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Mon–Fri 9:30–5:301617 Locust St, Walnut Creek

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Plan my cellar(925) 944-1084

Monday–Friday, 9:30am–5:30pm · Saturday by appointment

Commercial wine cellar design

Commercial wine cellars that work during service

What should guests see, and what does your team need within reach? Bring Mike your plans, bottle count and service routine. He can help you balance display, bulk storage and cooling before you order the equipment. Call him at (925) 944-1084 to start with the space you have.

Start a commercial projectCall Mike at (925) 944-1084
Glass-front wine storage with wooden racks lines a restaurant corridor.

  • Capacity first

    We count bottles by format before anyone talks about wood.

  • Cooling sized, not guessed

    Heat load, ducting and service access planned with your contractor.

  • One spec pack

    Elevations, product list and lead times your contractor can bid.

Why the trade calls us

A wine specialist on the drawings, not a second contractor

Mike joined Wine Hardware in 2001 and bought the business with Cari in 2014. Bring him into your cellar planning to work through capacity, racking, cooling and the details your contractor needs.

1973

Family run since

Founded in 1973; Mike and Cari have owned the business since 2014.

15

Bay Area cities served

Alamo to Sonoma, plus San Francisco and Palo Alto.

200+

Products stocked or ordered

Cooling, racking, refrigeration, glassware and service parts.

1617 Locust

Walnut Creek showroom

Bring your plans to compare racking and equipment in person.

Equipment we specify and stock

  • WhisperKOOL
  • Wine Guardian
  • CellarPro
  • CellarCool
  • VintageView
  • Modularack
  • Transtherm
  • Marvel

Who we build for

Four rooms, four different problems

A wine wall in a dining room and a bulk rack behind the walk-in are not the same project. We plan them differently and price them differently.

Restaurant private dining room with leather banquettes flanked by wine walls

Restaurants and wine bars

The list has to be visible and reachable

Guests should read the collection from the host stand; a server should pull a bottle mid-service without crossing the room. We split the display from the working stock so neither one slows the other down.

A rolling ladder reaches tall wooden racks in the Larkmead wine library.

Wineries and tasting rooms

Library, allocation and the wall people photograph

Long-term library storage at the right temperature, allocation shelving your team can pick from fast, and a pour station that looks like the brand rather than a stockroom.

Wood wine cubby shelves displaying labeled bottles at an angle

Retail and bottle shops

Label-forward display that still turns over

Angled, label-forward racking at the front, dense back-of-house storage for the reorder, and a layout that survives a pallet arriving on a Saturday.

Gray wooden racks combine bottle slots, a lit display row and lower case cubbies.

Hotels, clubs and private dining

Give the wine a place in the dining room

How much belongs on display, and how much needs a place behind the scenes? Show Mike the room to explore private-dining displays and storage around the way your team serves.

Wine cellar with wooden lattice racks and stacked wood storage crates below

Display vs. bulk

The wall guests see, and the room that holds the list

Most commercial projects go wrong at the same seam: one rack is asked to be a showpiece and a warehouse. Splitting the two is usually what keeps a project inside budget.

Front of houseThe display
Label-forward, lit, and built to the sightline from the door. Glass, blackened steel, redwood or walnut, the finish follows your interior rather than a catalog page. Cost per bottle is high here, and that is fine: this is the part that sells wine.
Back of houseThe working stock
Deep, dense and cheap per bottle. Bin storage, high-density racking or a small walk-in that holds weeks of the list without a single case standing in a hallway. Nobody photographs it; everybody depends on it.

Tell us the split you want, how many bottles on show and how many in reserve, and the budget conversation gets a lot shorter.

What you get

A plan your contractor can build and your accountant can price

Discuss these design and equipment decisions with Wine Hardware, then confirm the deliverables included in your project scope.

  • 01

    A bottle count that survives the wine list

    Bordeaux, Burgundy, sparkling and magnums are counted separately, so the racking still fits when the list changes in March.

  • 02

    A cooling load, worked out

    Room volume, glazing, wall assembly, door traffic and the heat your lights and guests add. Then a unit that matches it: WhisperKOOL, Wine Guardian, CellarPro or CellarCool.

  • 03

    Elevations your contractor can build from

    Dimensioned rack elevations, clearances, blocking and fixing points. Drawings, not a mood board.

  • 04

    A product list with real lead times

    Confirm the products, quoted prices and current lead times in the agreed scope. Review the delivery schedule again before coordinating installation and opening.

  • 05

    Service access designed in

    Condensers, drains, filters and the panel someone has to reach at six o'clock on a Friday.

  • 06

    One phone number after opening

    Filters, parts and replacement units come from the same showroom that specified them.

A bright cellar aisle runs between wooden racks with illuminated bottle display rows.
Stone archways and racking down a cellar corridor.
Wine cellar corridor with sloped ceiling and stocked wood racks

Cooling

It has to run quietly in a room full of guests

A commercial cellar is a refrigerated box inside a heated building, and everything that makes a dining room pleasant, glass, warm lighting, an open door, forty people, is a load the cooling unit has to carry.

