Good afternoon to all of you wine lovers on the West coast. If you are not “blessed” to be living in the glorious state of California, please note that this message may not apply to you.

Today I want to talk about one of wine’s worst enemies in the golden state. If you live there then you already know what I am about to say. This word strikes fear into the hearts of all Californians. That word is: EARTHQUAKE! Now I know that for most of you the last thing on your mind in the event of a 5.2 quake is wine. But let me be clear about something. If you live in an area that shakes a lot, your wine can be thrown from its comfy nest. Quakes have no respect for good taste. Whether you have one wine rack that holds 20 bottles or a cellar that holds 20,000 these quakes are after your wine, what are you going to do to keep it safe?

Please don’t panic. We here at Wine Racks America have a very simple solution for you. No, the solution is not to uncork every bottle and pour it down your throat in an attempt to rid yourself of the worry. Just take a look at this:

Yes built in California for Californians “The Quake Guardian® Wine Guard System” will keep your keep your wine bottles from flying off your wine rack in the event of an earthquake. I would assume that your walls would probably cave in before you bottles bounce to the ground.

Watch a video demonstration of how this product works.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to call me at
1-888-373-6057.

Drink Well,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist

Greetings again from the owner’s desk at Wine Racks America.  As we are at the beginning of the holiday season now my thoughts have turned to gift giving, and what our company might offer to customers during this holiday season. 

I read a statistic recently that has really stuck with me, and since a lot of you may be in the market for a gift soon I thought I would share it.  According to a recent survey from a source that I honestly cannot remember, the U.S. will soon surpass every other country in the world for the number of individuals per capita that consume wine.  Within 5-10 years the U.S. will be populated with 148 million wine drinkers, which makes the U.S. a more likely place to see someone drinking wine than either France or Italy (!).  Wow, how things have changed. 

I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s and NOBODY was talking about wine (at least good wine), but now it really seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue - pun intended.  Anyway, with that many new wine enthusiasts on the scene each year, the need to keep that wine stored and organized is likely to grow and, you knew it was coming, I happen to know of this great place that makes wine racks and sells all kinds of storage-related products! 

I won’t turn this into a sales pitch, suffice to say that in our experience many new wine drinkers are reluctant to purchase racks or specialty storage items until they are more ’seasoned’ - whatever that means.  So, if you are an older experienced wine consumer and know someone who is fresh on the wine scene encourage them, point them our way, give them a lovely wine storage product from our web site, or better yet give them a wine storage gift certificate this holiday season and let them choose something of their own. 

With so many new wine aficionados every day you won’t have to look far to find a qualified recipient, and hey - it’ll probably get used.  Have a great day.

Jeff

Many people who have made their home in the Western United States have learned to live with the many challenges that this climate creates. Here in Utah we have learned to live with the state’s quirky wine & liquor laws; not to mention the bears, snakes, bad drivers and of course a very dry climate.

As you might know, a dry climate is good for sand and sage brush but it is lousy for storing wine. Even a fully sealed and insulated cellar complete with a cooling system doesn’t solve the extremely low humidity in the West. The truth is that if your wine cellar is not operating at 60-65% relative humidity your wine could be at risk. Low humidity levels may result in compromised seals and oxidized wine.

Here at Wine racks America we have recently added an innovative solution to our product linup specifically aimed at our clients in arid parts of the country. The Wine Guardian Humidification System is the solution that your dried-out corks have been looking for. This unit can be freestanding, mounted to the wall, or integrated into right into your wine cellar racking. All it needs is a water line, drain line and power and you are good to go.

So rejoice! Say good-bye to your brittle corks; act as if you live in the muggy East or South with their fancy humidity and supple bottle closures.  To learn more about this great product look no further than WineRacksAmerica.com

If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call at 888-373-6057 or email me at chancock@wineracksamerica.com

Cheers,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist

Building a wine cellar is a lot of work. Installing a vapor barrier, insulating the entire space and installing the proper green board drywall can really take a lot of time out of our busy schedule. All of this back breaking work just for wine. Wow, we must really love it.

What if there was a way to eliminate at least one of these steps in an attempt to save time and money when building your very own wine cellar? Well there may be a solution that all of us could have access to. This solution is light years beyond ordinary wine cellar construction; this revolutionary approach will probably end up saving the world!

Well, the world will be safe with out this new wine cellar construction idea, but if I can help someone save a little time and money then my job will be just that much more enriching. Here is a phrase that needs some explaining: Closed cell polyurethane insulation. This is a sprayed or foamed-in-place application than can, at the very least, save a step in building out a new wine cellar, and at most might just save you a couple of bucks. This product usually performs better than simple batting insulation because it molds to all surfaces. All closed-cell polyurethane foam insulation produced today is made from a non -CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) gas as the foaming agent, so it won’t kill your mice!

It is said that 1 inch of the product has an “R” factor of 7. Wine cellars would therefore require at least 2.5 inches which would yield around an “R” factor of 18 or 19. This product is water-vapor permeable, but with around 2.5 to 3 inches the dew point should be well within the material leaving no chance of mold or mildew inside your cellar.

