Do wine fridges make economic sense?

I’ve often thought about this when considering how to maintain a collection. The post asking about a 100-120 bottle fridge prompted me to post this. Is there a point, measured either at bottle count or length of time one wishes to store wine, at which the scales of economic sense tip one way or the other? A good quality fridge will cost $5k at minimum, to 10k, no? And by this I mean something that you will trust your most treasured bottles will not be harmed by temperature fluctuations, vibration, cooler unit failures, poor humidity control, etc. and then, factor in the annual operating cost and maintenance over the course of your bottle age. When is it less expensive, more sensible to take all that money and spend at auction for aged bottles? Of course provenance and risk is always a consideration in that setting. Has anyone else given this any serious consideration?

I don’t know about US pricing but I paid under £900 for my 250 bottle Liebherr around a decade ago, it’s cheap to run and has needed zero maintenance.

I think most people with a wine fridge/cellar care very little about the economic aspect you are questioning.
Not everything we do, especially with luxury items (cars, watches, sporting events, wine, women) have to make any economic sense to give pleasure.
The whole question just makes my head spin, and it is so much easier to not think about it.

Two things. First, your prices are really high. You get the basic fridge, but then you pay extra if you want glass doors, some kind of woodwork, etc. For me, those aren’t worth paying for as I’m not looking to buy a piece of furniture, although my current fridge is in my dining room. Annual maintenance costs are near zero as I’ve never paid anyone to “maintain” it. The electricity cost is also minimal.

But second, you assume that one buys a wine fridge simply to store wine for aging, at which point he’ll pull it out and drink it. That is perhaps the main reason, but not the sole reason. It is also nice to have a place to keep a selection of wine so that you’re not stuck drinking whatever you can find at the local store. If I want an older Barbaresco, I have it. If I want a Garnacha from Spain or Australia, I have it. If I want a Sancerre, I have it. If I come across a bargain, like I did about a month ago, where someone was clearing out a Napa Cab that normally retails for $50 for $17.25, I can buy a number of them and I have a place to put them. So while you have a point in that the annual cost may be a factor, the fact that I haven’t paid full retail on anything in many years also has to be a factor in favor of having storage.

I bought the fridge before I built a cellar. If you have the space, I think building a cellar is a more cost-effective way to go, at least for me. But that’s because I would do it all myself. If I had to pay someone to do it, I suppose it wouldn’t be cost effective. But when I buy my next house, I’m going to build another one. I have the tools, I like doing the work, and my way of relaxing is to do something - work in the garden or build something. I can’t spend an afternoon watching some game on TV. So there are additional benefits beyond the simple dollars and cents.

But it all depends on the individual. None of those points might matter to anyone else. In that sense, it’s really a kind of existential question, kind of like asking whether it’s worth it to buy a bottle of wine for over $100. It all depends on what you value relative to something else.

I agree with everything you said, Greg. My home, for example, does not support space to build a wine cellar, which would be ideal. I struggled with the idea of whether or not to buy one of these units or use offsite storage. Having THE bottle you want in hand is an important consideration. I bought a cheap 40 bottle unit to keep wines for drinking at home, but at times wish I had a larger unit, but I shudder at the cost of these things.

I paid around $4,500 for my Eurocave and I’m not happy about the cost efficiency. I can only cram around 150-155 bottles so it works out to be very expensive. My Eurocave advertised roughly 183 bottles of storage capacity but that’s a mythical estimate based on best case scenario of all Bordeaux bottles.

5k for 100-150 bottles is at the very highest of high prices. Even le cache at $5000 gets you almost 300 bottles. If you’re storing just 100-150 btls there are plenty of options in the sub 2000 category that work well.

I measured costs out cause I’m cheap as hell, my off site storage was $450 a year, I bought a used cabinet for $500. Cooler broke (cooler was 8+ years old) and I replaced it for $300. Broke even in two years. Temp holds steady and so does humidity. Electricity cost is about $10/month more on average. It rarely runs in the fall/winter but runs non stop in the summer

For me, it was a mixture of convenience, economics, and the Gollum-ish need to be near my wines.

I paid less than $650 for my dented Eurocave 150s. So at about $4/bottle for a quality product, I felt pretty good economically. I didn’t care about a gouge in the door and I can always build a wood facade if I want to make it look more like furniture.

