Another Offsite Cellar Temperature Question

Hello All:

Did a search around, and found some answers that were close to answering my situation, but rather than try to extrapolate, thought I might throw out an inquiry. I’m choosing between a few storage places and I luckily own a remote temperature logger. I used this logger to capture temperature at 30 second intervals over a 3 day period for two locations, and this is what it reported:

Location A: Average temperature of 63 Degrees. The temperature basically stays between 63 and 64 degrees with very little movement. Therefore, it might be fair to characterize this storage location as warm but stable.

Location B: Average temperature is 55 degrees, with the high being around 56 and the low being around 54. Therefore, it might be fair to characterize this storage location as cool but slightly less stable.

Location A wins out on price and on slightly more capacity, but I’m wondering if a constant 63 degrees is far too warm for storage? Mostly looking at storing some newer vintage 1er burgundies, champagnes, and some Italian reds. Nothing super old (maybe some older Port). If you were in my shoes, which option would you go with?

Thanks!

Just a guess on my part, but it sounds as if ‘A’ is a passive facility, and ‘B’ exhibits the normal 2 degree swing that an actively cooled cellar would show due to thermostats turning cooling on and off. A 2 degree swing in air temperature is stable, and the actual wine temperature will vary far less than the air temp, assuming the compressors cycle on and off occasionally. The thermal mass in a commercial storage facility is fairly massive, and it would take at least a day or two for your wine to actually increase or decrease 2 degrees. I can’t fathom why a refrigerated facility would choose to set the temp at 63 degrees rather than the more standard 55 degrees, so have to assume it is passive. If it is 63 now, it might be higher at other times of the year.

That said, 63 degrees will not harm your wine. It will cause it to age slightly faster over many years. Personally, I would choose ‘B’. But in truth, other factors like how convenient the location is for you, how good their security is, and whether you trust the operators are more important than simply price.

My $.02, which may be worth slightly more given that I formerly owned and operated a wine storage facility for 25 years.