Storing Wine In Your Kitchen Series Part One

Welcome to my “Storing Wine In Your Kitchen Series”.  In this first post, I am focusing on storing wine in your kitchen island. Subsequent posts will look at other options for storing wine in your kitchen.

How many times have you found yourself standing in your kitchen in the middle of cooking dinner- maybe you are frying chicken, stirring gravy, keeping an eye on the rolls in the oven- (makes me hungry typing this!) and you need a bottle of wine. You need a bottle to serve with dinner or to drink with a friend who stopped by or you just want to sip some wine while you cook. It is a crucial time in the cooking process and you cannot possibly leave the stove to go to the wine cellar located in the basement or to your bar which is located on the other end of your home to get a bottle of wine. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place to store a few bottles of wine in your kitchen?

How many times have you had a party and everyone ends up gathering in the kitchen? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few bottles of wine stored in your kitchen to serve your guests?

As you design your dream home or remodel your kitchen, it makes sense to plan for a place to store wine even if you have a wine cellar or a bar (unless the bar in your home is located next to the kitchen). 

There are many decisions to be made about storing wine that are not right or wrong but are a personal preference. How many bottles of wine do you want to be able to store? What is the range in the size of the bottles of wine you plan to store?  What type of storage do you prefer? Hopefully the photos in this series will help you to identify the storage solution that is right for you.

^In the island above, the homeowner is able to store twelve bottles of wine; one bottle per square hole. The holes are large enough to accommodate the circumference of larger sized bottles of wine, though I cannot tell by this photo if the holes are deep enough to handle the height of the larger bottles of wine. Personally, I feel that this design takes up quite a bit of space to only hold twelve bottles of wine. However, I understand the symmetry of three drawers across and three cubby holes for wine as well but I think there are better designs, like the one shown in the photo below, that would look appropriate and provide more storage.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

Source: The New Smart Approach to Kitchen Design by Susan Maney

^Before you read any further, take a guess at how many bottles of wine you think can be stored in the photo above?  Obviously, wine is very important to the homeowner who lives in this home. Each of the diamonds holds nine standard size bottles of wine plus the six half diamonds hold three bottles of wine and the four quarter diamonds hold one bottle for a total of 103 bottles of wine.

Source: The New Smart Approach to Kitchen Design by Susan Maney

^The wine storage shown in the photo above is simple yet functional.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

In the contemporary kitchen shown above, the wire wine racks work well in the center of this island. They are far enough recessed so that the person sitting on the bar stool will not bump their knees. It appears that there are a pair of wine captains on each end of the island. It is important when retrieving wine stored on an island it does not interfere with the cook.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

^The criss/crossed wine storage used in the photo above is not a favorite of mine for several reasons. First, it is expensive to build because there are two rows of the criss/crossed pieces of wood – one to hold the neck of the bottle and one to hold the base. Second, the wooden criss/crosses are usually thin pieces of wood and they can break.  It is an expensive repair and an eyesore. Third, you have less bottle storage because of all of the wood.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

^This vertical storage of wine- bottle on top of bottle works because the bottles are only three deep. Imagine if you have more than three bottles and you were trying to pull out the one on the bottom? I think the large diamond design shown in the third photo would have been more functional.  I do like the custom door used on the wine captain. 

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

^For the amount of space dedicated for wine storage in the island shown above, this design works.  If you are a senior citizen, you may not want to bend over to retrieve wine from a lower shelf.  If you have children, this design will not be safe for the young children or for the wine.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

I cannot tell from the photo above and below if these drawers are located in a kitchen island, a lower cabinet in the kitchen, in a bar, or perhaps in the butler’s pantry. However, this storage method would work in all four areas. The drawer above is more custom fitted to the standard size wine bottle. It appears that the bottles fit rather snug so when opening the drawer they will not roll around.

Source of photo above unknown. Please contact me if you know the source and I will note it.

^Unlike the wine in the drawers in the previous photo, the bottles in the photo above do not appear to be tilted downward in order to keep the cork wet.  A slight tilt to keep the cork wet is a good idea. Personally, I do like this wine storage method because you can pull out a drawer and easily see the bottle labels. There are four drawers above with each drawer holding nine bottles of wine. That is a pretty good inventory in a small amount of space. An added feature is the labeling system on each drawer. Because there is a cabinet door in front of these drawers, a lock could be added if that is the preference of the homeowner.

Be sure to check back for Part Two of this series.  Blessings.  …susan

Source: Kitchens by Chris Casson Madden