Cellar planning · Free tool
Wine cellar calculator: how many bottles will your space hold?
Use the wine cellar calculator to see how many bottles your space will hold, with a floor plan, a cooling estimate and a floor load check.
Enter the size of your room into the wine cellar calculator, choose racking for each wall and see how many bottles it holds. You also get a floor plan, an estimate of the cooling it needs and a check on floor load. Start from one of the typical spaces below or put in your own measurements.
1. Your space
Length runs along walls A and C. Allow 0.8 m of aisle as a minimum and 0.9 m to work comfortably with a case in your hands.
2. Racking on each wall
| Wall | Style | Depth | Blocked (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | |||
| B | |||
| C | |||
| D |
“Blocked” is any length you can’t rack: windows, switchboards, a bench. Double depth holds two bottles per slot but you lose sight of the back row. Maximise capacity tries every depth and island option for the styles you’ve chosen and keeps your aisle clear.
3. What you’ll store
Shares are by bottle count and always add to 100%. Burgundy, Champagne and magnum bottles are wider, so they take more room.
4. Your collection and the room
How the wine cellar calculator works
Each wall is measured from corner to corner. The side walls lose the depth of any racking on the back and front walls, and the door takes its width plus 100 mm of frame from the wall it sits on. The calculator then counts whole rows and columns of bottles, so nothing is rounded up.
Individual slots are set at 100 mm for standard bottles, 106 mm for Burgundy, 115 mm for Champagne and 140 mm for magnums. Diamond bins stack bottles against each other, so they hold more. Case cubbies are sized for dozens in their boxes. Display rows show the labels and hold less than half as much. Single depth racking is 330 mm deep and double depth 620 mm.
Racking from different makers varies by a few per cent, which is why the result shows a range. The cooling and floor load figures are estimates to plan with. Have a refrigeration installer size the final unit and an engineer check a suspended floor.
The wine cellar calculator uses standard racking footprints, so treat the bottle count as a planning figure rather than a quote. For background on how cellars keep wine, the wine cellar entry is a good primer on temperature, humidity and light.
Wine cellar design Adelaide: build advice
We look after a cellar of French and Australian wine across two levels of an old building, and we help Adelaide collectors plan theirs. We can look at your room, lay out the racking, advise on insulation and cooling, and work with your builder or cabinetmaker through the build. When it is finished, we can help you fill it with wines to lay down.
Send us your design from the calculator and we will get back to you, or call 0484 746 344.
Filling the cellar
The Cellar Collection fills a wine fridge or cellar to the last slot, in ten sizes from a six-bottle benchtop fridge to a 1,500-bottle cellar. Every bottle is tagged with the year to open it, and the calculator above suggests the pack that fits your space.
Further reading: how to build a wine cellar that drinks well every year, wines for cellaring in Adelaide and building an Adelaide wine cellar.
Common questions
How many bottles fit in a 2 m by 2 m cellar?
With individual racking floor to 2.2 m on three walls and the door on the fourth, a 2 m by 2 m room holds about 1,090 standard bottles. A mix with some Burgundy, Champagne and magnums brings that down to about 980. Diamond bins on the same walls hold about 1,500.
How many bottles fit on one metre of wall?
About 210 standard 750 ml bottles in individual slots, from the floor to 2.2 m. Diamond bins hold roughly 40% more on the same wall, and double depth racking close to twice as many.
What temperature should a wine cellar be in Adelaide?
Aim for 12 to 14°C with humidity between 60 and 70%. A steady temperature matters more than the exact figure. Most rooms above ground in Adelaide get too warm in summer to manage without a cooling unit.
Do I need a cooling unit for my cellar?
A well insulated room below ground can sometimes hold steady on its own. Log the temperature through one summer before deciding. A room inside the house with outside walls, or any garage or shed, will need cooling and good insulation.
How heavy is a full wine cellar?
A full 750 ml bottle weighs about 1.3 to 1.5 kg, so 1,000 bottles and their racking come to around 1.5 tonnes. That is fine on a concrete slab. On a suspended timber or upper floor, have a structural engineer check the floor before you build.
Should I choose single or double depth racking?
Single depth lets you see every bottle and suits a collection you drink from often. Double depth nearly doubles capacity on the same wall, but the back row is hidden, so it works best for wine you buy in multiples and leave alone.