Photos courtesy of Jennifer Daniel and Danielle Kravec, Live Laugh Protography
Vincent Daniel’s love of wine began when he visited Napa Valley in the late ’90s. Over the years he has amassed quite the collection, eventually prompting him and his wife Jennifer to consider the best way to store that wine.
“I started buying cabernets that are really made to be cellared for a number of years before drinking them,” Vincent says.
“If I was going to buy fairly expensive bottles that I’m not going to drink for the next five to 10 to 15 years, I wanted to make sure the conditions they were stored at were perfect.”
For Vincent, it was clear that his home wasn’t offering the right conditions. The basement had a wine closet but it lacked space and a cooling system.
“I did open some bottles and it didn’t taste the same as it did in Napa,” Wincent says. “I wondered if it had to do with the fact it was stored in less-than-ideal conditions and it accelerated aging of the wine so it was not as good as it could have been.”
Jennifer was also unhappy with the basement and how the space was being utilized.
“One thing I didn’t like was this choppy little room we walked through to get to the back,” she says. “A lot of the space wasn’t being used.”
The Daniels brought in Dave Fox Remodeling to rethink and renovate the space. Design Consultant Stephen Dempsey came up with an idea to remove a wall and create a more open area. The Daniels immediately loved the idea.
“All of a sudden that room you couldn’t do anything with became usable space,” Jennifer says. “I got a better-designed basement where you actually want to go down to hang out.”
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Daniel and Danielle Kravec, Live Laugh Protography
Dempsey also proposed a distinctive, vault-like wine cellar with glass walls to better show off the wine itself.
“The entire cellar was designed to be displayed, kind of like artwork to appreciate,” Vincent says. “I wanted that to be part of the experience. You are able to see the labels and are able to see wine itself as art.”
The glass design forced the designers to get creative during construction. Rocks were added to a small ledge below the wine, for example, to allow for discreet lighting.
“We found innovative ways to make it work,” Dempsey says. “It’s not like there are a lot of glass, round wine cellars for us to look to.”
To add the climate control system, the Dave Fox team stripped most of the space – including the walls, ceiling and flooring – to re-insulate the area and rework the electricity.
The original wine closet only held around 700 bottles. The space now can hold over 1,600 bottles.
“The area didn’t really have purpose before we revamped it,” Vincent says. “I’m just happy walking down there. As a family we spend time down there appreciating the cellar and the environment. We started to utilize the whole basement much more than we previously did.”
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Daniel and Danielle Kravec, Live Laugh Protography
Lindsey Capritta is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
