Anyone using Weinboxes?

I was down at my locker doing some organization today, and the manager showed me a sample Weinbox he had. They’re stackable plastic crates designed to store bottles on their sides. The flyer he gave me was from Domaine, but from Googling it looks like there may be other sources. Anyway, this link has pictures and such: https://domainestorage.com/product-category/weinbox-modular-storage-system/

This is pretty interesting to me; I’m sick of cardboard boxes, and I don’t want to lose as much space as I would if I put in racks. Is anyone here using these? How do you like them? Any drawbacks I should be aware of?

Are they licensed to hold wine? newhere

I like the concept. But while they seem good for whole/solid cases, for mixed cases you wont be able to see what’s what without pulling everything out Also not sure if they work well for non-standard sizes or not.

The overall size appears to be bigger than cardboard storage boxes for storage. So would appear to take more space not less. Though I like the handles on them. And you can just tape a label on the side to list contents.

By my calculation, they take up slightly less volume than the cardboard boxes I’m using. 19x10.5x9.7 = 1935 cu in; 14.5x11x13.25 = 2113 cu in. But they’re a different shape (19 inches on the longest side vs. 14.5 for the cardboard), so I don’t think I’d be able to actually fit more of them in my locker which is designed for standard cases.

Anyway, my goal isn’t necessarily maximizing space, but I’d like to find a good compromise between space efficiency, convenience, and stability. I like that these hold the bottles on their sides. Standard boxes aren’t designed to sit on their sides, and can get unstable. These look like they’d be very stable stacked. I also like that you can open the front of these for access without having to unstack the whole thing.

My biggest concern is what Alan mentioned – how we’ll they’ll accommodate non-standard sizes. I played with one briefly and it seemed ok for some fat syrah bottles I had sitting there, but I didn’t really have time to try all of the combinations.

I use cardboard tubes and PCV tubes. It maximizes space in storage lockers and makes individual bottles easy to find. You can even include rower numbers in CellarTracker.

Definitely promising, and though I haven’t tried them in my lockers yet, I have sampled a couple around the house and they do seem to hold up well. The length of the box is excellent for longer bottles like Riesling. Maybe not as ideal for 12 x fatter bottles, but overall pretty versatile.

Max Kogod (who’s also an on-line retailer) uses them for his entire storage area very successfully, kindly showing me around his facility on my last visit.

I just had a look at what I have in my weinbox, and noticed 12 bottles of various shapes and sizes fit fine with some room to spare. Note that while the sides bulge a little, if pressed to straight the bottles still fit fine. The mix is 7 x Burgundy/Rhone, 4 x Riesling, 1 x standard Barolo
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I’m currently using actual plastic crates from office max in my locker - this looks so much better. Next time I visit my locker I’ll take measurements to see if this can optimize my setup.

I would second the vote for cardboard tubing. They aren’t bulky and can you go two bottles deep. They also hold most wider bottles I have, with a few exceptions being certain Champagne Bottles.

I investigated cardboard tubing at one point. The reason I didn’t go down that path is that I want to be able to go more than two bottles deep. Currently in my locker I could fit at least two rows of these, which would effectively be four bottles deep. Yes, I’d need to move the front row to access the back, but I don’t think I’d be able to do that at all with tubes unless I put them on some kind of movable rack (which would be a pain and eat up a lot of space).

the cardboard tubing I use easily holds three riesling bottles, which is the complete depth of my unit. very easy to stack them and then access the back bottle by simply removing the front two.

I only use this arrangement for wine at or near drinking. Long term wine is boxed up and in different storage units.

I use PCV for champagne.

With shipping each tube came to about $2.

From the photos, it looks like they take up more space because there’s a lot of dead space in them. But they might work fine depending on the size and shape of your locker. Ultimately, I think you have to mix and match different types of boxes based on the shape of your locker so you can maximize storage.

Some years ago, when I took on a new storage locker, I measured different boxes and calculated their volume. Here’s how they stack up against the Weinbox. It takes just 3% more than a Bordeaux wood crate/box and 13% more space than the boxes my wine storage place offered, which adapt to different shapes and sizes of bottles. For the ability to remove while the boxes are stacked, 13% might be a relatively small price pay, depending on how much of a premium you put on your space.

The Weinbox occupies 24% more volume than a German riesling wine box, which is the most efficient.

Cubic inches:

German 1,563
Bordeaux cardboard box 1,580
Burgundy (6 on 6) flat 1,638
Rhone (3 layers of 4) 1,638
Cardboard box for wine storage 1,711
Bordeaux wood crate 1,873
Weinbox 1,935

I went ahead and ordered some. I will report back once I’ve had a chance to try them.

I use it. I can strongly recommend it.

Quite good for me that I could put 12 Riesling bottles in one box. It is not easy in case of Riesling bottles, but these Weinboxes work. Also these boxes are good stackable.

I almost pulled the trigger but am concerned about finding a specific wine inside the Weinbox. The thought of having to remove 8 bottles from the box in order to get to another bottle is disheartening. Thoughts from users?

Is it sturdy enough to support 5 fully loaded boxes stacked on top? let’s say the bottom one is only half full.

I was hoping that these boxes were like divided cardboard boxes that you can set on their side and pull any single bottle without disturbing the rest. I’ve got a son-in-law that designs and fabricates rigid plastic products. I’ll discuss this with him.

P Hickner

YES

Mostly I put 12 or 2x6 same bottles in a box. So for me it´s perfect.