A recently completed custom wine cellar project in McLean, Virginia, showcases the ideal green wine storage space that demonstrates sustainability, style, and luxury.  Unlike most custom residential wine cellars, this wine room is an excellent model of eco-conscious interiors and sustainable furnishings, from its passively cooled environment to its nature-friendly wine racking materials.

Residential Wine Cellars Virginia

This residential wine cellars Virginia project was designed to be cooled naturally, and thus does not require an active wine cellar refrigeration system for achieving consistent temperature and humidity levels necessary to proper wine storage.  The McLean Virginia sustainable wine cellars project was installed below the ground, to promote cost effective and energy efficient cellaring through passive wine cellar cooling.

To maximize the passive wine cellar cooling capability of the room, careful attention was given to the basement and underground walls, as well as proper insulation materials that would play a crucial role in creating the best possible wine storage environment down in the cellar.

Basement residential wine cellars are the most desirable wine storage location for the romantic wine connoisseurs.  These underground custom wine rooms are designed to provide a passively stable environment for storing and aging wine collectibles.  Passive wine cellar cooling takes advantage of its naturally cool and damp surroundings in creating the ideal storage conditions.  This is why passive cellars are usually built below the ground.

To be in tune with the overall environmentally friendly concept of the home, the designers installed floor to ceiling custom wine rack styles constructed in reclaimed wine barrel and copper materials.  Wine racking systems are a key component in cellaring wines, as they are designed to promote the proper orientation and presentation of wine bottles during storage.

After wine barrels have used up their life span, they are either disposed of in landfills or sold as firewood or planters.  In lieu of discarding old wine barrels, green minded designers turn them into sustainable products that can lend timeless beauty to any living space.  Reclaimed wine barrel racks are one of them.

Reclaimed Wine Barrel Racks

Reclaimed wine barrel racks feature a unique and curvy appearance that displays the distinctive markings caused by the metal rings that once held the wine barrel intact.  The convex curve style of the barrel racking allowed for the angled storage of wine bottles, with the cork facing out.  Wine racks made from recycled wine barrels retain some of the natural aroma of the wine they previously held, thus bringing a sense of wine country history into the wine cellar space.

Aside from reclaimed wine barrel racks, the McLean Virginia sustainable wine cellars project also features cabinets with doors constructed from old wine barrels, and a countertop for storing case storage and displaying glass stemware.

Copper-made horizontal bottle displays dominate the rear wall of the wine cellar space.  Copper helps keep wine bottles cooled naturally.  Wine racks with horizontal shelving not only promote proper bottle placement, but also allow for easy readability of wine labels.

CharityWorks Greenhouse

The McLean Virginia sustainable wine cellars project is part of The Charity Works Greenhouse Initiative, which is the first carbon neutral house on the East Coast, and showcases energy efficient designs and renewable energy systems.