A wine storage facility normally built underground for storing wines in bottles and barrels is called a wine cellar. Some environmental factors have to be put into consideration to ensure that any wine stored in a wine cellar maintains its freshness even after many years of storage. The humidity and temperature of a wine cellar should be carefully monitored in order to guarantee that the wine remains fresh in the cellar. When a wine cellar is built above the ground, it is referred to as a wine room while those that contain less than 500 bottles are referred to as wine closets. One of the biggest reasons for building a wine cellar is protecting wine from harsh environmental factors such as heat and light. Just like any other food product, wine is perishable and should be protected from temperature fluctuations, too much vibrations and changes in humidity and light. With proper storage, wine not only maintains its freshness but also improves on the quality of its aroma, complexity and flavor.

For a wine cellar to be rated as good, it should be able to keep the wine in its original freshness and also improve its quality. 5-18 °C is the right temperature in a good wine cellar with variations also should be avoided. In case the temperature goes high or low, it should not vary by more than 10 °C. The French stored their wines in caves of these temperatures and therefore people knew that those were the correct temperatures for wine cellars. To ensure that the final wine has qualities of a well matured wine, the temperatures should not be higher than 18 °C as the wine will mature too fast. Wines that mature too fast will taste more like vinegar and not have the sweet and savory taste that good wines normally have.

Active and passive are the two cooling systems of a wine cellar. When using active cooling systems in a wine cellar, proper insulation should be done by a professional. These cooling systems need to be installed in order to ensure that the humidity and temperature of a wine cellar are monitored. Active cooling systems are not used very regularly unless the weather is too hot. Passively cooled wine cellars are located in areas that are naturally cool and have very few seasonal changes. This is normally in a basement and they do not require any energy to operate. These wine cellars are not always reliable but they are definitely cheaper to run.

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