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Wine Refrigerators

I am new over here and hope that I can get some help with whether or not I should get a 36 to 50 bottle wine refrigerator. Right now we store our wine in a basement that does not get a lot of light and stays at a pretty constant, cool temperature year round (since it is beneath ground level and not much sunlight gets in). We are about to move to a house with a walkout basement so the temperature fluctuations will potentially be greater and I am concerned about summer specifically since the sun will shine directly into the basement (large windows facing west) later in the day.

Anyway, I am curious about buying a wine refrigerator to store the wines. What are the pros and cons?

I am a wine novice (know what I like) and my wife is much more of an enthusiast. I am thinking of making this an anniversary gift for her.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Reply to
Sam
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Would that really be big enough? Consider how long you store bottles on average and your desired rate of drinking these bottles. For example, if you have a 50 bottle fridge and on average age your wines for 10 years, my maths says you can only harvest a bottle 5 times a year.

If you only plan to keep the bottles 3 years or so, I think there is little value in a fridge or cellar at all. Wine is not *that* sensitive.

I think I would be more tempted to block the window, and insulate if necessary. Depends a bit on what else you want to do with the space. You could even just build an insulated box to help even out daily extremes.

I recently bought a wine fridge, but my circumstances were a bit different. I needed to store the wines in a very poorly insulated outhouse, and got a fidge that holds closer to 200 bottles.

Reply to
Steve Slatcher

Go with at least 50.... you will fill it up, and wonder where you are going to store any more. Home Depot (at least in Alabama) occasionally has a 52 bottle model from E-Wave that runs $149.00. (That's not a typo!) I have 2 of these, in addition to a Eurocave 260.

The biggest complaint that I have is that the shelving is such that there are bottles in the back that you can't see so you either have to keep a good inventory or you are forever pulling bottles out to see what's in there. Also, especially with smaller units (

Reply to
CabFan

One con can be fan noise as I have found out with my Vintage Keeper. Very noisy, drives me crazy. Maybe suitable for a basement but not kitchen or living room.

Reply to
The Keithster

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