By Jessica Spengler
The love of the land, of the vine, of the grape, and of course, of the wine is the reason many vintners get into the wine industry. The idea of building a business with the sweat of your brow and creating a fantastic result is what motivates people to keep going. However, to make the dream a reality, you have to sell that product. Your product needs to appeal to the consumer through smell and taste, but also with a well-crafted label and an interesting bottle. Then, you need to show it to your customers in the best way possible. This is where a beautiful built display becomes essential.
There are many ways of thinking about how to display your wine. For some producers, just getting the wine in front of the customer is what matters, and as long as it’s there, they don’t care how it looks. For others, high-end woods and displays even more impressive than the wine are all that will suffice. Most wineries and retailers prefer to be somewhere in between, with a display that will attract consumers to purchase their wines but also allow for customer accessibility, inventory management, and other day-to-day functions.
Types of Wine Displays & Racking
When wine racks are set up correctly, they lead to higher sales. Ideally, customers should have access to a label-forward display and inventory behind, underneath or above. There are multiple ways to set up a retail space that accomplishes this.
Standard wine racks
A standard wine rack is one of the best ways to maximize space, control inventory and display wine beautifully. Racks can be made from a bevy of materials, but most often are wooden, with a label-forward display row and cork-forward storage below and above. Standard racks are built to fit a case of standard wine bottles, and sometimes two cases, depending on height.
Diamond and Rectangular Bins
For bulk storage wines, diamond and rectangular bins allow retailers to stack standard Bordeaux bottles without fear of breakage. These are most often used for less expensive wines or wines with large inventories. Diamond and rectangular bins should not be used for wines in burgundy bottles that have a rounded bottom and no shoulder. The decorative element of these bins can add an element of design to this bulk storage.
Wine Islands and Tables
Wine islands are similar to standard wine racks. However, the top of the island is where the display bottle is laid with a place for 12–to–13 bottles underneath. Wine tables are similar to islands in that they hold a full case of each wine, but instead of a display on top, there is a flat surface or table for displays or to hold tastings. This is a common option in retail environments where there is not a specified area for tastings.
VintageView
A new trend in wine storage is the metal “Vintageview” style. These powder-coated racks display the wine bottle on its side rather than cork-forward, and the back stock of bottles are laid in a similar fashion behind the display bottle and moved forward as customers purchase inventory. This is a versatile rack fashioned to a winery’s or retailer’s liking and seems to take up less space than traditional wooden racks. However, displaying the bottle on its side doesn’t necessarily save room, and the racks offer little bulk storage.
Barrel Racks
While many retailers may not have wine barrels in store, most wineries have them on the premises. Barrel racks are an excellent way to store, move and monitor your aging wine in an organized way. These racks come in single, two-barrel, four-barrel, or customized sizes by companies such as Rack & Maintenance Source (rackandmaintenance.com) near Walla Walla, Washington.
Rack & Maintenance opened in 2000 as a small shop that initially serviced wineries in their hometown of Walla Walla and parts of the Northwest. Now they’re a world-wide barrel rack supplier. The company makes their racks in-house with the highest grade American stainless steel, as well as from mild steel with powder coating. Powder coating gives producers color options while protecting steel from rust, and when maintained correctly, can help these racks last a lifetime.
Rack & Maintenance has a bevy of barrel rack options that allow vintners to move barrels using a forklift, stack barrels safely and even stack different rack setups on top of one another.
The standard barrel rack, a seven-inch, double-bar, two-barrel rack, was designed with safety in mind. “Double-bar means the pocket opening, where you would put the forklift in to lift it. It’s also a safety feature. If [the forklift driver] stops too quick, the rack catches on the fork, so [the barrels] aren’t gonna fall off,” said Kristin Subryan, Rack & Maintenance Source VP of Regional Sales. These racks are available in both two-barrel and four-barrel and can be stacked up to six high, with the bottom of the rack resting on top of the barrel beneath.
Unlike standard barrels, Rack & Maintenance’s “stack rack” locks into the rack beneath it rather than on top of the barrels for a stable, more flexible rack setup.
