DI-Wine Part Two: Stoppers and Storage

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I am not yet done talking about wine, or wine-related crafts. In fact, one of the many items on my Geez-I-Wish-I-Had-Enough-Time-To-Do List is to start a drunken craft group inspired by some dear friends in Portland who have been knockin’ ‘em back and getting crafty for a while now. My plan is to call it “Crafts and Drafts” so don’t steal that name— one of these days, I’ll actually get around to starting it.

In the meantime, since we’ve been talking home bars here on BAS, I’ve got some more essential crafts for your Chardonnay, some DIY for your drink, some….okay, I can’t think of a third one so let’s just do this. The two vital areas worth mentioning here are stoppers, which are useful for saving half-full bottles and therefore cash, and storage, which helps keep your wine (or other bottles) in a safe, cool, dark place so they don’t get bumped or exposed to light.

Stoppers: Not only are stoppers super useful for saving opened bottles, but they’re also pretty painless to make. You’re going to need to have a piece of cork to start with but hey, didn’t you just pull one out of a bottle of wine? Terrific! Take that piece of cork, and any buttons, drawer pulls, geodes, plastic animal toys, cue balls, costume jewelry, poker chips, etc, and grab some glue, some florists wire and a drill. While many items can simply be attached to the cork using glue and/or wire, some will require some careful drilling and possibly some hanger bolts or a dowl to brace the item onto the cork. For the most part though, this is a two step process of glue/wire/dowl item to cork. Insert cork into bottle.

Storage Rack: Wine, like bourbon, likes to get stored a specific way. Typically, a dry, cool, and dark place is best, and since wine is best stored on its side a wine rack of some kind will be in order (bourbon for the record, should also be kept out of direct sunlight but does NOT enjoy being stored on its side). So, to solve this problem quickly and cheaply, whip up a DIY wine rack. Grab some cans, PVC pipe, or mailing tubes. Spray paint them or decorate as desired, then glue them together in a hive shape (using clips to hold them in place while the glue dries). If you’re handy with the sewing (or a felt fan), you can also construct a handy rack out of felt, and if you’re handy with….nothing then just nail some straight pegs into your wall, a few inches apart. As long as the pegs are long enough, the wine can balance neatly on them.

Images courtesy Curbly, Cupcakes and Cashmere, Ecologique Design. WordPress, CasaSugar, and Apartment Therapy.