It's a window on your dark and musty soul. A basement cellar keeps wine cool. The walls and ceiling are painted to look like stone and the floor is tiled. The wine racks have yet be installed. If you are at the point of building a home wine cellar, you will have to contemplate everything from your drinking and entertaining preferences to household space constraints and the depth of your pockets.
Experts preach practicality and caution.
Neophytes yearning to have proper storage for a few cases of wine don't need anything fancy. The goal is to keep the wine cool and away from sunlight. A good way to monitor the temperature in your cellar, or your potential cellar, is to insert the spike of a meat thermometer through the cork of an inexpensive bottle of wine. Stack the bottle with other bottles, then check the temperature over the course of a year. If your year-round basement temperature is between 55 to 62 degrees, you're a lucky wine geek.