Finding a home for your liquid assets

Australians now drink more wine (per person per glass) than Britons, Americans and New Zealanders. A survey has shown that in a four-week period 55 per cent of Australians of drinking age drank, on average, 21 glasses. Clearly we are becoming a wine drinking nation.

 Yet very few homes have specialist wine cellars and even at the high end of the market cellars rank far behind home theatres and games rooms as luxury add-ons. The reason may be the double-whammy of cost. A good cellar is expensive to build and maintain, and that’s before you fill it with pricey bottles of quality wine.

 Poor storage, especially in Australia’s climate of fluctuating temperatures, can ruin potentially good wines and if you are a serious collector and drinker, the rack in the corner of the living room or in an ordinary basement, just won’t do.

 Less budget-busting than the cellar is the refrigerated wine cabinet. Free-standing versions can be purchased in Australia, but one HIA kitchen designer offers them as a built-in option. “We always try to stay one step ahead of the trend,” she says.

 A typical refrigerated cabinet can hold up to 120 bottles and has variable zones so that different wines can be stored at their ideal temperatures. Smaller versions are scaled down to between 20 and 30 bottles. Our kitchen designer believes that it will not be long before a built-in wine storage unit will be an almost automatic accessory in the modern kitchen.

 Of course for the dedicated wine buff, nothing short of a full-scale cellar will do and one real estate agent believes that the additional cost of installation is worthwhile, even if you are not going to fill it with your favourite shiraz or chardonnay.

 “Because they are so rare, a good cellar can actually put between five and 10 per cent on the value of a home,” he says. “And in the meantime you can use it as just another room.”

Need a tradesperson? Find an HIA professional convenient to you at tradebuild.com.au