“The price point is a little bit higher but [vintners] like them because they’re versatile. We can do a standard barrel rack, or we can do a chardonnay barrel with a roller. That way you can stack regular racks [on top of] racks with rollers,” said Subryan.
Stack racks provide stability unseen in standard barrel racks.
“When we did the crush test on them, they were able to withstand up to 10,000 lbs of pressure before the feet flattened on the floor. It’s just a well-built, steady-on-the-ground rack,” said Subryan.
For those vintners looking for barrel racks to help them maximize space, the four-inch single-bar racks are best, according to Subryan. “It’s popular because of height restrictions. If you’re down in a cellar, if you have caves or places like that with a low ceiling, a four-inch rack’s gonna get you more barrels on your height.”
For inventory management, she suggests the seven-inch double-bar. “If you need to get into the bung of the barrel, the seven-inch rack is the rack you’re gonna need,” she said. “If they need to get a [wine] thief in there, if they need to access the wine in the barrel, their gonna want a seven inch-rack. The four-inch racks are too close to each other that they’re not able to access the bung.”
Rack & Maintenance also offers a single-barrel rack that will safely stack an uneven amount of barrels together. This accessory is designed to fit nicely between two barrels and distribute weight evenly. Additionally, they offer a raised barrel washing stand outfitted with wheels for easy cleaning.
“If you come in with your forklift and you pick up your two barrels [on the rack], you can zip it over to a barrel washing stand and drop the rack down. The barrels will land on the rollers, and the rack will drop down, right underneath the barrels, and rest there. It’s at the right height, so you’re not breaking your back to move these barrels,” said Subryan.
Customization
Customized cabinetry and racks expand display options for wineries and retailers. Wine and barrel rack designers and manufacturers are more than willing to work with their consumers to fit their differing needs and requirements.
Rack Materials
The materials available for wine storage, from wine cellars in tasting rooms to displays in retail stores are varied, and each has their purpose, pros and cons. For wood racks, hardwoods are best.
Metal
Metal is commonly used for backroom storage, barrel racks, as well as VintageView and other metal racking.
Redwood
Once the most commonly used material for constructing wooden wine racks and wine cellars, the endangered status of coast redwoods and giant sequoias means industry alternatives are necessary.
Wine Cellar Innovations (WCI), a wine cellar design firm and manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, uses redwood guaranteed to be harvested sustainably for nearly 75 percent of their constructions. On its website, WCI explains why.
“All of our redwood is purchased under the guidelines of SFI, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (sfiprogram.org). SFI Certification provides customers with the assurance that the redwood you purchase from Wine Cellar Innovations has been harvested in an environmentally sound manner.”
WCI’s continued use of redwood trees is simple: they believe it is the best option.
“It is naturally moisture resistant, and it is non-aromatic. A refrigerated room is going to have high humidity, so you want wood that is going to hold up well to high humidity. It is non-aromatic, which is good because wine will breathe and take on odors in the room,” said Brett Norris, a wine cellar design consultant at Wine Cellar Innovations (winecellarinnovations.com).
Mahogany
Charles Griffiths is the owner of Vigilant Inc. (vigilantinc.com), a Dover, New Hampshire-based designer of wine cabinetry, cellars and racks. He told The Grapevine Magazine that his first choice is mahogany, a wood that is similar to redwood in its ability to hold up in high humidity and non-aromatic qualities, among other things.
“We’ve been using different types of mahogany for the entire time the company’s been around. We really like the material, it’s great to work with, it’s strong, it looks good, it takes stain well,” said Griffiths.
Other woods
For wineries or retailers looking to use a different sort of wood for their racks, wine rack manufacturers are more than willing to take requests— but at a cost.
“Black walnut’s been popular the last three years; it’s finally starting to die down a little bit. So that’s fine, we can say ‘yeah we can do this in black walnut, it’s gonna be this much more because we’re gonna have to source the material and mold the material and get it to where you want it to be,’” Griffiths said.