We size the equipment against the room you are building: vapor barrier, insulation, glazing, door cycles and the hours you serve. Then we put the condenser where the noise and the heat are not somebody's problem.

Split systems
Split systems separate the condensing and evaporator components. Compare permitted locations, sound, connections and service access for the selected model.
Ducted systems
A ducted system places the main equipment in a suitable service space. Review duct routing, airflow, sound and service access for the selected model with your contractor.
Through-wall
Simplest and least expensive when there is a suitable back-of-house wall and the heat has somewhere to go.
See cooling units

How it works

Four steps from an empty wall to a stocked one

You can start with a napkin sketch or a full plan set. Either way the sequence is the same.

  1. Site review

    Send Mike dimensions and photos to review capacity, equipment location and bottle access. Discuss whether a site visit is needed and who would handle it.

  2. Capacity and cooling plan

    A bottle count by format, a rack layout and a cooling calculation your engineer can check.

  3. Drawings and spec pack

    Elevations, finishes, product list, lead times and a budget range: enough for your contractor to bid without calling us twice.

  4. Supply and install coordination

    We supply the racking and equipment and help coordinate installation with your contractor or one we refer. Agree on delivery timing and responsibilities before placing the order.

Lead times, not construction, usually set the opening date. We flag the long-lead items at step two so they can be ordered first.

Close angled view of a wood wine rack packed with labeled bottles

For architects, designers and contractors

Make the cellar part of the plan early.

Bring Mike the drawings while there is still room to adjust equipment locations and finishes. Together, you can identify the cellar details to review with your architect and contractor.

Rack elevations and dimensioned layouts
Issued against your plan set and coordinated to your finishes, lighting and millwork.
Cooling and mechanical inputs
Load, electrical, condensate and duct requirements early enough to reach the mechanical drawings.
Materials, finishes and sample availability
Bring a finish you want to match. Mike can help you compare wood, metal and glass options and check which samples are available before you choose.
Budget ranges that survive value engineering
Priced by capacity, finish, cooling, complexity and access, with the trade-offs written down.
Prepare a plan review

Commercial rooms

Commercial cellar and display ideas

Look for ideas in display walls and bulk storage, then bring Mike the arrangement you like. This selection includes project photography and illustrative scenes.

Before you ask

The six questions every operator asks first

What does a commercial wine cellar cost?
Capacity, finish, cooling and access affect the budget. A back-of-house rack wall differs from an enclosed display in a dining room. Share the room dimensions, plans and proposed bottle count to discuss the scope and estimate requirements.
Do you install it?
We design, supply and coordinate. Installation is done by your general contractor, your millworker, or one of the installers we refer. That keeps one licensed builder on site and one wine specialist on the drawings.
Can we stay open while it goes in?
Bring Mike and your contractor the service hours and work you have planned. You can review room preparation, equipment delivery and access together before deciding whether work can happen while you stay open.
How cold, and how humid?
Define the wine-storage conditions and service routine before choosing equipment. Review temperature and humidity capabilities separately for the exact model, along with door use, glazing and the surrounding room.
We already have an architect. Can you work with them?
Bring Mike your architect’s plans while the cellar layout can still be adjusted. He can help you work through capacity, rack layouts and cooling requirements, then agree on the drawings and product details your project needs.
Can you match our millwork, and what about anchoring?
Yes. We supply modular racking and custom wood and metal racking, and we regularly detail racking so a local millworker builds the casework while we supply the wine-specific parts. Racking is designed to be anchored to structure and we specify the fixing points; code compliance and anchoring stay with your contractor and engineer.

Start the project

Tell Mike how the room will work.

A bottle count, a floor plan and your service routine give Mike a useful starting point. Call (925) 944-1084 to work through display, reserve storage and cooling. This beta form does not email the store.

What to send
Room dimensions and ceiling height, the wall build-up if you know it, a target bottle count, and your opening date.
What to work through
The balance of display and reserve bottles, cooling requirements and the choices driving the budget. Agree on the next design steps with Mike.
Call Mike
(925) 944-1084, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 5:30pm. Saturday by appointment.
Plan my cellar

This beta form does not email the store. Call (925) 944-1084 to discuss a commercial project.

Commercial projects

Bring the wine list into the planning conversation.

Show Mike what guests should see and where the rest needs to go. Call (925) 944-1084 or bring your plans to 1617 Locust St, Walnut Creek, to compare capacity, racking and cooling before ordering.

Plan my cellarCall Mike at (925) 944-1084

Keep going

Related from Wine Hardware

A tasting table sits inside a cellar lined with gray racks and illuminated bottle displays.

Residential wine cellars

Under the stairs, behind glass, or the whole basement wall: the same planning, for the house you live in.

Wine Guardian D050 ducted wine cellar cooling unit.

Cooling units

Through-wall, ducted and split systems from WhisperKOOL, Wine Guardian, CellarPro and CellarCool.