Pine For Wine

Build a bottle rack that’s easy and affordable
by Lee Parent

When we moved into our present home, the basement rec room was finished in basic 1960s style, with most of the walls paneled in beaded tongue-and-groove pine. Planning to move an old-fashioned bar farther down the room, we discovered that the pine had been applied to uninsulated concrete. We removed all the wood and reconstructed the outer walls properly, insulating them to the standards demanded by Saskatchewan winters and applying drywall rather than pine in some places to brighten up our new family room.  The pine paneling we removed proved to be real boards over half an inch thick, so we saved any lumber that we didn’t reuse.

A wood-working friend eventually took most of those boards, but in the meantime, I began to bottle my own wine. I soon realized I needed racks that would hold two or three batches at a time. Always frugal, I suggested to my husband that we might use some of the old pine and leftover lumber from our renovation to build wine racks, and he came up with this design.

Our no-frills rack holds 63 wine bottles and fits into the nook beside our spare refrigerator in the laundry room. If you follow the dimensions outlined below, the rack can handle 54 bottles.

This rack could easily be built from wood purchased at a lumber yard or upgraded by using a quality wood such as oak. If we’d bought our plain pine boards, I figure the materials would have cost about $35 (and I just saw a similar rack at a big home-supply store for $65!). The components could be routed, sanded, stained and finished, resulting in a rack suitable for display in a living area.

In our case, since the wine rack was destined for a corner in the basement, we kept the project very basic. From start to finish, it only took three hours to build. Here’s what you should do:

1. Use a hole saw to cut  6 holes, 4 inches in diameter, in each of the 9 boards (6 inch by 34 inch). Cut 1-3/4 inches in from each end, with  1-1/4 inch space between holes (see Diagram 1).
2. Cut boards in half lengthwise (see Diagram 2).
3. Rout and sand all edges.
4. Stain or paint all pieces of wood, if desired.
5. Measure 5 inches from one end of each upright and mark.
6. Screw one panel with the semi-circular cut-outs to the two uprights, aligning bottom edge of front piece with mark and squaring edges (see Diagram 3).
7. Measure 7 inches up from the bottom of the first panel and attach the second panel to the 2 uprights.       
8. Continue in the same manner, fastening the panels to the uprights at 7-inch intervals.
9. Assemble the back of the rack in the same manner.

       
To finish the assembly,  four hands are better than two, especially if you are novice wood-workers as we are. An alternative would be to brace the pieces in a vice on a work bench. Using the 2-inch by 10-inch pieces of 3/4-inch plywood,  and keeping them on the square, attach the front panel to the back panel (see Diagram 4).

Finishing details can vary, according to your skill level and your plans for the location of the rack. We wanted our rack to fit in a niche in our utility room. We fastened it to the wall, although it could be free-standing if stabilizing pieces were added to the base.

We added a trim board to the top only because we happened to have one handy. The width of the rack could be adjusted; in fact, it could be doubled if another set of uprights were added to the center.

As any wine hobbyist knows, bottle storage can be a challenge. This rack provides a convenient solution, holding several batches in a compact area.

Lee Parent is an avid winemaker and amateur sports-car racer. She and her husband travel extensively around North America in their Corvette; she takes her own wine wherever they go. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.