Finishing is just as important as wood selection, Griffiths said. “It’s not just what it looks like, but we use conversion varnish or lacquer on all our racks and all of our cabinetry that’s good for protecting the wood and keeping dust and wine, if it spills, off the product. It’s just a nice protective product.”
Planning the Space
Designing a cellar or display rack should start as early as possible when planning a new construction or remodel, particularly if there are any plans for climate control or refrigeration.
Norris told The Grapevine Magazine, “When an architect specs out a wine cellar room, that’s when they need to start reaching out and figuring out what this customer might need. You don’t want to wait too long. I would say one of the challenges I run into is people not giving us a call early enough in their projects,” he said.” I’ve seen many new house constructions and remodel projects be nearly finished, and then they call the wine cellar guy and say ‘Hey can you come help us with this project?’ Well, we might be past the point of no return on somethings or people may have to redo work that’s already finished.”
Griffiths agreed. “When we get proposals, what happens is, someone may call us, and they haven’t done much of anything. That is preferable to us because they say, ‘Look I’m just reaching out, we’re a year out from opening a new location, and we’re thinking about doing this, we’re trying to get some ideas going, we just want to include you in the design process.’ That’s when they’re using us to the biggest advantage.”
The key, said Griffiths, is to define what you want for the business early in the planning process.
“We’re very design-oriented, so we like to start out with the stakeholders and find out what it is they’re trying to do. Sometimes their goals are well-defined, and we’re just coming in and slipstreaming it into what their plans are, and we are able to get them what they want. A lot of other times they’ve got a blank slate, and then, a lot of cases they’ve got an architect or designer who’s said, ‘I’ve earmarked this area for wine storage, I don’t really know a lot about exactly how it’s all supposed to go together, but can you please help us with that,’” he said.
According to Norris, one of the first things to discuss is the how a winery or retailer would like to display their wines.
“A wine retailer specifically, one of the things they have to think about is how are they going to display the wines. Alcohol, liquor, wine need to be in front of the customer to be purchased instead of in a box in the back waiting for a spot on the shelf,” he said. “Talking with us about how our racks can be organized together, how we can lay out a store to help separate different wineries versus how many types of bottles or how many kinds of bottles, or whether they want to do a case – or threes, fours or sixes – of a wine. They pretty much work with us to help maximize a space, help display a lot of bottles.”
Location in the store, often referred to as “real estate,” is a primary factor, too.
“We get into formats; we get into how many different areas and how you’ll set your store up. Are you setting your store up by country, are you setting your store up by region, are you setting up your store by varietal?” Griffiths said. “That’s the stuff that we bring up, and they usually ponder on it for a while before they come back and want to dig into a design and come up with what they think is most important.”
In the end though, what is most important is functionality. Getting feedback from the often overlooked store or tasting room manager may be worth the effort.
“You can build a lot of pretty cabinets and racks and stuff, but it always has to make sense in terms of functionality,” said Griffiths. “It’s funny, I go out on a lot of these projects for the implementation, and the people that are actually using your product, you’ve never met them before. They’re the food and beverage manager, or the store manager, and nobody ever consulted them at all. And they wonder ‘How come it’s being done this way?’ Those people at that end, they want things to be very functional because they’re using it every day and they want to be able to do their business in as easy a way as possible.”
Benefits of Using a Consultant
Enlisting companies like Vigilant Inc. (https://vigilantinc.com/) and Wine Cellar Innovations will allow you to make the most of your space and to address questions that you may not know the answers to such as climate control. These companies also offer installation and customization to make sure you have what you want and can offer advice on things an owner, builder or designer may not have fully considered.
“We listen to the customer and figure out what their goals are,” said Norris. “We help them take that space, come up with racking designs, and show them bottle capacity information and work with their builder to execute the construction of the room. We offer installation services as well. The customer can elect to hire us to come and assemble the racks and install them in the room, which, can be a bit of a complicated process too, so it’s good to have us and our factory trained installers assemble the wine racks in the field too.”