Know about Wine refrigerators

Most people know two facts about wine: that certain wines must be aged to achieve peak quality and that wine must be stored at the correct manner in order to maintain and fully enjoy its aroma and bouquet.  However, few can actually understand the science behind wine ageing and thus underestimate the importance of proper storage techniques.

Because wine is a complex balance of amino acids, phenols, carbohydrates, and other chemical compounds, chemical reactions between these compounds can be affected by environmental changes.  Seeing as the speed of a chemical reaction increases with temperatures, wine refrigerators will hardly age if stored at or below 50°F. However, once a bottle of wine is stored at room temperature, years of aging will be accelerated in just months or even weeks.  As such, one could say that temperature stability is the mainstay of wine storage.

For the most part, most wines available today are of the “ready-to-drink” variety, but these can be safely stored for a few years by following these conditions:

• Away from sunlight
• At temperatures between 40° F and 65°F, depending on the type of wine
• Humidity levels greater than 50%

If wine is stored outside of these limits, it will be subject to spoilage or premature ageing.  With that said, proper wine storage is imperative. While the first two of the above conditions can be easily met by the average wine drinker, the last one should be met with some type of cellar, wine cabinet, or wine cooler.  Most people don’t have the luxury of building home cellars, so that’s when a wine cooler comes in.

Explore types

There are many different models and types of wine coolers available, but when choosing one that will best suit your needs, first determine how many bottles you will be chilling at once, then add more capacity to allow for a growing collection.  Secondly, figure out what types of wine you will be storing. If you only drink Chardonnay, a wine cooler with a single temperature zone will do. However, if you enjoy both reds and whites, you’ll need a wine refrigerator with at least 2 zones.

Brand value

With that said, our product team has been busy testing out some of the newest wine coolers on the market today.  Some of the best-known wine cooler manufacturers are Franklin Chef, Avanti, and Amcor, but there’s another contender on the wine cooler market: NewAir.  Primarily known for their line of portable air conditioners, newAir’s new wine coolers are surprisingly affordable, yet feature several bonuses that you’ll usually find in pricier units.

Style and Design

The modern-day refrigerators were definitely aesthetically pleasing and housed in a sleek, black cabinet with the stainless steel door.  It’s surprisingly compact given its large bottle capacity and comes with an easy-to-control digital panel with LED light for precise temperature settings.  The racks within the cooler are made out of heavy-duty, yet modern-looking chrome, and there was even an internal LED light that increased visibility and provided a nice glow.   

Bottle Capacity

Despite its tower design and space-saving body, the new generation refrigerators had a large capacity and were able to hold 21 bottles of our favourite vintages.  This was more than enough for us home wine drinkers.