On 13-Mar-2004, "Den" > wrote:

> Hi Group
>
> Southern Calif here!
>
> We're thinking of buy a wine refrigerator to hold about 70 bottles of wine
> in our house.
>
> We'll be using it for wine that will be drunk over the course of (say) a
> year. I.e. this wine refrigerator won't be used for long term storage of
> good wine, rather as a store for the everyday stuff, and a storage
> location
> for the good stuff that comes out of long term storage climate controlled
> storage.
>
> All of the wine 'fridges that we've seen seem to be exceptionally highly
> priced (understandable given the market!), and have so many whizz-bang
> features that we just don't need, and so (particularly as we're not too
> worried about the aesthetics of the 'fridge.) I was wondering about the
> practicality of using an ordinary domestic refrigerator set on its warmest
> setting.
>
> Has anyone any experience of this / thoughts on the matter?
>
> Are we likely to have issues with humidity?
>
> Cheers

Check out Costco, Sam's, Home Depot or Sears.... they all sell 30 - 100
bottle models for less than $400 (at least in AL). This will be a far
better answer than an old refrigerator which 1) will be too cold even at the
lowest setting and 2) keep the humidity too low (they are designed to
eliminate humidity rather than hold it).

If the 70 bottles are your everyday stuff, you may also want to consider if
your household conditions are adequate. Do you have a quiet, dark place
that keeps a consistent temperature? The real key here would be consistent.
Many distributor's keep their warehouses in the 70 degree range as they
move stuff in and out so frequently that in the short term the temperature
is not as important as the consistency. I have successfully stored wines in
the back of a seldom used walk-in closet, with household temperatures
averaging 72-3 for more than a year.

Good luck!