Depends on who is answering that question. A lot of people will say “no”, you need all that stuff, and control down to the millidegree. Others (like me) will say hooey, as long as the temperature stays within a reasonable range (like 55-62 or so), no matter how it fluctuates daily or yearly, the wine is fine and will age well. Humidity be damned, same with vibration. Direct sun is not great for wine, that’s the only thing I’d worry about, keeping it out of a bright sunlit room.
I wasn’t willing to take the risk of having thousands of dollars of wine sit in wooden racks in a basement that fluctuated from 64 - 74. It is peace of mind for me. They also stay closer to serving temp so I don’t have to pop them in the fridge just to serve.
You don’t have to spend a lot. One of my fridges is a $400 Home Depot 50 bottle (actually holds 62) one going on 9 years of trouble free service. My most recent one is a 300 bottle unit from Costco for $1699 delivered inside.
Very little about buying mass quantities of expensive wine makes economic sense but you do need to store them properly. That being said, I have stored 400 bottles for many years in a small unfinished room in my basement with no problems at all. The room is high in humidity (sump-pump in the room), dark, temperatures range between 45 during coldest winter days and low 60’s for hottest summer day. 90% of time it is in between 50 and 60 degrees. If you have a small room like this in your basement, no need for a fridge.
Agree, Greg. Since our home sits about 6 feet above sea level, less during high tides and heavy rains, no basement options for me. I keep all my long term storage stuff offsite in a passive cellar.
As others have said, there is an irrational side to this habit of ours. My offsite unit can store probably close to 800-1000 bottles, but isn’t cheap at $100 per month. But it’s easy access, perfect storage conditions, and I don’t have to worry about power outages. The cost per year, however, is draining. Instead of spending on long term storage and the bottles to put there, wouldn’t it be just as much fun to take that money and frequent auctions for mature wine? I think a case could be made here.
There is absolutely a great deal of satisfaction in having a collection, nurturing your babies to old age, but the cost of storage if you don’t have a cellar or basement is a bummer
I hope I’m misunderstanding you, but it appears you have referred to women as a luxury item.
I was just about to comment on how amusing that was…
Baller!
fify
While I’ll leave the other part of your comment alone, I disagree with your sweeping suggestion that we all frivolously spend without a care or thought toward the sensibility of such a purchase. Perhaps there are a few here that live in that world but I’d bet the majority of us wine collectors think about budgeting, economics, and matrimonial bliss.
I have a small fridge at home for daily drinkers and use offsite for more expensive and bottles sleeping for a while. Now that I’m on multiple lockers though I’m seriously considering a large home unit or building something as I’m spending more than I’d like on offsite at this point.
When we moved into our house almost 14 years ago, the only thing that I asked my wife for was the right to do whatever I wanted with a 7x10 foot space in the basement. Not sure of the actual dimensions, but I built a cellar there and had Chris Kravitz come over and install racking. My cellar (with active cooling) is now racked for 924 bottles and has room for additional racking that would store another 300+ bottles if needed.
While I love having a cellar, I find that my daily drinkers (whites and roses mostly) get stored in the basement refrigerator. The daily drinker reds get stored in the cellar but I wouldn’t give a shit if they got stored in the refrigerator or on the kitchen counter. My daily drinkers have a shelf life of less than two weeks on average so their storage conditions aren’t that important.
Frankly I’m surprised by the guys who have storage units for their daily drinkers.
If the question is whether wine fridges produce better aged wines than storage at room temp, the answer is an unequivocal yes. I’ve done comparisons with my father’s cellar, which was passive and ranged from the low 60s in winter up to the low 70s in summer. After 5 years there was no detectable difference. At 10 years the passive wines were a bit more advanced in age, in some cases to their benefit vs the actively stored wines. By 15 years the wines from my temp controlled cellar were usually better. These were Bdx purchased at the same time from the same store in the '80s, tasted blind 10-15 years later. So maintaining cellar temps works, but it takes some time for the effect to become apparent.
Whether temp controlled storage makes economic sense depends on how much you value aged wine.
My 2 cents:
- There are actually not that many good fridges that provide reliable temperature and humidity control for ageing wine, and they are all costly (3000+ EUR). I’m also not sure about lasting 15+ years due to the amount of electronics involved
- I have 2 fridges (have to check what models, both were around 1000 EUR for around 150 bottles) and both have a delta in temperature between bottom and ceiling of around 2°C. The displayed temperature is also off on both of them. The humidity is not monitored and again is different between bottom and ceiling.
- Manufacturers clearly state that the bottle count is for Bordeaux bottles, with no racks. Given I have mostly Rhône, Bourgogne and Languedoc, I’d say capacity is reduced about 30-35%.
- You have to change the (air) filter every 6 months. I’m not sure what maintenance is required for humidity control units.
Based on these, I’m keeping in my fridge only the wines I’ll be drinking in the next 2-3 years. The bottle I plan on keeping 10+ years are all in a wine storage facility.
I had done some calculation and off site facility was 2x more expensive as a wine cabinet (2500 EUR) after 10 years, not considering the space the cabinet would occupy in my appartment (depending on where you live, 1 square meter occupied just for wine storage can be costly - 25 EUR/month in my case).
Alain
Alain,
Your fridge is just fine for long term aging. Don’t fret.
Russell,
I can’t say that I’m paranoid when it comes to wine cellaring, and actually think that some people read too much into it.
But really, I wouldn’t count on these two fridges to keep my wine for 10+ years. I mean I’ve had them for around 2 years, one already stopped working for a few days out of the blue and started again, and for the other one, its noise must have increased 10 db or so.
This doesn’t scream reliability to me… I would buy another fridge if the one I have in my appartment breaks down because I really have no other way to keep some bottles handy, but that’s about it.
Alain
This topic may be dead but I’m still looking. You mentioned great experience with wine refrigerators but never said what brand they were. I had a great cellar in my previous home and kept bottles for 10 years with good maturation but the one I had was way to big for my more limited space.
I have gotten 2 used Eurocaves and a used Le Cache from Craigslist. Paid 10 to 20 cents on the dollar versus list price for the units and they have all worked perfectly. It helps that I live in a big city where there is a liquid market in used stuff. I’m sure everyone’s situation is different but I can’t imagine any off site being price competitive or as convenient as this.
I have one of these http://www.costco.com/Wine-Enthusiast-%7c-Giant-300-bottle-%7c-Single-Zone-Free-Standing-%7c-Wine-Cellar.product.100131680.html
And two of these http://t.homedepot.com/p/Vissani-50-Bottle-Wine-Cooler-MCWC50DST/100597196/
The Vissani actually holds more than what it states and the shelves “float” so odd sizes like Turley and mags fits well.
I would recommend both. The Costco one has nice wooden shelves, runs quiet and looks good.
We bought a 550-bottle wine cooler with super duper PLAIN solid oak doors in 2005. My sweet husband found it locally on Craigslist and nabbed it for $500. A few months after we had it, the cooling unit stopped holding temperature, so we replaced the cooling unit (for another $500). So, since 2005 we’re a grand into the thing and it has been the best money we’ve ever spent. We’re nearly at capacity in it though, so we better drink more!
Monica I admire your restraint. Ten years to outgrow a 550-bottle cooler is impressive to those of us here who suffer from a compulsion to buy every wine that catches our fancy.