TheRealTMA
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I'm not sure any of you are doing a correct evaluation of the temperature fluctuations in your wine fridge. It's not the variation as simply measured by an air thermometer. This may well be cyclic of say 5 degrees or more but that's not really the point I suggest.I have a 175 bottle VinoVault for my wine. The shelves are set for the smaller Bordeaux bottles so when I have larger Burgundy size (pinot noir/chardonnay) there is no way I can fit that quantity in.
I have mine set at 18° and am quite happy with that. If the power goes off when we are away then the default setting is 12°. When we return I put it back to 18°.
If we are away during summer and not able to turn on the room air con then the ambient can reach up to 40°. This is very rare but does happen. I used to lose a lot of good wine until I bought the wine fridge.
With this sort of consistency I have had no failures for many years now. Even if I open the door to select a wine the temp jumps to 21 or 22° in less than a minute but I don't see that as a problem.
I looked at recommendations from several sources but did not find anything suggesting such a low temp setting as yours. I suppose it's a matter of what works for you.
Not sure what your current ambient is but I am in T shirt & shorts at the moment
One needs to consider the temperature fluctuations inside the bottle itself. The insulating quality of the glass bottle plus the specific heat ( if I remember the terminology) of the wine itself are factors. Both of these will meliorate the actual wine temperature fluctuations.
I suggest one should put a digital probe inside the wine bottle (full) and reseal, then monitor it over 24 hrs to a week.
When I get back from this next trip I might do this out of interest in my dual zone DeLonghi.
There's no evidence that storing whites at quite low temperatures is useful. (Actually there was a study on 1-2year storage of NZ SBs which did indicate that the methoxy - pyrazines and various terpine components were much better preserved if the bottles were stored at lower temperatures- but this does not mean the specific wine will taste 'better' after two years than if kept a more moderate temperatures. Just that the chemical analysis shows the chemical transitions of the lighter molecular weight components are slower, as one would expect.)
Overall, despite having a wine fridge (Brisbane) set for 17 for reds and 14 for whites, ( used only for special bottles) there's still no evidence-based research that says it really matters if you use a wine cabinet or not, providing wine is not exposed to extreme heat variations and direct sunlight, and specifically if it's screw capped and not suffering from cork fatigue.