When Matt first asked me about building a wine cellar I was intrigued. He had already done the room renovation, tiled the floor, and designed the cooling system. What remained was the wood racking, and he had an idea how he wanted it done.

Matt sketched his ideas for me. When a customer is able to sketch what they imagine their project to look like it always helps me with my design. Further discussions helped me refine what he wanted. I recommended white oak, which is well suited to wine cellars, and proposed a design which combined the best of Matt’s ideas with the best of what I had discovered in my research.

As expected, there is a lot of labor involved. Every stick of racking is hand prepared. The round corners were cut on a band saw, sanded, and then drilled. The layout was plotted on layout boards to ensure a good spacing of wine bottles. Specialized jigs for the drill press controlled the placement of holes, so that when assembled everything would fit together perfectly. My son Dave came in from California on a work vacation and helped me with the cutting, sanding, drilling, and assembly.

We invented a new kind of assembly system - a long tenon which extends from both sides of a vertical support to hold up racks on both sides. This system was a delight to work with and allowed us to create an uncluttered look.

White oak is one of my favorite woods and has a unique characteristic. Sawn a certain way it shows “flaking” (or tiger striping) on some surfaces. This is called quarter-sawing a board. All the racking was cut from two inch thick oak and I was surprised to find that the curved oak corners showed a high percentage of flaking. It made sense, then, to try to display a high level of flaking throughout the project. To match it we used quarter sawn white oak plywood in the centerpiece and the humidor. We also used white oak dowels. Consistency in the choice of wood, and the display of wood grain, are elements of a high level of craftsmanship.  

No stains or varnishes will be used on this project. Their smell interferes with the natural bouquet of a wine when the bottle is opened. The wine cellar is nearly complete, needing only the addition of a place for the owner’s guitars, and the final trim.

In the Fall Issue of this web site we will talk about the finished wine cellar and show you the natural beauty of quarter-sawn white oak.

Cut-offs and remnants from cutting the corners. The curved edge of this thick oak shows a desirable grain called “flaking”.

Using a template for drilling the corners. This was actually the most complicated part of the process.

Just a few of the many jigs, layout boards and templates. All told, we made about 15 of them.

Strapping held it together until Dave and I had it all assembled and pinned. Notice the tenons sticking out beyond the vertical boards, ready to receive the next corner pieces.

Dave puts the finishing touch on the corner units with a detail sander. Notice the slots in the ends, which are intended to receive the tenons.

We pre-assembled the corners. A few broke but were easily repaired.  Overall, this part of the job went quickly.