I’m thinking of purchasing a walk in wine room. I’ve looked on websites for Vintage Cellars and Vino Cellars. Any recommendations, tips, cautions, etc? I’d appreciate any feedback!
Had one and gave it up in a divorce. It was terrific and maybe the least expensive per-bottle price of all the options. And lots of room for big bottles and cases can go on the floor. But I had a very deep garage with plenty of room.
George, which one did you have?
I have this one, except I purchased it from WE. They no longer carry the line, but it is identical.
http://www.vino-cellars.com/store.php?crn=85
Very easy to assemble and very cost effective. I had them add 6" to the height, so I don’t have to duck inside. Lots of extra storage for cases on the shelf above. I have been happy with my purchase.
I have the 1900.
Wow! These are way cheaper then le cache cabinets. (the vino cellars). Look like great deals. Just in the garage?
I have the 1900 in my basement. Mostly below grade. They are not particularly well insulated but once more than half-full the cooling units don’t cycle very often. Short of building your own these are among the more cost-effective choices in $/btl. The racks are too tight to take some of the bigger bottles (Chaupin Juline, some SQN, Krug champagne) but those can be stacked on the top.
Julie I had the 1300 with no bells or whistles, no glass in the door, didn’t need it. Insulation was fine. I paid $3K but that was years ago. From, I think, the Wine Enthusiast catalogue.
I have one that holds 1300 from California something or other (I think I bought it from an outfit called Baucus). Love the wine cellar, but would not buy from either of these outfits again. Note that the wine cellar will last a lot longer than the cooling units. These outfits have not been that good regarding getting new cooling units that fit the cellar. I would deal with someone who you can go back to. Finally, I have just purchased a new cooling unit from le Cache and will just deal with them in the future for my wine cellar.
I have had the cellar for about 14 years and am on my third cooling unit - my guess is that most cooling units will last 5-10 years.
I’m interested in buying one too. The cost for a 2500 bottle Vinotemp, etc. is around $6300 shipped. I really don’t think you can build a 2500 bottle wine cellar with racking for that price. I realize that the racking is the label scrapper, wood - aluminum mix, but the cost differential is really amazing. I have an area picked out for the 2500 - just need to finish unpacking boxes and move things around. It’s in a basement area. I have had a Vinotemp 600 for 4 years now and have had absolutely no issues.
Before purchasing mine, I asked my contractor to look at it and estimate what he could do. He was not able to come anywhere close to the price. I am convinced these are the most cost effective solution. I agree the residual issue is the life of the (Breezaire) cooling unit. I just plan to replace it after some years. Racking is all redwood. I have found that larger bottles (champagne, Sea Smoke, some Pax) will fit in the top bins but not in lower ones. As noted, there is ample storage on top of the bins to stack larger bottles and/or store full cases. I also built a storage unit to place on top to hold halfs.
It’s hard to find racking alone for that price - it seems to be close to $3/bottle for all wood, at best, and $2/bottle even from vinotemp for the wood/metal combo.
Wow, no kidding. If you have the space (and the wine to fill it), that seems like a no-brainer.
Yeah. They are essentially restaurant walk-ins. Substance over style. Speaking of which, you can purchase a walk-in at a restaurant auction for not a lot of money. The walls, floor and ceiling are totally modular that lock together. You would still need to purchase or build racking.
We just bought the 1900 bottle unit from Vintage. Everting fits except Aston Pinot bottles. Half bottles must go on the bottom racks or the top shelf. The lock they offer is ,IMHO, too weak. I added a Schlage deadbolt, and burglar alarm to ours.
I have a 900 bottle room bought from Vino-cellars.com. They were great to work with, unlike some of the other places I got quotes. And get a few estimates from different stores - it seems the price varied quite a bit from dealer to dealer.
You can probably squeeze in around 1200 bottles if you use the top of the racks, floor, etc. All in all, it was a great buy…
Reminder to anyone reading this thread, you will probably need to run a separate electrical circuit for the cooling unit.
I’m really surprised that not more people have them. I only know one person with it and I never asked him how much it cost. I wonder how it’d fare in my neck of the woods… gets pretty hot in the garage.
Charlie, I have a 1,900 bottle unit in my Texas garage. No worries. Just make sure it is the highest insulation possible and if you get one that is large get it outfitting with two cooling units just in case.
I guess a car goes outside if you have one of those babies in there.