Help! Which wine refrigerator to get? :)

I have open racks in the kitchen for eveyday drinking wines which will be consumed within a couple of months.

For storage I have two Liebherr units in the garage, constant single temp and humidity. All wine fridges tend to be rather functional, and for that reason mine are out of sight.

If you want a unit indoors look at Liebherr and best of all Eurocave, though these are rather pricey.

see here for UK details

John T

Thanks John- One question I forgot to ask: Most of the "high-end" manufacturers make it clear that they are not for storage for "more than a few months"? It sounds like you use them for storage, however.

Are they just making a clarification between these refrigerators, where I am supposed to keep wine at the temps I want to serve? And the storage temp is very different?

So far my way of "storing" wine has been putting it in the coolest closet of my house and just leaving it there :-O

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:a2b9b177-4f6c-4888-a535-909320a13b19 @s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

For many of us, refrigeratino is the only means of storage available. You mention the coldest part of your house, if that is a fairly steady cool temp you may be money ahead by keeping with the plan, however if your house is like mine the "coldest"part will range from the 60's to the mid 70's over the course fo the year, This is not acceptable variation and the only option shortof commercial storage is to have a small wine frig and forgo long tierm storage of many things.

I would love to buy wine by the case and lay it down. Instead I buy wines buy the bottle and cellar only a few that I buy for very occassional use.

Do you have any evidence for it being too much variation?

I ask partly because intuitively +-5F does not seem like very much to me, and partly because (although it is oft repeated) I have never seen any evidence whatsoever for temperature variation being harmful. But I have a genuine interest in seeing some! if indeed it does exist.

OTOH I would probably not be so happy about keeping my wine in the mid

It seems some "wine" "fridges" are just for show and keep wines cool.

Top end Fridges from true wine cellar providers are for LONG term storage, and by that I mean years.

I have two Liebherr 230 bottle units in my garage, constant 12C and humidity.

Downside is they cost about GBP 800 each.

Remember the destroyer of wines is fluctuation and heat.

If you are really keen, you can store wines in professional cellars, (make certain they are fiscally sound) and you have title to the wine.

I have many cases of claret and burg resting in an air-con warehouse, about GBP 7 a case per year all in including insurance.

HTH

John T

I just bought a Subzero 130 bottle for my home in Santa Fe because of altitude issues as many of the glass front wine cabinets will leak at the seals at 7500 feet. Here in VA I have a 250 bottle from the Wine Enthusiast and it is their brand. Up and running for 4 years with no problems

I'm not sure what you mean for no long term storage. They keep a constant temperature so they should store wines for a long time as long as the power stays on.

I use Eurocave systems.

Have two of them. One over 12 years old. Second Unit about 7-9 years old. Can;t remember.

Knock on wood, no issues to date on either.

I have a Breezaire that is in its 10th year of operation (knock wood!). Holds temp and humidity very well.

A friend of mine has a Vinotech stand-alone unit (300 bottles) that I sold to him in 1994, when it was five years old. Still working.