Wine Cabinets What do you have? What are the pro's and con's

DH and I were looking to buy a wine cabinet for inside the house. We visited the Vinotheque plant and really liked the cabinets but the price seems, well steep! Its not really so much of being able to afford it, but wanting to afford it. I want to know what others have to explore more options. Any input you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. By the way this is my 1st post!

Welcome to the forum. Lots of advice here! Where do you live, do you have a basement? Always remember that if you think you will put together a cellar of say 50 bottles, within a year you will have at least 100!!! Here come the others!

We live in Central California. We do not have a basement so that isnt an option.

<sigh> I know about not having a basement. At the moment, my cellar in the garage is chock-full with 365 bottles out of a theoretical capacity of 348, and there are 2 and a half cases stacked next to it.

I bought Vinotemp about 7 years ago, which was cheaper than Vinotheque, and as I intended it for the garage I didn't get fancy glass doors or pretty hardware.

For inside the house, I'd say get the one that fits your decor best. It'll be full in less time than you can imagine and you'll have to figure out what to do next.

Tina, I have a 500 bottle Vintage Keeper. Vintage Keeper seems to be the cheapest of (large) wine cabinets. The construction is not as fancy (i.e. no wooden racks and weaker hinges), but it does break down for an easier time moving. As Bob says, always buy bigger than you think you'll need. It took me three wine cabinets to realize this. If you don't mind a few scuffs, you can get a great deal on a used model that someone is looking to upgrade.

FYI, the 500 bottle Vintage Keeper retails for $1,900. I got mine used and drove it home from New York myself, so my cost was $900. As they say, where there is a will, there's a way.

The downside of wine cabinets that I have found are:

If the cooling unit fails or the power goes out, you don't have a nice cozy passive cellar or below-ground cellar to keep temperature until things get fixed.

The cabinet’s contents are only as secure as the room it is in, so if theft is a concern...

Some cooling units can only safely work a certain amount of degrees below the outside temperature. I.e. if the room the cooling unit is located in is at 80 degrees, the cooling unit is going to need to work overtime to convert that to cellar temp. I run an air conditioner in the room with my cabinet as sort of a "split system" during the dog days of summer.

The biggest downside is that you will immediately want to fill any empty slots with bottles.


Best,
Joe

Tina, I bumped up another thread for you on cabinets.

I also have a VinoTemp in the garage. It's the E line (for economy, I think) and it is outfitted with the heavy duty cooling unit (cuz of the garage) and all Burgundy bottle racking. Why all Burgundy bottle racking? Cuz the unit is double deep and my fat hands couldn't reach in to get the second bottle with regular, Bordeaux bottle racking, and also, and more importantly, lots of bottles don't easily fit into regular size racking... many Chards, Syrahs, etc....

My unit holds 408 in the racking and about another 50 on top... I bought it off the showroom floor for under $2,000....so, ask whomever you buy from if they have any floor models.. great way to save a few hundred...

Welcome, Tina.

Vinotemp has been a good deal cheaper than Vinotheque, for a given capacity. All of these machines are criticized (mostly by people who have custom-built cellars, either below or above ground) for their limited insulation. Which means that the regrigeration unit labors when the surrounding air is warm, and can sustain a limited temperature difference (outside vs. inside). It's therefore important to locate such a cooler in surroundings as cool as possible.

Another pragmatic approach, which I've done, is to cool a small room using either a window-type air conditioner (advantages: very cheap -- especially this time of year! -- and efficient via the wide ducting), or a portable AC that vents through a hose (like the Di Longhi "Pinguino" so popular in Europe, which has less air flow but uses a water reservoir and evaporative cooling internally to triple its efficiency).

This topic is historically among the most-asked questions on online wine fora. I don't know its history on this forum, but recently the groups.google.com archive showed several hundred threads (discussions), under keywords refrigerator, cooler, vinotemp, or vinotheque, in the Internet wine newsgroup alt.food.wine and its predecessors rec.food.drink and net.wines. (Beginning approximately with a 1986 thread titled "refrigerators" by Bob Niland, a venerable contributor.) One search found 658 threads within AFW alone.

[Jenise]

Which means that the regrigeration unit labors when the surrounding air is warm, and can sustain a limited temperature difference (outside vs. inside). It's therefore important to locate such a cooler in surroundings as cool as possible.

Max, when we bought the Vintage Keeper that tided us over until our cellar was completed, we were surprised by this fact. We bought ours to go in the garage, and even in this cold climate the temperature limitations meant we had to occasionally leave a garage door partially open to keep the ambient air cool enough. I wonder how many people buy these without understanding that requirement.

I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but I haven't noticed a problem with my Vinotemp...As I said, I upgraded to a super unit or something, and it has had no problem cooling and maintaining the temp. I do have a fan in the roof to release heat, but the garage is not insulated.

A friend also has a VinoTemp, but they cheaped out and tried to go with the regular cooling unit. In summer, the alarm was going off regularly, indicating the temp had risen substantially ... I'm knocking on wood again, but that just hasn't happened. Maybe cuz my unit is so tightly packed with bottles that it is hard to increase the temp inside very quickly given the temp of the mass of bottles and liquid already in there..

Ok, Ive finally had a chance to read your replies. Now, I am more torn than before. We have a spot that would work in our home, but really only for a single deep cabinet which would only holds around 232 bottles. I certainly dont want to spend that kind of money only to outgrow it quickly. I told DH that maybe we should get a less expensive garage type unit, see how that works out for us capacity wise and if we fill that up, then splurge on the more expensive. Ugh, I just dont know. Maybe we should just take the money and put it towards an add on to our home!

