How to build your own custom wine bottle rack.

Or at least know what to consider, when planning one.

Wine Racks come in a vast array of shapes and sizes. For this discussion I will cover the basics and leave the real fancy wine racks to the custom cabinet makers. Make your design reflect your skill level.  Make sure you have the tools that your design requires and that you have enough room to build your wine rack. Take your time and make sure that your racks will accommodate the various sizes of bottles you have.  Remember this going to be a fun project!

There is one basic rule you should adhere to when you design your wine rack. All wine bottles should be stored horizontally.  When stored horizontally the wine will cover the cork keeping it moist.  This prevents the cork from drying out and shrinking and allowing air to enter the bottle and affect the taste of your wine.

In the past, wine bottles were stored with the neck of the bottle pointed down. Over time sludge and debris would collect at the neck of the bottle which came out first when the bottle was opened. Luckily for all wine drinkers, debris and the resultant sludge is no longer a problem and has been removed by modern chemistry, vastly improved wine making techniques and wine making equipment.

If you decide to design your wine bottle rack to accommodate the neck down be prepared to encounter two major problems.

They are:

The label will be upside down and hard to read.
The Wine Rack will require a significant "lip" to prevent the bottle from falling out. This causes further work, expense and even more difficulty to locate the bottle that you want.

The benefits to horizontal placement are:

Keeps the cork wet.
Much easier to both see and read the bottle label
Easier to build your Wine Rack.
Less risk of bottles falling out of the wine rack

When you are designing your wine rack, make sure that it is deep enough to support the largest part of the bottle. That is usually a minimum of 7". The greater the depth of the wine rack, the less chance that the bottle will be hit by people or animals moving past the wine rack. A side benefit to greater depth is the inherent increased stability of the wine rack as a whole and the less need to attach it to a wall.

There are two basic categories of wine bottle storage. Those wine racks in which there is a placement for each bottle, and those which allow multiple bottles in an area. If you choose the multiple bottle arrangement, ensure that your design will accommodate the weight and stresses created by the bottles. The obvious advantage to the multiple bottle system is that it accommodates the most bottles in a given space. The disadvantage is that it is impossible to read labels on bottles other than those bottles which are on the top row. Quite often you will have to move bottles in order to find the one you want.

Make sure the connections between the various pieces of wood are secure. Also make sure that you pre drill holes prior to using screws.  This will prevent cracking the wood.   Make sure your connectors are not too small for their intended job.  Also make sure that enough wood is around your connector to carry the stress loads around the connector.  Better to be safe than sorry!