Wine Rack 3.0

I sort of stumbled into developing wine racks as a s specialty. When I was in high school I decided to make a wine rack to give my brother and sister-in-law for their wedding. That was wine rack 1.0. This... this is wine rack 3.0, the sum of lessons learned from prior versions.




Wine rack 3.0 was a wedding gift as well (so was wine rack 2.0... kind of a theme I guess... but most of my friends just get whiskey... your call on who wins). My friends Ritchie and Theresa were getting married. (Yeah I'm putting up their the Twitter handles. The kids are totally into that web 2.0 business these days).

 I'd lived on the same floor as Ritchie as a freshman, spent most of sophomore year on his floor, and lived with him as a junior and senior at Marquette. Theresa, we met as seniors. I dragged him back to her house after she threw a party. They got married. Yeah, that's totally (mostly) my doing <brushes dirt off shoulders>.

Anyhow, I decided a wine rack was in order. The rest of the bridal party filled it up with classy hooch. Henry hooked them up with the Cuervo (he also helped me carry it a little hungover the morning of the wedding... it was a helluva night before the wedding, before it was a helluva night of the wedding); Colin got them the Blue Label; Ingalls sprayed them in the eyes with Corona (I mean got them nice wine from Cali). Some other people helped too, but I can honestly not pair person with gift so I'm giving up, sorry folks.

Anyway, I went with a walnut face and a maple body. This created the color contrast I've been harping on for pretty much always. Walnut is a great hardwood; it's domestic, rich in color, and easy to work. Maple fits the bill as an affordable color contrast to walnut that's strong, durable, and easy to work as well.

I cut out slots for 30 bottles of wine. Each should tip the bottle gently forward to keep the cork moist. This, I'm told, is important to keep bottles with natural cork in good condition. The whole unit is about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide. This let me divide it in half, bottom half wine, top half shelves. And then I divided it in half again on top to create two shelves.

This is in Theresa and Ritchie's home, so you can see how they've used it. It looks like--bottles on the bottom (natch) and then wine glasses, mixing set, plates, other glass thingies, and then some more fly bottles on the shelves (natch).

I think (and really hope) that they've loved having this piece as much as I loved making it. It's one of the best things I've ever made, and it couldn't have ended up in a better home. It's the kind of aesthetic I would pick for myself. There's species that I like, color contrasts that I like, and I think it's as technically sound as anything I've ever done. As much as anything, it has contributed to my reputation as being a guy who makes wine racks. I couldn't be happier with the result, and I hope you liked your peek at it.

Questions? Want one? Email me.