Wine cooling,I Would like to make a wall unit in my dining room
Do i have to have a cooling unit for my wine room?
April 17th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Wine & Accessory Sources
Tags: dining room·wall unit·wine cooling
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stevem54 // Apr 17, 2011 at 2:13 am
Again, it depends. If you’re going to be investing in nicer wines (to me, anything more than $15 a bottle), and storing a number of them for years, you should definitely keep them cool. As far as a cooling unit for the room, I’d say, only if it’s used exclusively for storing wine.
You’ll wnat to store your wine in the mid-50s or so, which obviously, isn’t a comfortable temperature for humans. If the room can’t be dedicated, you’ll want to store the wine in a wine cooler, which is a special type of refrigerator that maintains a consistent temp, and (probably) humidity.
You can get them anywhere from a 12-bottle unit for around $100, to hundreds (at hundred of dollars). It’ll also be more energy efficient to cool just the wine bottles, rather than the whole room.
Ronald // Apr 17, 2011 at 2:13 am
Depends. There are several reasons for cooling wine storage areas.
1. Is your house likely to get warm. Wine doesn’t really like to be warm. Doing so will cause it to degrade quickly. If your house is air conditioned and remains in the 70′s this isn’t usually a problem.
2. If you intend to store the wine for more than, lets say a month or two, then you do want it down to the 50′s so that it will keep/age properly. If you’re only going to buy 12 bottles and drink them within a month this isn’t a overwhelming concern.
3. Some people use it to get wine to a proper drinking temperature. Wine (even reds) isn’t best served at modern "room" temperatures. Depending on the wine, temperatures from the 60′s down to the 40′s is ideal. If you want a bottle ready to pop and consume at a moment’s notice, then cooling is necessary.
You can find chilling units for wine cabinets from the smallest to the very large. My wine cellar is 26′ long and holds 3200 bottles in the racks (and there’s room for cases in addition).