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

[TheRealTMA]

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

Yes, but, maybe. People (like us) get too carried away with enthusiasm for the perfect wine storage. And if you are on a limited budget and can't afford to drop $3-10K on an over priced specialist wine fridge then far to spend the money on actual wine rather than over priced storage in the early years of collecting. Most likely in these circumstances the wines will be not under cork and an old fridge with good insulation set on highest possible temperature will be more than adequate to store wines for a few years. (I did it for many years in Brisbane heat.) That's if you actually don't have an under-house / cellar area which is darkish and removed from extreme temperature ranges. (Which I still do in Brisbane weather! )

 

[georgehall]

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

Yeah I wasn't thinking long term,just a spot to store wine short term thats not just the cupboard

 

[TheRealTMA]

Yeah I wasn't thinking long term,just a spot to store wine short term thats not just the cupboard

Go for it! Then in 5 years you can invite AFFs over to taste and we'll render our considered opinions very considerately!

 

[MrEd]

Don't know if this is of any help... Besides a wine fridge, I'm running 2 "normal" fridges with the temperature controllers. They are the older style with metal racks and no fan. One fridge is jam packed with bottles and the shelves cope with no problem. I haven't noticed any problem with vibration as there's no clinking sounds. For the temperature controller probe, I have it taped to a used wine bottle filled with a solution of water and a few drops of bleach. Set the fridge to the coldest setting as recommended with the controller. So that the probe is removable, I've curved a bit of styrofoam and made a cut-out into that. If you don't have the probe against a bottle and simply have it measuring air temperature inside the fridge, the compressor will operate more frequently, in fact any time you go into the fridge. My better bottles go into the Kitchener.

 

[carwashhair]

Just thought i'd share, looks like you can pick up a vintec 30 bottle fridge for as low as $384 off of ebay at the moment, nearly $300 less than Dan Murphys. Also looks like decent value even compared to the 2016 Vintec/Treasury wines offer (even if it's not a dual zone fridge from that offer). Vintec 30 Bottle Wine Cabinet V30SGME | eBay

 

[Steady]

I came across this on the Dry River site here

[TD="align: left"]If your storage has temperature maximums of not more than...
[/TD][TD="align: left"]Then your storage conditions are...
[/TD] [TD="align: left"]10-15°C
[/TD][TD="align: left"]good, and your wines will be at a similar stage of development to that indicated in the Cellaring Guide. Burgundians say that for proper cellaring Pinot noir must be kept in this temperature range (cf. the book Pinot noir, by A. Barr, p33).
[/TD] [TD="align: left"]15-18°C
[/TD][TD="align: left"]at these temperatures your wine could be maturing 20-25% faster than above. Nevertheless, for quality the conditions are adequate, unless you would like to pamper your wines or your cellar is large and/or valuable. The chart should still be very useful, but bear in mind that your wines will develop faster. The results will possibly be slightly less fine.
[/TD] [TD="align: left"]18-24°C
[/TD][TD="align: left"]this includes quite a few Auckland cellars. It is not ideal; differences in speed of development will be evident even with storage over 2-3 years. Plan for holding less robust wines (discussed above) no more than 3 years. Be aware a mature wine from this cellar may not be quite as good as one aged at lower temperatures.
[/TD] [TD="align: left"]25+°C
[/TD][TD="align: left"]not very good, but do note that most good wines may still benefit for up to 2 or 3 years in this cellar. Less robust wines probably should not be held beyond 2 years. Cabernet and blends, Sauvignon blanc, Fumè blanc, Riesling could benefit from longer periods, depending on the actual conditions. Avoid cellaring Pinot noir.
[/TD]

 

[afro]

my wines are between 18-21 degrees in a basement cellar all year round , maybe around 20 bottles are cork. no diam i think, rest are screwcap. i have read some online articles about people storing their wines in a foam container and in a garage as well, well over 25 degrees during summer and still survived past 10years with no sign of heat damage. interesting stuff!

 

[Steady]

my wines are between 18-21 degrees in a basement cellar all year round , maybe around 20 bottles are cork. no diam i think, rest are screwcap. i have read some online articles about people storing their wines in a foam container and in a garage as well, well over 25 degrees during summer and still survived past 10years with no sign of heat damage. interesting stuff!

I don't doubt your experience afro, IIRC Major has a very similar one to you posted up thread somewhere. I am just reading up and thought the table was interesting.