What does this mean to wine enthusiasts? One less step. No longer must you wrap the warm side of your cellar with 6 mill plastic, then apply insulation, then green board. Now, with this product, one can simply apply the polyurethane insulation and cover it up with green board.

For more information about this product, or if you just want to talk about wine cellars, send me an email at: chancock@wineracksamerica.com.

Drink Well,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist

Recently here at Wine Racks America we have taken the initiative to eliminate all visible screws in the construction of our Wine Cellar Kits. Structurally our racks are the same, the only change is that the middle (visible) fasteners are secured using small finish nails rather than the standard wood screws (black dots).

For anyone who has assembled one of our products before, the transition should be rather painless. For those of you who have never assembled a Wine Racks America product, don’t worry - we have detailed assembly instructions to walk you through the process. Below, I will take you through the new assembly process for one of our standard Wine Cellar Racks.

The parts for a standard Wine Cellar Rack are pretty simple. Each rack is comprised of “vertical ladders” and “horizontal connector pieces.” The “vertical ladders” are the long pieces that make up the columns of the rack which come pre-assembled with the bottle support pieces already in place. Each rack will be made up of two end ladders and 0-9 middle ladders (depending on the column configuration).

The “horizontal connector pieces” are the horizontal fasteners that hold the ladders together. Each standard Wine Cellar Rack will now have six standard horizontal connectors and two screwless horizontal connectors. The six standard horizontal connectors will be secured with standard 1 1/4″ wood screws; four on the back and one on the top and bottom of the front of the rack. The screwless horizontal connectors will be secured to the middle area of the front of the rack at the heights specified in the assembly instructions. The screwless connectors will be secured using a finish nail gun or a hammer and some small finish nails (provided).

Once assembled, the finish nail holes can be concealed by applying a small amount of wood putty (provided) to each hole and simply wiping off the excess with a damp cloth. For a typical wine cellar configuration, the visible screws on the top and bottom of the front of the rack will be covered using our Crown & Floor Molding Trim-Kit System.

You can view a step-by-step assembly guide for any of our wine cellar products by visiting our Assembly Guide page at WineRacksAmerica.com.

Cheers,
Ian Campbell
Graphic Designer

In the last several weeks things have been really hopping around here; getting ready for our first year as sponsors of the Park City food & wine festival. We were thrilled to be able to join the ranks of incredible sponsors for this amazing once-a-year event. It was 4 days of gourmet food from local vendors, live music and shows, and wines from vineyards all over the country.

I had the chance to go to the Saturday Toast of Park City Grand Tasting held at The Canyons Resort. It was held outdoors in the sunny mountain atmosphere, the smell of steak and salmon was wafting through the air. With so many wines to taste it quickly became overwhelming… but somehow I made due. I learned more in this 3-hour affair then in all my years of wine drinking.

So if you’re a seasoned wine pro or simply a novice ready to experiment, there is something for everyone at this event. If you made it, we were thrilled to have you. If you missed it, you’ll want to be ready for next year. This is one experience not to be missed.

Jen Smith
Wine Cellar Designer

The best part about this job, besides the fantastic people that I work with, is seeing all of the thought and planning that go into building a wine cellar. In most cases we here at Wine Racks America never get the chance to see the finished product.

Every person here puts a lot of effort into designing, modifying, building and shipping the finished product to the customers, but it is rare that we ever get to see any pictures. So come on America, once your cellar is complete and filled with your favorite wines take a few photos and email them to us here at cellardesign@wineracksamerica.com. I promise that we will email you back a HUGE thank you and you may even see your cellar featured on our website!

Cheers,
Katie Hegsted
Customer Support

Recently here at Wine Racks America I received a very troubling email. It was from a gentleman who was writing to me in hopes that I would have a solution to his wine cellar mold problem. At first I felt very upset for the person in question. All of these images were running through my head of ruined wine and screaming infants. Why the screaming infants you ask? I don’t know. It’s just that when bad things happen infants scream!

Back to the problem; Mold and mildew in a wine cellar, how to solve it.
First let’s talk about how to AVOID it. A wine cellar that is properly sealed, insulated and ventilated should not allow for mold and mildew to grow. If it does then something is very wrong. A painstaking search must then be initiated to find where the excess moisture is coming from. Nine times out of ten the problem will be a leak in the vapor barrier or a water leak from a rusty pipe inside the wall.

After fixing the problem so it doesn’t happen again how does one clean up the moldy mess? The first thing that I would do is to remove my wine and store it, at least temporarily, in a cool place. Now there are a lot of ways to clean up mold in an ordinary basement but not all of these ways are safe in a wine cellar. Bleach vapors are rumored to damage the cork. Does anyone have any insight on this issue? Are there any professionals out there that have dealt with mold removal from wine cellars? If so please share your wisdom.

Drink Often,

Christian Hancock
Wine Cellar Specialist (Except when it comes to mold)