How do you store your wine [+ Fridge/Cabinet recommendations]

[GDSman]

I think 'constant' is more important than 'cold' - as long as it's not actually hot. Our pantry has a nice constant temp and being in Hobart in a double brick house it doesn't need AC...

 

[Pantsoff]

I have a 36 case climate controlled locker at national storage.
At home i have a 250 bottle kitchener peltier fridge that I've had for about 15 yrs. It's in an outside storeroom so temp can fluctuate from 13 in winter to 20-21 in summer.
The spare bedroom (coolest room in the house) has the "surplus" wines, which has grown way too quickly to 20+ dozen after discovering this site last year. Half are in Styrofoam. Room slowly fluctuates from 14 in winter to 21-22 in peak summer.

Not sure if my wines are heat affected as have nothing to compare them to, but i had a 2005 Petaluma Riesling last week and it was wonderful - strong mineral/kerosene notes and quite a contrast to the zesty/acidic 2014 Bird in Hand Riesling.

If i were to start over, not sure I'd spend the $1000 pa on off-site wine storage.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've mentioned this before on AFF, but its worth highlighting again.

That's not a wine cellar, THIS is a wine cellar ...










Unfortunately the house isn't much chop, but with a cellar like that, who cares? And the view is OK too.

 

[Steady]

I've mentioned this before on AFF, but its worth highlighting again.

That's not a wine cellar, THIS is a wine cellar ...

Unfortunately the house isn't much chop, but with a cellar like that, who cares? And the view is OK too.

And I still enjoy browsing the pics

 

[TheRealTMA]

And I still enjoy browsing the pics

Did you but it then?

 

[Steady]

Did you but it then?

No but's about it

 

[TheRealTMA]

No but's about it

Well, I knew you wouldn't buy it however never go past a good but. (Note the spelling and grammatical point.)

 

[Assassin]

Living in Sydney, I have a couple of wine fridges now (a smallish Vintec and one I bought as part of a Dan special). But I have for many years used (and still use) the polystyrene boxes that you can get seafood in. These are excellent insulators and can even out the day to day temperature fluctuations (provided you don't keep opening and closing them). They're the poor man's wine fridge....

 

[Daver6]

I'm in Perth too and have a cellar that's insulated and climate controlled. With Perth summers, insulted alone won't cut it.

My recommendation would be to look for a second hand quality wine fridge. However big you think you'll need, you'll need bigger. Trust me

 

[jrod]

Large storeroom in centre of lower level of house, running an inverter Panasonic split system set at 16 degrees which keeps bottles at 14-14.5 degrees

 

[Major]

I'm with GPH

In Qld a wine fridge is a must. When we moved from Sydney many years ago I would lose some wines with the high temps and humidity in summer and then the odd frost in winter. The solution was a large wine fridge which I have set at 18°

The wine now matures, as the winemaker intended.

 

[carwashhair]

After six or seven years of shunting my wine collection around to four different apartments I've lived in in inner Sydney, I'm glad to say the collection has now found a real 'home', one that almost looks like a cellar too It's an odd space* - basically a dead-end hallway right in the centre of the house, untouched by natural light and cosseted by exposed bricks. Temperature fluctuations are pretty minimal - from about 16 degrees in winter to 20 degrees in summer. Naturally, having my own dedicated space has meant that the sze of the collection has close to doubled in the 8 months I've lived here (also strangely coinciding with reading AFF wine threads daily...)


* The reason it is an odd space is that we're living at the in-laws house, which is attached to what was a restaurant in the 1980's/90's (and hopefully will be again soon!). This hallway would once have led straight into what is now a commercial kitchen, and on the other side of the right hand cellar wall is something very pretty which I will miss calling my own (but will still frequent after hours )

 

[mini2]

Not sure if I should start shifting some of my more expensive stuff from commercial storage to here:

Behind the racks are dirt, concrete above it and the other side is a thick wall to the garage. Will insulate the hot pipes from hot water system but relocating it to another location could be an issue. Quite cool in the hot day but haven't quite work out what's the interday fluctuations. The pool equipment is about 10m away from it so it's not going to be dry.

 

[Lawrage]

I like the look of that rackwall mini, if you dont mind me asking where did you get it from?

 

[MrEd]

I'm in Perth. For me it's a Kitchener 380 bottle wine fridge and 2 fridges running temperature controllers. The Kitchener was picked up at a second hand fridge shop for around $1300 if memory serves. The converted fridges hold about 90 bottles each depending on bottle shape.

 

[sietes]

I have a 30 odd bottle wine cabinet at home from one of the Treasury Wine promotions and have a private wine storage locker at MW Wines in Melbourne.

 

[georgehall]

I was recently at a friends house brewing some beer and he had a few normal fridges to sit the brew in a temperature controlled environment while fermenting.

I have a wine fridge at home which I use, but seeing his fermenting fridges in action got me thinking about hiding a few old fridges in the garage with one of these connected to it http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/122255201976?lpid=107&chn=ps It may not be the best option, but for short term I don't see how this isn't a viable option..and at a very low cost...thoughts?

 

[Steady]

Looks like it would be worth a try. You may need to make up some sort of shelving in the fridge, OMO the shelves they come with would struggle to support the bottles you could load into it

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I was recently at a friends house brewing some beer and he had a few normal fridges to sit the brew in a temperature controlled environment while fermenting.

I have a wine fridge at home which I use, but seeing his fermenting fridges in action got me thinking about hiding a few old fridges in the garage with one of these connected to it http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/122255201976?lpid=107&chn=ps It may not be the best option, but for short term I don't see how this isn't a viable option..and at a very low cost...thoughts?

Most commercial fridges vibrate too much to store wine long term.

 

[sietes]

Most commercial fridges vibrate too much to store wine long term.

Also if under cork humidity control is required as well as temperature.