I also note the following;

Vintec say this on their site "make sure you set it at 12-14 deg C as this is the proper temperature for cellaring and medium/long term storage for all wines: reds, whites, roses and champagne"

And Liebherr have this to say "The ideal temperature for maturing is the same for all wines, whether red or white, and lies between +10°C and +12°C."

Penfolds have this to say "The most important cellaring tip is to keep your wine in a steady, cool environment and to avoid significant temperature fluctuations. A constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (or less) is better for your wine than 14 to 26 degrees Celsius over a year. The cellaring conditions need to be dark, free from vibrations and from any background odours which may permeate through cork."

 

[mini2]

Dunno who's right or wrong but still beats sitting in my dirt hole with racks varying between 15-24 during the year. The 2 commercial storage I've used so far have been set to 13 degrees FWIW.

 

[afro]

it is interesting to discover what the temps can do to wine, what i was trying to say is that red wines are tougher than we think , i still do encourage people to store wine in cooler places , and i should of also point out that for people without a cooler to store wine, the change in temp. shouldnt be too large either , 18-24 is acceptable i guess , the bigger the margin the worst it will do to your wine.

i don't have much experience with cork wines but to me ,the low temp range might not be as accurate for screwcaps, cork needed because it does have air goes in the wine , where screwcap is block off (as far as i know screwcap doesn't allow air penetrates at all).

 

[Daver6]

Have a read of Grapemates - The Blending Sessions - The Auswine Forum specifically the torture test. Really interesting result.

 

[ste667]

Have a read of Grapemates - The Blending Sessions - The Auswine Forum specifically the torture test. Really interesting result.

Wow, that really goes against all the perceived wisdom I've read thus far! I feel a little better about my wines that don't find a space in the fridges, and have to make do with a darkened room with some occasional air con..

 

[moa999]

Suspect it takes more than 2 days to change the wine dramatically.

 

[Daver6]

Suspect it takes more than 2 days to change the wine dramatically.

The bottle was on the window sill for 14 months, not two days. Unless you're referring to something else?

 

[afro]

i do have a feeling some of us here also in auswine forum, now i know why some of the names here looks familiar.

 

[Steady]

i do have a feeling some of us here also in auswine forum, now i know why some of the names here looks familiar.

I'm not, but it looks like an interesting place

 

[sigmadelta]

Hi all, does anyone have a Kitchener Peltier cabinet? I have, and recently removed the door while moving house. Now I see that there seem to have been some parts of the hinges lost during the move, most likely a set of cylindrical washers.
Kitchener no longer are in business it seems, so I was wondering if anyone who has such a cabinet can post a picture of one of the hinges?
Cheers
Pete

 

[leadman]

i have just on 1,500 in the cellar and it has a great record for ageing the wines over 10 -15 years. i am very surprised the rate of corked wines which we have had 5 in the last 10 years. In Winter it holds around 11 to 13C and summer climbs to 15C. I gave way cataloguing years ago and one of the pleasures is to find one of those "lost" wines. Our simple rule is we have a "drinking rack" of about 250 wines, so we buy for the future, and new wines displace older wines that go to the drinking rack.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Quite impressive Leadman. Where abouts are you located? Did you have to take any measures to regulate the temperature? And roughly what size room did you need to fit that many bottles?

Just in the process of working how how to carve some space out to store a similar quantity of wine. Would be good to get some rough indication of what’s involved. Thanks in advance.

 

[leadman]

Thanks, effectively i have a 3.5 x 5m room and its half buried under the house. The bottom section is brick and the upper section tripled layered board. The brick is buried in the clay. I found that it can get a bit stuffy/moldy so i installed a little computer fan that "lightly" drags cold air from under the house. I found trying to hermetically seal the cellar is not a smart move! (i had a little library of wine books that went mildew after a small flood from a 1 in 100 years rainfall.) I built the outside racks myself with Reinforcing mesh from Bunnings years ago which measured 18 x 12, so 216 bottles. The middle one comes out of a Philip Murphy store (brother of Dan) which is a "wine stash" type one, but its a double one which they don't make any more.

I'm in Melbourne so in winter when its cold i often open the cellar door which is only about 1.4m high so you put a bit of cold in there and I've found with a critical mass of bottles, they store some of the cold. It also holds around 120 bottle of scotch and assortment of alcohols from around the world.