundy design, but about 50% heavier and a bit wider, too. FWIW, there is a Bordeaux version of it, too, but it doesn't present the same problem since the Bordeaux design is inherently skinnier than the Burgundy design.

Mark Lipton

Ok - just call me the Stodgy Codger!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thank you for all the feed back.

Based on your input and the following bottle dimensions I found after browsing around for a while, I am going to use Bill's suggestion of 3.75" spacing.

Though this doesn't accomodate the larger Pinot format which I found on the web to be 3.75", I didn't actually find one of that big in my run to the corner bevmo. Everything I measured was under 3.75" by at least an 8th.

Rhine 2.75"
Bordeaux 3.00"
Burgundy 3.25"
Champagne 3.25"
Pinot Nor 3.50"
Port 3.50"
Sherry 3.50"
Pinot Nor 3.75" ??? Really?
Chianti fiasco 4.00"
Magnum 4.00"

The 1x2 redwood stile material I am using is a true 0.625 thick as is the 1x1 rail material so I plan to place the stiles 4.375" on center and space the rails 3.75" apart. This will produce a 3.75" x 3.75" slot which will handle everything smaller then 3.75" and bigger then 2.375" bottles.

Thanks again for the info. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Lance

Yes Mike, I am that Lance.

Lance, this is a picture of a rack I use to catch the overflow from my Vinotheque. I have a QT Gold 550 which holds about 450 or so bottles but need some overflow and this serves nicely. Simple, cheap and functional. My rack is six rows tall, and 13 bottles wide. made from pine 2x4's. see a picture here.

http://www.brandsplace.com/0299-cps9.html

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I can't take a picture of my cellar because there is no room in there to back up and see the racks - too much wine, but I wouldn't even consider wasting time building individual bottle slot racks.

Much easier and better, IMHO, to build horizontal bins that hold 12-14 average bottles (I can measure what I did if you want). This gives you the flexibility to shelve a case of normal bottles, plus one or two, or a mix of half cases, or a mix of magnums and single etc.

3/4" plywood is the best material for ends and main shelves, with thinner dividers being OK. Drywall screws hold them together very well and you can assemble it with a power driver in no time.

I did double depth down the middle of my cellar (I have single depth around the sides) and this gives me storage for about 1000 bottles in the big rack, with additional storage for whole cases on top (I made it with extended 'ears' to hold cases on the top near the ceiling.

I manage to get around 4000 bottles in a fairly small room that way, and could have done more if I hadn't already had old wooden milk crates (remember square glass milk bottles?) on the outer walls - they are one slot per bottle and waste a lot of space - not nearly as dense packing as a bin.

BTW, if anyone has access to old milk crates (wood and wire, not plastic) they were made to endure, can be stacked 6 high and make a readily movable cellar - just lift them off (full of wine) turn them upright and stack them on each other in the moving van (they come with small prongs that locate the next crate on top). Mine have various dairy names across Canada burned into the wooden ends, and I've seen them sell for a fair bit in antique stores. Find a dairy converting to new style containers like I did and you can sometimes get them for a couple of bucks each!

If you want to make sure your wine racks can handle anything in the 750 ml bottle range, acquire two bottles:

One Grand Cru Burgundy from France (make sure it's the extra-thick grand cru-type bottle, not the conventional Burgundian bottle).

One German long bottle such as they use in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Rheingau.

If you build racks that will accommodate both of these comfortably, then your wine rack will handle anything.

Most commercial wine racks fail this test.

-Paul W.

I was out poking around in my cellar today and I remembered to note the cell widths, which are 3.5" for the ordinary bottles and 4" for the "Burgundy" bottles. It uses 1" square rails that are mounted on the diagonal so there is a surface presented to the bottles instead of a corner.

I wouldn't be surprised if you might want a couple of rows or columns that are about half an inch bigger than what you're planning right now.