Five hundred bottles of wine needed a home.
So, as part of a kitchen remodel of a 1953 ranch home in Scottsdale, Ariz., Dan Walker of Heritage Construction Specialists made it a point to carve out a wine cellar for the wine-loving homeowners’ extensive collection.
“Most of those bottles had been stored in coolers in the kitchen,” says Angela Walker, Dan’s wife and Heritage’s co-owner.
At just 7½ feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 8 feet tall, the cellar may be compact, but it provides space for 1,100 bottles. The cellar is framed out of heart redwood, as are the shelves, which stack bottles two deep horizontally. The flooring is plank tile, made to mimic wood, which is a continuation of the flooring used throughout the kitchen.
The redwood-framed glass door has insulated glass sidelights, providing a full view into the cellar. A wrought-iron door handle was specially made in the shape of a twisted vine with bunches of grapes at top and bottom. The cellar is climate controlled, with a CellarPro wine cooling unit that keeps the wine at the optimum 55 degrees. Homeowners are able to regulate both temperature and humidity.
On the cellar’s back wall is a low shelf of the same granite used on the kitchen island, held up by custom-made redwood corbels. It serves as a landing spot for a bottle of wine or two, when the homeowners go through their collection to choose that evening’s libation.
