If you’re a wine connoisseur, you likely recognize the importance of storing and serving your wine at an optimal temperature. While you may be tempted to display your vintage wine on a fancy wine rack, this can be detrimental to the quality of your wine. That’s because different wines require different temperature conditions. In order to maintain, or even improve, the quality of your wine, it must be stored in a dark and dry space with a temperature suitable to that type of wine.
No wines do well when stored at room temperature, and no wines do well when stored in the fridge. For that reason, storing your wine collection in a dedicated wine fridge is highly recommended if you want to preserve its quality.
What is a wine fridge?
Contrary to a kitchen fridge or a mini-fridge, a wine fridge is designed to store wine at an optimal humidity level and temperature. A wine fridge is also designed to minimize vibrations caused by footsteps, doors, or other typical household commotions. Vibrations can have an effect on wine flavor when the wine is stored over longer periods of time. Vibrations not only cause a loss in flavor but an increase in sweetness as well. This is one of the reasons why basements are a great location to store wine.
Most freestanding wine fridges can store between 8 and 180 wine bottles at a time and range between $200 and well over $1000 in price. Many will come with two compartments to allow you to store a mix of red wine, white wine, and even sparkling wine.
What is the best wine cellar in Canada in 2024?
There are many options to choose from when it comes to wine cellars. They all tend to differ in quality, size, and specs. What you choose to buy should largely depend on the size of your wine collection and, ultimately, the budget you have in mind. Here are the best wine fridges you can find in Canada this year.
PantsSaver Urban Series 24 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cellar
PantsSaver’s Urban Series Wine Cooler is a convenient option if you’re storing a wide variety of wines. Its 14-inch width also makes it perfect for small homes or condos. The wine cellar is divided into two sections that can be separately controlled in terms of temperature.
This wine fridge is great if you have a mix of white and red wines to store since the bottom section offers a lower temperature range. Its mirrored glass door is dark-coated and UV protected, so you won’t have to worry about placing the wine cellar in a dark corner. The cellar operates quietly and is vibration-free.
Koolatron Urban Series 18 Bottle Slim Dual Zone Wine Cellar
The Koolatron Urban Series is another sleek dual-zone wine cooler. It can store 18 bottles of wine in two independently controlled sections. Similar to the PantsSaver Urban Series, the bottom section has a cooler temperature range than the top.
It also has a more narrow build (13 inches in width), making it convenient for small spaces. With its UV-protected double-paneled doors, you won’t have to worry about the sun interfering with your wines’ sediment. If you’re looking for a sleek and quiet wine cooler, the Koolatron Urban Series is a good pick.
Cuisinart CWC-800CEN 8-Bottle Private Reserve Wine Cellar
Cuisinart’s Wine Cellar is the perfect little countertop wine cellar. At 10-inches in width and 17 inches in height, this wine cellar can conveniently be placed on most countertops. Its touch screen LED display makes it easy to manage its interior lighting and temperature.
Overall, Cuisinart’s wine cooler is perfect if you’re looking for a compact wine cellar for a small collection of wine.
Ivation 28 Bottle Compressor Wine Fridge
Ivation’s Compressor Wine Fridge offers the largest bottle capacity on this list. Its shelves can easily be removed in order to adapt to different shaped bottles. It has a built-in lock, so you can rest assured that your expensive wine collection is safe from theft. The fridge has a wider temperature range than most, ranging between 5° to 17° Celsius.
Like all fridges on this list, its glass door offers UV protection and its LED display is intuitive to use. The only potential downside with this fridge is that it’s a little wider than other options, measuring almost 17 inches in width. With only one section, the fridge is not suitable for storing both red and white wine at the same time. That said, if you’re looking for a good-quality wine fridge that can store up to 28 bottles at a time, Ivation’s wine fridge is an excellent choice.
Koolatron Urban Series 10 Bottle Wine Cooler
Koolatron’s 10-bottle Wine Fridge is slightly taller than the Cuisinart Wine Fridge and can store two extra bottles of wine. Similarly, it’s small enough to fit on most kitchen counters or even in an RV.
This wine cooler comes with basic controls for lighting, temperature, and switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit. Bottom line, if you’re looking for a compact wine fridge with basic features, this fridge is a great choice.
Ivation 12 Bottle Compressor Wine Cellar
Ivation’s Compression Wine Cooler is an excellent choice for small but valuable wine collections. As a compressor wine fridge, you can be guaranteed that your wine remains at a stable temperature, despite outside heat sources. Your wine is also stored securely thanks to its built-in lock.
Our favorite part about this fridge is its sleek design. At just 9-inches in width, the fridge can easily fit into most spaces. The only downside is that it operates slightly louder than a thermoelectric wine fridge. Overall, this is probably the best compact compressor wine fridge on the market.
What are the benefits of using a wine fridge?
If you’re a passionate wine collector, there are many reasons why owning a wine fridge is a good idea. Here are the key benefits of having a freestanding wine cellar in your home:
Preserves Wine & Improves Wine Quality
Not only does a wine cellar preserve your wine, but it can also improve the quality and taste of your wine. Indeed, a well-stored wine can develop higher quality and more complex flavor. This partially explains why older wines are so exquisite.
