Whether you have a growing wine collection and intend to nurture your bottles to maturity or just fancy a glass of red after a day at work, finding the right wine cooler to suit your needs can be tricky. We’re here to help you select the perfect wine cooler for your home with these five simple considerations.
Wine Cabinets for Your Home
Good news! Introducing a wine cabinet to your home doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see a spike in your energy costs. Quality cabinets, like those from La Sommeliere, optimise conditions for your wine while keeping energy costs low with their premium technology. While there are plenty of elegant wine cabinets to choose from, determining which one is right for you will depend on how you want wine to play into your lifestyle.
Why store your wine in a cooler
The best wine cabinets are made to protect wine from spoiling and premature ageing by guarding against light, heat and humidity.
It won’t be difficult to find a great wine cabinet that keeps your bottles chilled and protected from UV light. What sets some wine coolers apart from others is the technology that automates and monitors humidity to keep corks and labels from drying out. Compared to a countertop wine rack, a sophisticated wine cooler wins every time.
Where to store your wine
Adding a wine cooler to your kitchen or living room can feel like the final step to making your house a home. Where you choose to store your wine will determine what type of wine cooler you’re looking for. There are a few models to consider.
- Built-in wine coolers are designed to store your bottles within a custom-made unit
- Freestanding cabinets are ideal for living room or garage wine storage, as they can easily be installed no matter the layout of the room
- Integrated wine cabinets are often seen in kitchens, stylishly storing wine under countertops or discreetly poised within existing cabinetry
For serving or maturing
Considering the reason for storing your collection of wine will help guide you to the right wine cabinet. If you’ve taken up wine maturing as a hobby, you’ll want a cabinet that will store your wine at a single, steady temperature to help it gracefully age to peak potability.
If you’d rather keep a variety of wine on hand for serving, consider a dual cooling zone cabinet that will house your champagne and pinot noir at separate temperatures, optimised for serving in the perfect condition.
How much wine will be stored?
You’ll want to choose a wine cabinet with a bottle capacity to match your storage demands. If you’re wishing to store a few cases of wine at a time, a small wine cabinet will suffice. Wine collectors, however, will want to consider scaling up to a large wine cabinet, capable of storing 200+ bottles at a time.
Wine cabinet doors
There is a clear aesthetic difference between glass and solid doors, especially when it comes to wine coolers. Glass, for example, is ideal for a cooler showcased within a kitchen. The reflective door allows light to bounce around the kitchen, serving the illusion of a kitchen flooded by natural light.
Cabinets with glass doors allow collectors to showcase their wine. Whether you choose a wine cabinet that’s small or large, glass doors are typically welcome in the kitchen or garage, while solid doors tend to better match the atmosphere of a living room.
When it comes to glass, UV blocking technology has come a long way. The glass fitted to most wine coolers is typically rated to filter out 99% of UV rays. While this is a staggering number, serious wine collectors who aim to mature a large collection may still choose to go with a solid door, because this ensures that no UV light filters through.
Storing your wine in optimal conditions will make or break your experience when it comes time to sniff the cork. It’s important to choose a quality cooler that will maintain constant temperatures to protect the wine and keep the cork from crumbling. Give some consideration to your wine drinking or collecting habits, and you’ll be well on your way to choosing the best-fit wine cooler for your home.