Wine Fridge?

I have a Sub-Zero under counter wine cooler. It is VERY quite and very attractive. But it is very expensive (I got a good deal because the vendor goofed up on another item I had purchased from them). It doesn't hold too many bottles, though. I also have a EuroCave that holds about 200 bottles. It is louder, and not nearly as attractive.

Danny (Cheers!) Joe

People always ask these questions and I don't really understand what they want these refrigerators for. If you just want to keep wine cold for a few weeks before you drink it then any refrigerator will do. If you want to lay wine down for 15 years before you drink it then none of these products will do so well as renting a wine locker. I rent my wine locker for $6 per month and I can store 10 cases there. There are lockers that will hold hundreds of cases. The price is roughly linear, although there are discounts the larger one goes. Yes, in 10 years I could have purchased my own SubZero refrigerator, but:

1. I can use that space for something else.

1. When the power goes out, the wine locker stays cold because of generators (some) and/or severe insulation (all).

2. Wine lockers tend to hold humidity better.

1. I can store many more bottles there than I can at home.

2. I am not tempted to drink the wine too young. The downside is that I cannot decide to pop open a bottle at midnight without having planned ahead.

Overall, it seems to me that wine refrigerators are more status symbols than they are functional items.

Dimitri

snipped-for-privacy@soda.csua.berkeley.edu (D. Gerasimatos) wrote in news:cviulv$1jmk$ snipped-for-privacy@agate.berkeley.edu:

As a Floridian it is almost requisite to have some form of in the home cooling, and yes power outages are a real challenge. I ruined several bottles my first year here when my cooler broke down and I didn't know it for several days. since then I have made space in the house so I can keep tabs on things but must admit that reliable professional storage has its advantages. Many of us aren't really serious collectors as we are serious about our short term holding. There just isn't space in most homes for the real deal.

One can now buy a tiny temperature controlled cooler that holds about 12 bottles. It would be ideal fo an apartment dweller who is short of space. It uses the same type of solid-state cooling as those tiny portable refrigerators for cars and boats. There is no mechanical compressor to make noise or break. One I saw in a catalog recently could be set at several temperatures, so you could keep a red or white much closer to normal cellar temperature than in a kitchen refrigerator. I believe some of these sell around $US 200. Such a unit might also come in handy for a person using a wine storage service, because you could bring about a case home at one trip without having to worry about storage until you drink the wine. Unfortunately I forget the brand name, as I have good storage and was not considering buying one.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net from my email address. Then add snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com . I do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.

Most homes do have some form of in the home cooling in the form of a refrigerator. What is the point of having a dedicated wine fridge for short term holding?

Dimitri

snipped-for-privacy@soda.csua.berkeley.edu (D. Gerasimatos) wrote in news:cvj78b$1m8n$1 @agate.berkeley.edu:

I keep about two cases of wine around at all times, too much for the fridge and I don't like keeping it that cold . . .

in article cvj78b$1m8n$ snipped-for-privacy@agate.berkeley.edu, D. Gerasimatos at snipped-for-privacy@soda.csua.berkeley.edu wrote on 2/23/05 4:31 PM:

I used to feel the way you do about home wine fridges until I got a little more serious about wine that I had been. I purposely bought a unit that holds only 200 bottles, so that I wouldn't be likely to buy what to me would have been an excessive 'inventory'. It has become a workable INVENTORY of my preferred wines, about half of which are being laid down for 2 - 5 years or so, and the rest are wines that I pick from several times a week to enjoy, usually based on what we're having for dinner. I regularly update an Excel spread sheet of what's in the unit and replace what's been consumed every few weeks or when I visit wineries or see something interesting in a wine shop.

To me, anyway, what I do is "short-term holding". We live in Coastal Southern California, and indoor temps are in the mid 60's in Winter, but can get into the low 80's (F) in summer. I've lost too many wines when I used to keep them in an interior closet 'under the stairs' with no refrigeration. I've had my unit for about 4 years no and find it well worth the money.

At one point, when we were moving, I did keep the bulk of my wine in a locker. For one thing, the lockers were about 20 minutes from home. For another, the type of locker dictated that all the wine be kept in cardboard cases...... getting a specific wine out of there was not an easy thing. If I had a sizeable quantity of wine that I didn't need to get at on a regular basis, I'd consider it again but, for now, the home unit is perfect.

Besides, everything I've ready would suggest that keeping wine in a standard fridge (at 39 or 40 degrees) retards further development of the wine, and keeping it in the 70's accelerates it significantly. It does depend, I think, on your own sensitivity to what changes the wine..... if you can't tell the difference, don't spend the money or worry about how you keep your wine. Just enjoy it!!!!!!

How exciting.

I obviously never advocated storing wines for long-term in such a manner.

I find a locker to be cheaper for better quality at the expense of convenience.

I am not worried about the development of wine I have in the fridge and, quite frankly, I wouldn't trust any wine I was ultra-concerned about to a home wine locker - if only because of the threat of power outages. As a California resident, earthquakes are also a concern both from a standpoint of lost power and also breakage. I feel my wine is much more safe in storage than under my kitchen counter. It doesn't have a cachet, however. Another nice thing about renting storage is that they will accept shipments of wines from wineries. Some wine shops do this for good customers, but being able to order wine and not worry about it sitting on the driveway for 6 hours is nice.

If you like your cooler than more power to you. Certainly, a big, expensive unit or a home wine cellar is very nice. I just want to point out that for the average person storing 10-100 bottles of wine to drink over a period of months a regular refrigerator (or cool, dark closet) works fine and a wine locker is a cheap step up from, or even above, most consumer-oriented wine refrigerators. I once talked to an employee of Stag's Leap who stored a 10 year vertical of Cask 23 in the closet of her home with no ill effects (in the cool Napa climate). However, I have been in many upscale homes in which the contents of the wine refrigerator were worth far less than the refrigerator itself. Seeing a $700 cooler filled with Two Buck Chuck, a couple bottles of Ravenswood, and a bottle of BV George de Latour seems rather silly to me and seems to be more common than is really necessary.

Dimitri

in article cvjq3e$1s31$ snipped-for-privacy@agate.berkeley.edu, D. Gerasimatos at snipped-for-privacy@soda.csua.berkeley.edu wrote on 2/23/05 9:52 PM:

Not sure how to take that response. If I came off 'preachy' or if it seemed like I was suggesting that someone who doesn't find a need for a wine unit (or the rest of my routine) couldn't be "serious"..... I didn't mean to.

I can't agree or disagree with your observation of expensive units full of Charles Shaw, though I'm sure it happens. I even have a bottle or two in mine (hoping it might get better with age???..... Tried it once, now it's for use in pasta sauce when I don't feel like opening anything better that evening). Rex Goliath has proven a much better value, and you can actually drink it in public. But.... have heart!! Many of those "Chuck" drinkers will mature, even if the "Chuck" won't.

If a locker works for you, that's great. I like my Vinotemp. ;o)