Wine fridge

[nannahill]

Hopefully I'm in the right sub-forum. I'd like to get one but after reading some horrific reviews on BB&B I thought I'd ask the experts. Mostly red wine. Only needs to hold 20-30. Look forward to recommendations.

[Dusty1]

Isn't red wine meant to be enjoyed at room temperature?

[ironfisted]

The big question is budget and whether you want an integrated or freestanding unit. You can get a decent fridge for $500 but if you want to go integrated you'll be going higher end.

Hopefully I'm in the right sub-forum. I'd like to get one but after reading some horrific reviews on BB&B I thought I'd ask the experts. Mostly red wine. Only needs to hold 20-30. Look forward to recommendations.

[century]

Isn't red wine meant to be enjoyed at room temperature?

Generally most people drinks their reds too warm and their whites too cold.
Room temp is generic term and varies too much.

I keep my reds at around 55-60 degrees.

I have a 500 bottle Vintage Keeper...but have had the 110 bottle in the past. No complaints. Love it.

[JeffM]

I have the GE Profile Wine Refrigerator that fits 50-60 bottles of wine. It has worked well over the last 4-5 years and is very quiet. I can't remember exactly but think it cost a little over $1000. It has a nice clean look even though I keep in a pantry.

[Doc4]

Isn't red wine meant to be enjoyed at room temperature?

Presumably he wants it for long-term storage ... "cellaring" as it were, in an apartment ... rather than keeping a few bottles around for occasional serving. A good wine cellar is kept at a fairly conststant 50--55 degrees ... that ain't room temperature unless you can make dang sure you keep the womenfolk away from the thermostat.

[Samurai-5]

COSTCO has a good one. (27 Bottles I think) I have one (GE) I purchased from Lowe's or Home Depot about 10 yrs ago (Holds 30 or so) and it is still going strong.

[Rushman2112]

The key for a wine fridge is a constant temperature. "Room" temperature is always fluctuating anyway, time of year, have you got the heating/AC on etc. Here, if we are out all day, the apartment will heat up to at least 30C. When we get in I put the AC on full blast and it might go down to about 20C. Then we go to bed, it heats up again (the apartment, get your minds out of the gutter please!!). Imagine what this does to a bottle of wine.

I have a small-ish fridge which holds 30 mixed bottles at a constant 17C which is a reasonable compromise between the whites and reds.

[nannahill]

Thanks all for your replies. More information - freestanding and short term storage (wine is for drinking not keeping in my opinion). I agree we drink our reds too warm and our whites too cold. Reds are meant to be drunk at room temperature but when it's 75 or so inside (and 85-90 outside like it has been recently) that's too warm for me.

[ouch]

The key for a wine fridge is a constant temperature.

This.

It's better to keep your wine a few degrees higher than conventional wisdom dictates if that temperature holds steady, rather than constantly fluctuating around some idealized number.

[Miles]

Good info so far, would love to see more brands recommended.

After living in an apartment for so long in Southern California without a proper central air system, storing wines was an impossibility. Now that I'm in a house, there's still no proper storage area (basements don't show up often in SoCal). Would love to pick up a case of our favorite red and set it away for a while.

[Rushman2112]

FWIW, mine is a Kadeka which is widely available brand here. I believe it's a Japanese company. I have had it about 7 years and it does the job for me.

[ironfisted]

If you're using it mostly for wine that is being consumed promptly (and I don't disagree with you on that point), you will do just fine with a Danby, GE, Haier, or some such beast from Costco or Home Depot. Most of these lower end free standing units are being made by Haier in China. If you can find one that has dual zone cooling that would be ideal, so you can set your whites and reds at different temperatures, but otherwise, you can somewhat get the same effect by keeping the reds up top and the whites down below. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "proper" solution, but any fridge will regulate the temperature well enough that it will keep your wine for turning for at least 6 months to a year. As far as keeping it at the ideal temperature for drinking, well that's a whole other ball game. I like my reds on the warmer side (around 23C), but I like big reds like Amarones and find the warmer temperature brings out the flavours. I also drink my Scotch neat and pretty much only drink beer and gin cold.

[Luc]

If you can, a cold room is much better so you can store more than just wine. White wines are supposed to be colder than red. Depending on the grape, the temperature will be different. Generally speaking (not all of them) the recommended temperature would be between 15C-18C for red and 11C-14C for whites. That's generally speaking, doesn't apply to all red and white. Most wines have a guide printed on the back label mentioning the temperature.

Back to the wine fridge, I had a small 6 bottles wine fridge at one stage and I ended up using it because it wasn't cold enough. It was one of those using an electric tension that would react with a material to create the coldness. It did not have a compressor or the regular gas that you find in a fridge or freezer. If you see one of those, run for your life!

YMMV!

[Alacrity59]

The whole concept confuses me. If I'm buying a bottle or three . . . I'll have them in a short period of time. If I'm buying a case to let sit . . . na . . . no room in a little fridge.

[ouch]

The whole concept confuses me. If I'm buying a bottle or three . . . I'll have them in a short period of time.

They say that 95% of wine is aged on the back seat of your car.

Very few wines benefit from long aging, but when they do............