Despite what most people might think, having a wine cooler is not exclusive to wine experts. Whether for a fancy restaurant, or a relaxing night at home after a busy day of work, a wine cooler could be a good purchase for you and/or your guests to enjoy well-stored quality wine.
However, in order to find the best wine cooler on the market that meets your needs, there are things to consider when choosing a wine cooler that you should follow. That way, hundreds of products that wouldn’t work for you will be eliminated from the get-go and you will be that much closer to finding the best one.
In this article, we will talk about the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler.
1) A Regular Fridge VS A Wine Cooler
The first question that might pop up in most people’s minds when they think about getting a wine cooler is: Is it really worth investing your money on a wine cooler when you have a working fridge at home.
There is no doubt that your fridge would cool down your wine. However, it might not be enough to prevent your wine from developing a vinegary taste over time. There are various reasons for that problem and things to consider when choosing a wine cooler.
Firstly, you should keep in mind that wine can’t be stored at any temperature and temperature is one of the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler. There are certain aspects of it that you should pay attention like vibrancy and color. In contrast to a regular fridge, a wine cooler not only functions to keep your wine cold but also helps to preserve those features.
2) Space is Important
The question is how you can find the best wine cooler for you. The first item in your things to consider when choosing a wine cooler checklist should be ascertaining where and for what purposes you want to have a wine cooler. If you are planning to buy one for commercial purposes, such as for a restaurant or a bar, where the wine consumption would be high, consider getting a larger one. But if you are going to get one for home, where the consumption would be low, a smaller cooler would do the job.
3) Think About How Many Bottles You Want to Store
There are wine coolers on the market that are designed to hold large quantities of wine but there are also smaller ones that could be more suited to you. It depends on the size of your kitchen or wherever you are planning to put the wine cooler. Take the measurements of the space you have, to see the maximum size of a cooler that would fit.
Based on the space of your countertop, you can choose a built-in model or a freestanding one. Wine coolers are mostly sold based on how many bottles they can store, so if your countertop isn’t big enough to keep the number of bottles you had in mind earlier, then you might want to consider optimizing the number according to your space or you can choose to get a freestanding model.
4) Learn About the Optimal Temperatures to Store Wine
A well-stored wine doesn’t come from inconsistent conditions. Since temperature is one of the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler, you have to keep your wine at a certain temperature at all times. There is a debate whether different kinds of wines should be kept under different temperatures. If you believe that that notion might be true, you could be interested in buying different coolers for each type of wine you are planning to store, or you can get a fridge with separate compartments that can be set at different temperatures.
According to Winevare, the ideal temperature for red wine is 12 to 19 Celsius, while for white wine it ranges between 8-12 Celsius. Additionally, don’t forget about the humidity. High levels of humidity over %70 might cause molding in your wine.
5) Think more Specifically
When buying a wine cooler, there might be specific questions you might have to ask based on where you want to use it. For example, while looking for one for home, checking how loud the cooler operates should be one of the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler. Since you can’t turn it off anytime you want (unless you are okay with risking spoiling your wine) you would want your wine cooler to be as silent as possible.
Electricity consumption is one of the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler to avoid receiving an astronomical electricity bill at the end of every month.
6) A Wine Cooler for a Restaurant or a Bar
If you are looking for a wine cooler for a restaurant or a bar, your checklist should include questions like, if you would consider aging your wine for more than a decade.
If the answer is yes, then you might want to consider building a wine cellar instead because, unlike wine cellars, coolers are not used to store wine for a long time. They are used for short-term storage and keeping wine ready for immediate drinking. However, if aging your wine for that long isn’t in your plans then a wine cooler could be a better option for you.
7) Think About Getting Additions to Your Wine Cooler
The key to keeping your wine in the best condition is keeping the consistency of the environment where the wine is stored as stable as possible. In order to easily keep track of what’s going on inside your wine cooler, one of the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler might be additional tools.
The door of the wine cooler is one of the most important aspects that you should pay attention to. Since it basically makes the most of the display you would want the door to match the décor of the room. Moreover, the glass should be UV-protected and adapting to your desired temperature.
Additionally, like mentioned earlier, you can get a tool to control the humidity in order to avoid molding. To decrease the humidity when needed, you can install a dehumidifier which would optimize the conditions in the cooler. Finally, LED lighting would help you see inside of the cooler which is essential to easily select and pick your wine.
8) To Sum Up Things to Consider When Choosing A Wine Cooler
Create a checklist based on what you need from your wine cooler. The criteria should include: The setting (for example home or a bar), space, temperature, humidity, specific questions like whether or not you want to age your wine and lastly additions that might improve your experience with the wine cooler. Regardless of which wine cooler you choose, it will be a life changing experience to try out!
In this article, we talked about the things to consider when choosing a wine cooler.
