I am new over here and hope that I can get some help with whether or not I
should get a 36 to 50 bottle wine refrigerator. Right now we store our wine
in a basement that does not get a lot of light and stays at a pretty
constant, cool temperature year round (since it is beneath ground level and
not much sunlight gets in). We are about to move to a house with a walkout
basement so the temperature fluctuations will potentially be greater and I
am concerned about summer specifically since the sun will shine directly
into the basement (large windows facing west) later in the day.

Anyway, I am curious about buying a wine refrigerator to store the wines.
What are the pros and cons?

I am a wine novice (know what I like) and my wife is much more of an
enthusiast. I am thinking of making this an anniversary gift for her.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:45:36 GMT, "Sam" >
wrote:

>I am new over here and hope that I can get some help with whether or not I
>should get a 36 to 50 bottle wine refrigerator.

Would that really be big enough? Consider how long you store bottles
on average and your desired rate of drinking these bottles. For
example, if you have a 50 bottle fridge and on average age your wines
for 10 years, my maths says you can only harvest a bottle 5 times a
year.

If you only plan to keep the bottles 3 years or so, I think there is
little value in a fridge or cellar at all. Wine is not *that*
sensitive.

>Right now we store our wine
>in a basement that does not get a lot of light and stays at a pretty
>constant, cool temperature year round (since it is beneath ground level and
>not much sunlight gets in). We are about to move to a house with a walkout
>basement so the temperature fluctuations will potentially be greater and I
>am concerned about summer specifically since the sun will shine directly
>into the basement (large windows facing west) later in the day.

I think I would be more tempted to block the window, and insulate if
necessary. Depends a bit on what else you want to do with the space.
You could even just build an insulated box to help even out daily
extremes.

I recently bought a wine fridge, but my circumstances were a bit
different. I needed to store the wines in a very poorly insulated
outhouse, and got a fidge that holds closer to 200 bottles.

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

On 29-Oct-2003, "Sam" > wrote:

> I am new over here and hope that I can get some help with whether or not I
> should get a 36 to 50 bottle wine refrigerator.

Go with at least 50.... you will fill it up, and wonder where you are going
to store any more. Home Depot (at least in Alabama) occasionally has a 52
bottle model from E-Wave that runs $149.00. (That's not a typo!) I have 2
of these, in addition to a Eurocave 260.

>Right now we store our
> wine
> in a basement that does not get a lot of light and stays at a pretty
> constant, cool temperature year round (since it is beneath ground level
> and
> not much sunlight gets in). We are about to move to a house with a
> walkout
> basement so the temperature fluctuations will potentially be greater and I
> am concerned about summer specifically since the sun will shine directly
> into the basement (large windows facing west) later in the day.
>
> Anyway, I am curious about buying a wine refrigerator to store the wines.
> What are the pros and cons?

The biggest complaint that I have is that the shelving is such that there
are bottles in the back that you can't see so you either have to keep a good
inventory or you are forever pulling bottles out to see what's in there.
Also, especially with smaller units (<100 bottle), the shelves tend to be
fixed and don't easily accomodate odd size bottles like 1.5L or Champagne.

>
> I am a wine novice (know what I like) and my wife is much more of an
> enthusiast. I am thinking of making this an anniversary gift for her.
>
> Thanks in advance for your assistance.

One con can be fan noise as I have found out with my Vintage Keeper. Very
noisy, drives me crazy. Maybe suitable for a basement but not kitchen or
living room.


"Sam" > wrote in message
link.net...
> I am new over here and hope that I can get some help with whether or not I
> should get a 36 to 50 bottle wine refrigerator. Right now we store our
wine
> in a basement that does not get a lot of light and stays at a pretty
> constant, cool temperature year round (since it is beneath ground level
and
> not much sunlight gets in). We are about to move to a house with a
walkout
> basement so the temperature fluctuations will potentially be greater and I
> am concerned about summer specifically since the sun will shine directly
> into the basement (large windows facing west) later in the day.
>
> Anyway, I am curious about buying a wine refrigerator to store the wines.
> What are the pros and cons?
>
> I am a wine novice (know what I like) and my wife is much more of an
> enthusiast. I am thinking of making this an anniversary gift for her.
>
> Thanks in advance for your assistance.
>
>