Looking at pictures of the Le Cache unit online and I see their interior rack with about 128 slots. How do you cram 268 bottles into those 128 slots?

Double deep so that gets you 256, and there is plenty of room up top above racking for more than another dozen.

I’m still looking for a good 100-120 bottle cellar that isn’t too costly and doesn’t break five weeks after I buy it. Had that happen once already. I have limited space so I’m limited on what I can buy.

Seems like a lot of people have had bad experiences with almost every unit. I know they all mislead about bottle capacity. Especially if you have Turley bottles or Traviglini bottles. They seem to all be designed to only take Bordeaux bottles.

i recommend buying used.

So I’m a bit confused because I read recently that most wine “fridges” are not meant for aging your collection, but rather for storing wine you expect to consume in about a year, hence, if you drink on average one bottle a day, something in the 100-300 bottle range is fine. However, only a few quality manufacturers, LeCache, Eurocave, have humidity control and precision temperature, so long term storage (>10+ years) is actually protected. Without the control, there can be disappointing results down the line. Have I been led astray?

Can’t help myself, so I have to ask, what $50 cab did you find for $17?

I don’t think you can make a blanket statement that most people have had bad experiences. I have three of them. I have never had a problem. One of them has movable racks so I increased the spacing just to accommodate Turley bottles in that section. One of them actually holds more than what the manufacturer claimed. Bonus for me. I couldn’t imagine having a collection without my fridges.

I had two Liebherr fridges when living in a flat which were very cost effective and certainly did no harm to my wine. I combined them with offsite storage. Of course compared to a cellar like the one I now have, the cost per bottle, even at around the £900 figure Russell quotes per fridge, is expensive. Even if you have a large converted cupboard with insulation and a small specialized A/C unit for wine I’m sure it works out better.
My only advice would be to avoid the really expensive “bespoke” things - which are a waste of money unless you really want to show off your collection. Likewise, good insulation may be ugly but it’s a whole lot better than spending fortunes on veneered tasting tables you will never use (not much fun tasting in a 55°F environment), or wrought iron bars supposed to make it all look nice. A cellar should be hidden and well protected rather than open to view.

I think they make just as much economic sense as keeping hundreds of bottles on hand. Guilty, your honor. Let’s not allow logic to interfere with our passion.

Seems like a lot of people have had bad experiences with almost every unit. I know they all mislead about bottle capacity. Especially if you have Turley bottles or Traviglini bottles. They seem to all be designed to only take Bordeaux bottles.

I agree with Michael. I haven’t had a bad experience with a fridge that I’ve had for 25 years, a Vinoteque. Still works perfectly.

As far as not being useful for storing wine for the long haul - I guess I’ll find out. So far anything I’ve opened that was purchased back int he 1990s has been just where I wanted it to be though. I’m not sure why they’d be worse than storing anywhere else.

Alex - I just checked Wine Searcher and it seems like you can get it out in NY for about $40ish. It was the Trefethen Oak Knoll Cab. Seemed like a good deal and the wine is certainly drinkable. It’s less jammy and more tannic than some. Maybe not 99 points but a nice Cab to have around. Same thing with Jemrose Cardiac Cuvee that I got for around $15. It’s just nice to have a place to put the stuff.

Likewise, good insulation may be ugly but it’s a whole lot better than spending fortunes on veneered tasting tables you will never use (not much fun tasting in a 55°F environment), or wrought iron bars supposed to make it all look nice. A cellar should be hidden and well protected rather than open to view.

Couldn’t agree more! I wouldn’t want a table in my wine room any more than in my fridge so I could taste cheese!

I’m pretty sure the answer is “no” in the large majority of instances, and I suspect a lot of the protestations about “it’s the only way to assure perfect provenance” are our way of rationalizing all the money we spent on the storage cabinets and then the ongoing electricity and maintenance costs.

[I’d love to see the CEOs of five wine storage cabinet companies take a blind taste test on a case of 15 year old wine where a third was just bought from retail, a third was stored in a cardboard box in the downstairs hallway closet, and a third was stored in perfect 55 degrees in a Eurocave.]

But as David Glasser correctly points out, this is hardly a rational subject overall.