For more than 3 decades, Cellar Masters in Newbury Park has specialized in building custom wine cellars for clients that specifically fit their unique space.
“At Cellar Masters, we specialize in building bespoke wine features,” says Scott Berry, who owns the business with his wife, Debbie.
“From 100-bottle wine walls and closets to thousands of bottle-capacity wine rooms and cellars, we design, fabricate and install from our facility in Newbury Park,” Scott says. “We also have the largest off-site wine storage facility in the Conejo Valley with spaces to meet the wine enthusiasts' needs.”
As a fully licensed and bonded contractor, Cellar Masters specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of wine racks and cooling systems “to satisfy any situation,” Scott says.
Regularly serving Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Orange and Riverside Counties, Cellar Masters has more than 2,500 custom wine cellars installed throughout California and greater North America.
The principals at Cellar Masters are also actively involved as vineyard owners, winemakers and avid wine collectors.
“We know the proper handling, storage and organization of wine,” Scott says. “This expertise is an unrivaled asset in the design and construction of your cellar.”
Popular offerings include traditional wine cellars made from the finest quality woods and cut to precision as well as sleek and elegant contemporary wine cellars designed with frameless glass, acrylic and stainless steel. Cellar Masters also creates wine walls based on the latest modern trends for storing and displaying wine.
“Over the past few years, wine features such as glass-enclosed wine walls in the living area have become increasingly more popular,” Scott notes.
Customer satisfaction is reflected through many online reviews. Lenore King, who rated Cellar Masters with five out of five stars on Google Reviews, appreciated “the fine workmanship, the professional attention and the courteous demeanor of each member of The Cellar Master team.” On Yelp, a five-star review by customer Jon S. stated, “These guys are seasoned veterans of the trade and pay close attention to detail. They make everything right there at the shop behind their office. The design team works closely with you and makes you feel like you have your own personal designer at your service. Great people, great service and great craftsmanship.”
When it comes to building wine cellars, Cellar Masters is unique because “we do not rely on third-party subcontractors to install racking or cooling,” Scott says.
He further explains that a general contractor may build a space, HVAC could install a cooling system and either a cabinet maker could build racking, or “kit” racks could be installed.
“We have found these efforts lacking,” Scott says. For instance, rooms were not insulated properly, cooling systems would not drop down to proper temperatures, humidity would be too low or too high, bottles would not always fit in the racking or the racking looked disjointed as they tried to make kit racks fit the space.
“We can provide a turnkey solution that is designed for you, providing for a beautiful feature to any home,” Scott says.
He points out that a wine cellar does not need to be in the basement—rather, a wine space can be built anywhere.
“While we design and build cellars within full basements or rooms, we also build them within closets, under stairs or under-utilized wall space,” Scott says.
The point is that each space is unique to the individual.
For instance, “some cellars can contain more than 10,000 bottles, others 100,” Scott says. “It really depends on what the client wants. We can help define that vision. Designs can be traditional or contemporary in style with wood, metal and acrylic materials.”
If you’re not ready to have a custom wine cellar in your home, Cellar Masters also offers wine storage with lockers designed for simple access, featuring 36-inch wide steel doors. Each locker is no more than two cases deep to eliminate those “hard-to-get-to” wines.
“We provide flexible storage options at our secure storage facility with unit sizes ranging from 12 to 250 cases per locker for all of your wine storage needs that are temperature controlled to keep your wine as close to perfect as possible, avoiding vibrations, bright light and temperature swings that can do real damage to delicate and even priceless wine treasures.”
Cellar Masters was originally founded in 1989 by Ben Benoit, who was working construction in the theater space.
“His passion for wine led him to the wine cellar construction space, realizing it was an underserved niche,” Scott explains.
In 2014, after 27 years working in the field of information technologies, Scott and Debbie Berry purchased the business and continued to grow and expand.
“We wanted to follow our passion for wine, which led Debbie and I to purchase Cellar Masters 9 years ago,” Scott remembers.
When Scott and Ben first met to discuss the sale of Cellar Masters, Scott’s first question was about the employees: “Would they stay on?”
“As Ben considered the staff family, he knew right then he would sell the business to me,” Scott says. “Most of the original craftsmen are still here.”
Looking back, Scott contemplates a quote by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, who stated: “Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”
“I love what I do,” Scott says. “While I do most of the face-to-face consultations, I never feel like a salesman because people have already decided they want a wine cellar; as they share the passion, I just have to guide them through the process and help design a space they’ll be excited to share with friends and family.”
While the pandemic has shuttered many businesses since 2020, Cellar Masters continues to thrive.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everything kind of stopped as no one really knew what was going to happen,” Scott recalls. As time passed, “people began to realize the world wasn't going to end but were now working remotely from home and with little or no ability to travel—so their discretionary dollars were spent on home improvement.”
Ultimately, Cellar Masters feeds those who share the wine passion by providing elegant custom wine cellars.
“From the casual wine drinker to the wine enthusiast to the serious wine collector, each would agree that wine is social,” Scott adds. “Our desire is to share our passion for wine with others—sharing a bottle (or two) between friends, old and new, typically provides for an enjoyable afternoon or evening with lively conversation.”
Cellar Masters is located at 2088-A Anchor Court in Newbury Park. For more information, email info@cellarmastersinc.com; call 805.375.5040 or visit CellarMastersInc.com.