The Auswine Forum

I just built a new cellar as I couldn't get into the previous one. A laborious task that requires 2 people over about 4 days and approximately $3500 plus cooling unit. This one is 2.6 meters high, 2.4 meters wide and 3 meters long. The cooling unit is a Fondis C25 and a mate put together the racks to fit the 40 shelves the local pub was throwing out (all stainless!). It holds about 2500 bottles (currently about half full) and now I can grab any particular bottle I like. If anyone wants my old Kitchener 252 (still in perfect condition, please PM me).

Cheers

Luke

Thanks to Jamie for letting me know how to put in photos.

Nice work Luke. Well done.

Can I ask how the $3500 cost was broken down if the stainless steel was free and the cooling unit was in addition?

Love it, little bit jealous too.
How much space is in there? I'm currently doing a floor plan for our renovation and am wondering how big I need it to be. 3m long and 2.7 high less insulation are pretty much locked in. 2.4 wide might be a hard sell. I was thinking 1.5 should do it.

The panels from Rexacom on the Gold Coast were about $2300- these are 50mm cold room panels with a hard steel coat over the top. They also supplied all the angles and channeling. The panels sit on top of the channel and there are internal angles inside as well on the outside. The door frame has a different angle around it to keep in the cool air. You have to cut the panels at the top and end and "sikaflex" the sheets together so the foam meets and forms an effective insulation. Costs on top are for labour hire (approx $1000), rivets, mastic or sikaflex.
The aircon unit is a Fondis C25 and is around $3000. The shelves were free and the steel frames that hold them will cost me several dozen bottles of La Testa to my mate who built them and $240 for the steel and $100 for the paint.

Vovo
My external measurements are 3x2.4x2.6 high. You lose 100mm internally with each side (2×50mm). Its very difficult to do the top panels unless u have 300mm clearance - we only had 140 mm and found we couldn't rivet from the top. Also the back requires some clearance for the same reason. If you only have 1000 to 1200 bottles you might get away with a narrower room but then once it's up it is difficult to expand. My wife had kittens when she knew how big I was building it but hasn't complained at all since it went up!

Nice work mate - bloody excellent.

Luke W wrote:The panels from Rexacom on the Gold Coast were about $2300- these are 50mm cold room panels with a hard steel coat over the top. They also supplied all the angles and channeling. The panels sit on top of the channel and there are internal angles inside as well on the outside. The door frame has a different angle around it to keep in the cool air. You have to cut the panels at the top and end and "sikaflex" the sheets together so the foam meets and forms an effective insulation. Costs on top are for labour hire (approx $1000), rivets, mastic or sikaflex.
The aircon unit is a Fondis C25 and is around $3000. The shelves were free and the steel frames that hold them will cost me several dozen bottles of La Testa to my mate who built them and $240 for the steel and $100 for the paint.

Vovo
My external measurements are 3x2.4x2.6 high. You lose 100mm internally with each side (2×50mm). Its very difficult to do the top panels unless u have 300mm clearance - we only had 140 mm and found we couldn't rivet from the top. Also the back requires some clearance for the same reason. If you only have 1000 to 1200 bottles you might get away with a narrower room but then once it's up it is difficult to expand. My wife had kittens when she knew how big I was building it but hasn't complained at all since it went up!

I was in the same boat when i was in the process of refitting/emptying my cellar.
No complaints when the final product was unveiled.
I'm already planning new racks. Seem to be out growing the current setup quicker than I thought.
What you've done looks very good. Good score on the racks.

great job!
what temp you going for?

Looks great Luke.
Did you find anything at the bottom of the old one that you forgot about or lost. I seem to recall you telling us you hadn't seen the back of the old cellar for a few years

Awesome stuff Luke!

Thanks for the kind comments - it's still like my baby and I find it hard to keep out of it. The temp is at 15 and I found a few old Wendouree I'd forgotten about Rens.
Now I've got to dispose of the old mobile cold room with the racks - anyone want to bring a car trailer to Yeppoon?

Looks like serious crap mate ;-0)
I honestly don't know how you did without!
Cheers
Michel

Luke W wrote:Thanks for the kind comments - it's still like my baby and I find it hard to keep out of it. The temp is at 15 and I found a few old Wendouree I'd forgotten about Rens.

Nice one Luke, the cellar looks fantastic, love racking. Perhaps one of the older Wendouree's could make it to another offline

Perhaps - we should have an offline up here and I'll supply all the wine!

Luke W wrote:Perhaps - we should have an offline up here and I'll supply all the wine!

Now that could just about get a yes from me.

Looks great! I have a fondis in my cellar and you won't be disappointed.

I was just having a look at the measurements. Out of curiosity, where did you put it? Is it in your house, underneath it or in the back yard?

another question on your cellar luke...
Have you considered remote temperature monitoring.?
Looking at your collection I'd be thinking about it.
I'm sure the fondis is super reliable but in the unlikely event.
I looked into it more for an interest point of view and it didn't seem that expensive to get the hardware
that allows you keep track of your cellar temp on your phone no matter where you are.
Seems worth it considering the time, effort and passion you've put into your collection thus far.

Bloody hell. Jealous is an understatement.

Great job!! Good to see a flexible system not catering for specific numbers of each wine ie dozens, half dozen etc as these can be a waste of valuable space. Vertical stacking by merely laying down another layer on top is a good space saver too. More efficiency = more wine There's no such thing as too much wine.

Carl

To answer the questions, the wine is in a garage attached to the house (as opposed to the garage that isn't ). It is insulated and about an 8x8 metre space so it takes up a fair bit of room - we don't park cars there as there is also a container load of art that I'm storing for someone else. The good thing is that it's really part of the house and is secure and close.
I haven't thought of remote monitoring of the cellar climate and it would probably make me even more autistically obsessive than I am already but I'd be happy to listen to u tell me about it. I'm often in there changing things around (even put in 300 timber racks from the old cold room yesterday).
I buy most of my wine in 6s or 12s and I've tried to keep them together and stack them on top of each other. Also tried to keep Wynns, Rockfords, La Testas, Tahbilks and Penfolds in their separate shelves. For others it's more white or red, McLaren Vale, Barossa, Margaret River or the Hunter.