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Default Wine refrigerators revisited

I reviewed the posting history of this newsgroup on the subject of
wine refrigerators. I'd love to hear more opinions. I'm about to
make a big decision and could use good advice.

My wife and I just returned from California's Napa and Sonoma counties
where we bought a few cases which will be arriving shortly. The tour
guide at Joseph Phelps said he could taste the difference between a
bottle of left upright in his office for 6 months from one properly
stored over that time. That got us a bit worried.

When we arrived home I retrieved a bottle of 1997 Mauro Veglio Barolo
we had been storing for several years in our New England basement
which varies from 60-80 degrees. It tasted very good but we couldn't
tell whether it might have tasted even better if stored more
optimally. What do you think, is a wine fridge absolutely crucial for
us? I was considering buying a 117-bottle Eurocave for $1,500.
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Default Wine refrigerators revisited


Oh, and one more thing. Just because wine stored diffferently taste
different, it does not necessarily mean that one is BETTER than
another. Wine stored in a fridge set to a lowish setting will
probably taste different to those in your basement. They will evolve
slower and develop different flavours. But whether they are better or
worse is a judgement call.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher


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Default Wine refrigerators revisited

This is cute, humidity issues notwithstanding:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2020009_turn...rigerator.html

Here's a story from http://www.wikihow.com of converting a standard
fridge to wine cooler:

"I converted my standard fridge to a wine cooler. I'm still playing with
the humidity levels. I keep open containers of water in the thing, but
I'm not measuring humidity so I don't know.

"My Hotpoint fridge has the freezer unit on top with the temp control
knob in the fridge component, running 1-9 (warm-cold). I first made the
mistake of measuring air temp; then an expert pointed out to me that you
want water temp. So I put a pan the temp probe in an open container of
water in the fridge. That measurement is much more stable anyway. But
even at the warmest setting, the temp was in the forties.

"I unscrewed the faceplate of the control panel and noticed a set screw
for the thermostat. By trial an error I found that I could raise the
warmest setting (1) by turning the screw clockwise. Eventually I got the
warmest setting to stablize at 60F. Then I buttoned up the unit and
dialed back the control knob from the "1" setting. At about "3" I
stablized it at 55-57 degrees."

Jonathon Alsop
--
--
BOSTON WINE SCHOOL
http://www.BostonWineSchool.com
AIM: alsopj
vox:+1.617.784.7150 fax:+1.888.833.9528
1354 Commonwealth Avenue Boston MA USA 02134


wrote:
> I reviewed the posting history of this newsgroup on the subject of
> wine refrigerators. I'd love to hear more opinions. I'm about to
> make a big decision and could use good advice.
>
> My wife and I just returned from California's Napa and Sonoma counties
> where we bought a few cases which will be arriving shortly. The tour
> guide at Joseph Phelps said he could taste the difference between a
> bottle of left upright in his office for 6 months from one properly
> stored over that time. That got us a bit worried.
>
> When we arrived home I retrieved a bottle of 1997 Mauro Veglio Barolo
> we had been storing for several years in our New England basement
> which varies from 60-80 degrees. It tasted very good but we couldn't
> tell whether it might have tasted even better if stored more
> optimally. What do you think, is a wine fridge absolutely crucial for
> us? I was considering buying a 117-bottle Eurocave for $1,500.

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Default Wine refrigerators revisited

On Oct 29, 2:00*pm, Jonathon Alsop >
wrote:
> This is cute, humidity issues notwithstanding:
>
> http://www.ehow.com/how_2020009_turn...rigerator.html
>
> Here's a story fromhttp://www.wikihow.comof converting a standard
> fridge to wine cooler:
>
> "I converted my standard fridge to a wine cooler. I'm still playing with
> the humidity levels. I keep open containers of water in the thing, but
> I'm not measuring humidity so I don't know.
>
> "My Hotpoint fridge has the freezer unit on top with the temp control
> knob in the fridge component, running 1-9 (warm-cold). I first made the
> mistake of measuring air temp; then an expert pointed out to me that you
> want water temp. So I put a pan the temp probe in an open container of
> water in the fridge. That measurement is much more stable anyway. But
> even at the warmest setting, the temp was in the forties.
>
> "I unscrewed the faceplate of the control panel and noticed a set screw
> for the thermostat. By trial an error I found that I could raise the
> warmest setting (1) by turning the screw clockwise. Eventually I got the
> warmest setting to stablize at 60F. Then I buttoned up the unit and
> dialed back the control knob from the "1" setting. At about "3" I
> stablized it at 55-57 degrees."
>
> Jonathon Alsop
> --
> --
> BOSTON WINE SCHOOLhttp://www.BostonWineSchool.com
> *AIM: alsopj
> vox:+1.617.784.7150 *fax:+1.888.833.9528
> 1354 Commonwealth Avenue Boston MA USA 02134


Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. While the idea of
converting a regular refrigerator into a wine storage refrigerator is
appealing I fear they weren't designed for the task. We would likely
have to revisit the issue just a few years down the road. My wife and
I are approaching 50 and we we want a wine fridge that will work for
the next 30 years. There are many manufacturers who sell much more
afforadable ones than Eurocave but I've fallen for the functional
design and reviews by satisfied owners. The icing on the cake is they
are sold out of Mt. Kisko NY, the next town over from my relatives. I
can skip the delivery cost by picking it up myself.
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