I have a 24 bottle wine fridge, and I plan on storing some of the bottles I’ve acquired for a long time, 10 years or more. As long as I keep it plugged in and set at around 51-50 degrees, is there any forseeable problems from using it versus a real wine cellar?
jpturboprop // Mar 27, 2010 at 11:56 pm
This is what they are designed for. The wine fridge, however, has one drawback over a true wine celler. It has very limited capacity.
Neither the celler nor the fridge does anything for short lived wines, either. For a wine to store successfully over a long period, it has to have fairly high tannin levels. Most whites fail in this department, and modern reds are mostly groomed for use within ten years. It is becoming less common to find off the shelf wines that will store well. If you want to store wines for the long run, it is my opinion, you need to obttain them at the vineyard, and have a long talk with the vintner. Let him/her know your intent. They will then make their best selection for your desires. Good luck!
As an aside, I have never managed to keep a wine more than ten years, although I have set out with that intent many times. I think there must be a wine drinking mouse living in my celler…