More Convenient
Whether it’s a trip to the liquor store or pre-chilling your wine, enjoying a good bottle of wine can require some forethought. This is not the case when you have a collection of wine stored at the perfect temperature.
Better Organization
An at-home wine cellar is also an excellent way to keep your wine collection more organized. Bottles can be labeled and stored according to their value. For example, your long-term wine investments can be stored at the bottom, while your drink-now wines can be placed on top.
Cost-effective
Depending on its size, a built-in wine cellar can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 to build. An electric standalone wine cellar is a much more affordable alternative that offers similar benefits without the steep investment.
Can I store my wine in the fridge?
As you’ve learned, incorrectly stored wine can age prematurely and go bad. To avoid this, you might be tempted to store your wine in the fridge to preserve it. This is a bad idea for many reasons.
First, a fridge’s temperature is about 5° Celsius, which is much colder than wine’s optimal storage temperature of around 13° Celsius. And yes, 8° can and will make a difference.
Secondly, a kitchen fridge is designed to remove humidity, creating a more dry environment. A wine’s cork requires a certain level of moistness in order to complete its task of preserving your wine. Storing your wine in the fridge will dry out its cork and be detrimental to the smell and flavor of your wine.
What temperature should wine be served at?
When it comes to wine, a small difference in temperature can make a big difference in flavor. There are many misconceptions about the ideal temperature to serve different types of wine. Keep reading to learn the best temperatures to serve red or white wine.
What temperature should you serve red wine?
Serving red wine at its ideal temperature is highly recommended in order to experience the wine’s full flavor potential. Wine served too warm will have a stronger alcohol taste, whereas a wine served too cold will taste too strongly of tannins.
Many people think that red wine should be served at room temperature. The reality is that room temperature is not the same for every household. The average room temperature has also increased over the years. For that reason, most people tend to serve a red wine at a warmer than optimal temperature. The optimal serving temperature for red wine is between 12° and 18° Celsius. To put this into perspective, room temperature is generally about 21° Celsius.
What temperature should you serve white wine?
Contrary to red wine, people tend to serve their white wine straight out of the fridge. While this is better than serving it at room temperature, it’s not ideal. The optimal temperature for white wine is between 7° and 10° Celsius. A kitchen fridge’s temperature is 5° Celsius.
White wine that is stored in an environment that is too cold can end up losing flavor. If you don’t own a temperature-controlled wine fridge, you’re better off storing your white wine outside the fridge and then refrigerating it for about 30 minutes before serving it.
What temperature should you serve sparkling wine?
When it comes to serving sparkling wine, it really depends on the wine’s complexity. A typical sparkling wine can be served at 6° to 8° Celsius, while a more complex sparkling wine, such as dryer “Brut” sparkling wine, is better served at a range of 8° to 10° Celsius. Once again, do not store your sparkling wine in the fridge, especially not in the freezer.
How to choose the best wine fridge?
When it comes to picking a wine cellar, there are many factors to take into account. These factors depend on the size and variety of your wine collection, the size of your space, and of course, your budget.
Fridge Capacity & Dimensions
If you’re storing a wider variety of wines, it’s important to ensure that the wine fridge you choose can house a variety of wine bottle lengths. Most wine fridges will have removable shelves, so bottle height is less of a concern.
Temperature
In order to preserve their quality and intended flavor, different wines must be stored at their optimal temperatures. It’s equally important that the wine’s temperature remains consistent during storage. As previously mentioned in this article, white wines are optimally served at a cooler temperature than red wine. If your collection is largely made up of white wines or sparkling wines, make sure the wine fridge you choose can go down to 6 Celsius.
Light Protection
It’s important to store wine in a dark environment, free from UV rays. UV rays are similarly detrimental to wine and can cause premature aging. If the wine fridge you choose has a glass door, make sure it offers UV protection. If the wine fridge has interior lighting, make sure they are LED as ultraviolet lighting can be just as bad as direct sunlight.
Thermoelectric Wine Cellar vs Compressor Wine Fridge
If you’ve been reading about wine fridges, you’ve probably come across the terms thermoelectric and compressor. Generally speaking, the small, affordable wine cellars you can find at your nearest electronics store or on Amazon tend to be thermoelectric wine coolers.
Thermoelectric Wine Cellar
These are energy-efficient and lightweight wine fridges. They’re less powerful than compressor models and are ideal for storing small quantities of wine (under 100 bottles). The main downside of thermoelectric wine coolers is they’re less powerful and therefore more vulnerable to outside heat sources. For example, if the fridge is stored close to a heat source, there is a higher chance that the interior temperature will fluctuate.
Compressor Wine Cellar
On the other hand, this model is more comparable to a kitchen refrigerator. They do a better job at maintaining the temperature of larger containers. For that reason, compressor wine coolers are recommended for storing large quantities of wine. If you have over 100 wine bottles to store, it’s highly recommended that you opt for a compressor wine cooler. The downside with compressor wine coolers is that they consume more energy and tend to generate more vibrations due to the compressor.
