If you are looking at getting your first wine cellar and lack some space to do so it would be a mistake to throw you bottles in a pine rack and see it as a decoration. If you are getting into keeping wine for a while in hope of tasting an aging product, storing it away is not enough.

The key principle to start a ¨wine cellar¨ is temperature control. Obviously, a simple rack in a corner of a room will not help you store wine at the widely agreed perfect temperature of 55 F. At a lower temperatures the wine maturity process is slowed down and put it into a state of dormancy. In a refrigerator at near freezing degrees it will numb the wine and make it flat and fruitless taste. At a higher temperature than 55 F, it will age faster and above 75 F it will evolve like it is being baked.

Also, in open air, the risk that your room temperature varies a lot because of sun light or other factors which could often rise the temperature of the wine in the 80s and lower it in the 60s during the night. These fluctuations will have the wine expand and contract in the bottle and draw more air through the cork and favor oxidation.

Finally, humidity control helps prevent wine corks to dry out and loose its sealing property. The ideal humidity is between 55-80%, above 90% mold will grow on the cork and can affect the wine.

If, because of the above, you are careful with your wine and store it in a nice wine cabinet, it would be a good move to install your cabinet away from sources of lights and vibrations like motors and heaters. And a final step to prevent moving the wine too much is to put a visible tag so that you don’t have to remove it to read what wine it is.

Finally, when shopping for your wine cellar or refrigerator, make sure you are purchasing what you need. There two types of refrigerator: wine cellar and wine cooler. Wine cooler is more appropriate for wines you keep at hand and plan to consume readily. Wine cooler don't control humidity and are not as accurate in maintaining temperature in a tight range.