wine storage options

Welcome! You'll definitely find a wealth of knowledge abounding in this group.... just keep in mind that your own taste should be the final determinant as to what you drink :)

Wine Enthusiast catalog (and online) typically have several different furniture type cabinets, and you should be able to find something you like. You didn't say where you are, so this assumes US. Otherwise, I'm afraid I can't help you.... I have a personal preference to Eurocave, and they make several high-quality upgrades that fit in very nice with most decor. You pay more for Eurocave, but I've never had a minutes problem out of either of my 2.

One piece of advice.... you may not be a huge collector now, and think that you won't need more than 100 bottle capacity (~8 cases). However, once you have a proper place to store wine, it will grow much faster than you can imagine. I would recommend doubling your estimate at a minimum and possibly going 3-4x. From experience and other's comments, I think you'll find this to be true.

Good luck to you!

Cheers, Gary

Yes, WELCOME. Though I have a dedicated cellar, I also have many friends with Eurocave, and similar units, and all love them. Wine Enthusiast is a good resource, as is IWA in Dallas. I usually get their catalog with my WS mag, but don't have one handy. Checked my Favorites>Wines and didn't find their URL either - dang. They are very similar to WE, but have some different mfgr products. I hear the most raves about Eurocave, and Vinotemp units, though nothing bad about any of the rest, and there are decors for about any taste.

Hunt

BIG thanks, Gary and Hunt, very much for your input. Now that I've spent some considerable time surfing, with your guidance, I'm much closer to a decision. wineenthusiast.com had some nice options, as did beveragefactory and le-cache.com. And I did find IWA, (iwawine.com) which has an excellent selection. Now it's just a matter of deciding what's going to look best in my house. Right now Vinoteque, EuroCave and Vinotemp look like the most likely options. Does anyone have any specific positive or negative feedback on Vinoteque? Based on the photos, those will match my furnishings and decor best. Also, has anyone seen Baalbek cellars? In the photos on their site (baalbekcellars.com), they look more like antique furniture than refrigerators, which I like, but I'm not sure how well they'd actually control the temp/humidity.

Thanks again very much for the input!

Matt

Matt, There are a number of wine storage cabinets fitting your description for sale from a number of vendors. The Vinotemp 250 FT would seem to be about what you're looking for, although reviews of it in this group have been mixed (it seems to be quite noisy). As Hunt mentioned, these items are readily available on the Web, from both Wine Enthusiast and International Wine Accessories (IWA). Websites are:

Once you decide on a model, you might also want to check other vendors using Froogle.

Mark Lipton

If you do a Google groups search for the various brands in this newsgroup, you'll turn up quite a bit of useful discussion. There's also an archive of these sorts of discussions at Strat's Place:

Mark Lipton

Matt,

Only second-hand. I have two close friends, each with 2+ Vinoteques. Sizes are large, but I cannot tell you the model, or exact size. All units are more than four (4) years old, and of these, three (3) have survived moves from CA to AZ to CA and still work very well. The other two (2) units were installed in AZ and have performed very well. Unfortunately, I don't know about the humidity aspect, as the one cigar smoker, who might be very concerned about the humidity, used a controlled humidor for his stogies. The other has never commented on it, even when I pointed out the fountain in my cellar to keep the humidity up above 60% (not an easy task in sunny AZ). I assume from the lack of comment, that he had no problems.

From my group of friends, and their ownership, I'd say that all the units that you listed are good, and it might get down to what fits into your decor, and the size that you need. Plus, there might be considerations regarding several temp zones, etc.

Let us know what you go with, and how you like it. Yours is a fairly common question, and all the info possible from a real-world experience will be appreciated by someone down the line. Also, by posting your experiences into this thread later, others can do a Google.Group Search and get the full thread to completion.

Hunt

I hadn't even thought of Strats' but that seems logical, especially since he's always had a good cellar section, though not updated too recently. Good idea - why didn't I think of it?

Hunt

Having moved and lost my cellar, ( get your priorities right Taverner ;-)

I have a 230 capacity Liebherr in my garage, its a big lump, but well finished. I will need another one soon, and thats my limit, or so SWMBO says.

Its too big IMHO for use in a house, unless you've a bloody big house.

John