I bought a VinoTemp E-series unit 9 years ago and it lives in my garage, which is insulated. I also live in an area where the climate is a tad more moderate than most.

I think the advice from James D is quite sound, particularly the part about the racking. I continually struggle to deal with random bottles that are slightly too fat for the standard rack. I guess it is Champagne envy or something.

The other piece of advice (given by many) is to always purchase the largest unit you can possibly afford. The incremental cost is usually not that bad, and I guarantee that you will eventually want that additional capacity. I am very glad I listened to a friend of mine back in 1998 when I ordered my VinoTemp.

-- Clark

Hi Tina. Welcome to the forum. I own a Vinotheque QT Gold 550. It is pretty much the lowest end of QT Gold they make with double solid doors in a light maple color. I mistakenly thought 550 means 550 bottles, but no, it will only hold 450 or so of the advertised 468 bottles. I bought mine used, 4 years old but used only one, and I have now had it for around 15 years. It continues to run (quietly) and keeps some of my wine at a cool 55 degrees. I do have some spill over which I am going to try to drink as fast as I replace. Whatever you decide to buy, I heartily recommend that you get one at least 2x the size you think you will need. Yes Vinotheque is expensive, but IMO worth the expense.

We ended up with the Vinoteque! We mulled it over for several months. It looks pretty empty right now but..........

This is a bit after the fact, but it never hurts to go on the record...

I'd be a bit leery of anything with a Breezaire unit in it. I have a unit that's about 4 1/2 years old (they have a 1 year warranty for materials and labor and a 5 year warranty for materials). The cooling unit is freezing up, and Breezaire isn't being particularly pro-customer in their response.

The crux is that the wine storage unit I bought was a Vinocraft, which has subsequently gone out of biz. However, I specifically purchased through a major retailer (K&L Wines) to protect my ability to get warranty service. I've been speaking with K&L the past week and a half, and they've been very supportive (they sell other units containing Breezaires, so there's reason for Breezaire to be responsive to them). Despite that, Breezaire so far blew off my initial direct call to them, and once I asked K&L to make contact, they (K&L) have been waiting for a callback from Breezaire's General Manager according to the person I've been speaking with at K&L.

We'll see how it goes. Initial indications, however, don't seem very positive about Breezaire's willingness to stand behind their cooling products.

Jim,

I can certainly see where your situation would make you leary. Its good to hear these stories though especially when you think oh its probably just mine only to find out there are several others with the same situation. I can relate though. I had to make a $500 repair to a Kenmore front load washer when it was only 2 years old. If you do a search on epinions.com for this particular Kenmore you see thousands of posts. There is even talk of a class action lawsuit. Along that same line, I replaced the transmission in a 1999 Honda Odyssey twice. Luckily the factory covered it each time, but they would never admit there was a problem. When I searched the internet though there were tons of people. I sold the Honda though

Which means that the regrigeration unit labors when the surrounding air is warm, and can sustain a limited temperature difference (outside vs. inside). It's therefore important to locate such a cooler in surroundings as cool as possible.

Max, when we bought the Vintage Keeper that tided us over until our cellar was completed, we were surprised by this fact. We bought ours to go in the garage, and even in this cold climate the temperature limitations meant we had to occasionally leave a garage door partially open to keep the ambient air cool enough. I wonder how many people buy these without understanding that requirement.

Raises hand! I have a 500 bottle Vintage Keeper that is in our garage. The garage also houses my at-home office space, extra TV and sofa-bed for excess guests. We had the whole thing insulated etc, etc, and then spoiled it all by installing two large sky-lights. They are not a problem in winter but come summer they heat the space far more than anyone imagined. We have left the garage door open a few inches, pushed in cooler air from the shaded garden area outside the only window and even had a ceiling fan installed to pull the warm air out. Every little bit helps but not enough to stop moisture build up along the seals of the doors. The latter problem is exacerbated by another requirement with the Vintage Keeper - the floor needs to be perfectly level or the doors will not sit correctly. I thought I had it all done properly when I put the thing together but the greater weight of wine in the RH half must have pushed things out of alignment and now that door is not straight. Either that, or someone was swinging on the door at some point!

Mike

We just bought the eurocave above. A friend of mine has one and it has been good. Nothing fancy but decent storgae space and it doesn't look all bad.

We just bought the eurocave above. A friend of mine has one and it has been good. Nothing fancy but decent storgae space and it doesn't look all bad.

Josh, I think it looks darn nice, but of course it is far far too small!

I have left room for 7 more just like it. Hopefully that will be enough.

That's the exact one I have. I think it's very fancy! Does a good job too.

I don't think it is fancy only because it doesn't have any more bells and whistles than it needs. I already need to order a couple more shelves.

But I will give you elegant for sure!

Hey reagarding that fridge above. With the glass front it is possible that the end of the bottles get some direct light even while staying at the correct temperature. Is that sort of light bad for the wine?

Mine doesn't really get anything that direct I don't think, but I am just curious.

Do people avoid glass front fridges for this reason?

Josh,

I think the glass has some UV retarding qualities, but I'd still avoid glass myself because even double paned doesn't insulate particularly well.

Tina, all these wine cabinets are quite expensive for what you get, and in comparison to a normal kitchen fridge aren't terribly reliable or long-lived. But if you're going to buy good wine and want to age it you have to keep it cool one way or another; I've got a nominal 200 bottle Vintage Keeper at home and also store wine offsite at a couple of commercial facilities.

As for Vintage Keeper, I only run the cooling unit about 6 months a year, and it's performed well since around 1995. I can't say the same for the cabinet, though; the floor panel warped badly the first summer I used it and even though it was still under warranty the company wouldn't replace the cabinet but did send me a new (equally cheap) floor panel.