I’ve wanted one for a long time, just got a bonus from work, but I don’t want to spend a ton.
The Home Depot has a Magic Chef 50 bottle with a digital temp control, for $299, it seems like a good deal, but what do I know. Any advice out there from all of you winos?
We had one like that that that quit after about 2 years. Got this one now.
I have a Danby that I purchased new for $100 from Conn’s. It holds 30 bottles. It’s nothing fancy, but I have had it for 4 years and have had absolutely no trouble.
i used to hang out on Wine Spectator forum, and many people have that fridge. they say it’s ok for short term drinking, and there is about a 10 degree difference between the top of the unit and the bottom of it. so you will have inconsistency in your storage. if you have nice wines, that’s a big deal–it can prematurely age the wine, etc.
also, there is a slight vibration. some argue that this effects the wine as well.
if you don’t plan on storing long term, or if you aren’t afraid of effecting very old or expensive wines, you should be ok. try to figure out which part has the coldest and put the whites there.
but, the one i truly recommend is by GE–Ge Profile…stainless steel and glass front door, a beautiful unit. the temp is spot on. This is the unit i had but gave rroof, since i discontinued my wine hobby. I say the temp is spot on because my husband tested the temp with his industrial controls, and it was proved true.
it’s about 500-600 dollars but is high quality. for the long term, this is the unit i recommend. especially since as your wine hobby gets along in years, you may end up with wines that you want to store long term. and the other unit i would not trust for that.
this is the unit.
Thanks KC, The GE looks nice but I’d like to have one with a 50-60 bottle capacity, so I may have to bite the bullet and up my budget. Merry Christmas to me!
PS have you completely given up drinking wine?
well, i see what you mean. my collection quickly expanded and i had plans to get a full upright and was considering shelving and walling off space in the basement for shelves, etc.
if you can get the biggest one you can afford, you won’t regret it. it’s amazing how quickly a wine hobby grows. this is something you’ll want to buy the best quality you can.
so if you up the budget, you won’t regret it in the long term. however, if you buy something that’s mediocre (or sub-par), that you might regret because you’ll have spent the money and it’s not what you need it to be. (which i recently did with a purchase and am kicking myself for it)
I live in the heart of WA wine country, 40 minutes from Walla WAlla and right in the Columbia Valley. There are lots of great wines being produced and it’s been fun to see the indusry grow. I really want to start a small collection and enjoy wines I bought last weekend (and in weekends to come!) in about 10-20 years or so. My wines are currently stored in my basement, on a concrete floor, on their sides in the boxes they came in. No too bad (the basement isnt’ damp and dank) but I’d really like better insurace that the wines will be great in years to come, hence the search for a fridge.
ok, my advise is not buy that fridge you mentioned then because you’ll need precise temperature control (and humidity) and a good unit for long term storage like that. it would have been ok for drinking wines within 6 months or a year, but not more than that. your investment would be ruined and all that time wasted! that would be absolutely heartbreaking
for long term storage, think about what you can spend and have something that can enable you to get the most of your wine in the time you want to store it. i hate to say it, but you’re probably going to have to up your budget considerably. (it’s worth it though. wine collecting is a great investment as well. if you ever decided to sell the wines, you would have a nice profit out of it)
Sounds like the question is more, ‘how is the temperature in your basement?’
You can buy a little hygrometer/thermometer that will tell you temp and humidity (mine does max/min temp and relative humidity along with tracking real time and it was $15). Put it in the basement and see what you get. If it is a consistent temp then your best bet may be to just leave the wine in the basement and buy some racking. You can go all the way to sealing it off and getting a cooling unit, but if your basement temp is consistent you can skip all that and just go with racking. My basement fluctuated by 10-15 degrees since it is so small and when the furnace or AC turned on all the mechanics really heated things up. Originally I was thinking just a big wine cabinet (100-200 bottles) but my wife convinced me to go big so we built a wine cellar under my stairs, sealed, insulated and bought a cooling unit - and now can store around 400 bottles and it looks frickin sweet.
Anyway - the thought is to take whatever amount of bottles you THINK you’re going to have and then double it and plan for that capacity. If you’re thinking a 50 bottle fridge, get a 100 and you won’t regret it. My vote would still be for racking dependent on your basement temp. Check out http://www.stratsplace.com/cellaralbum.html for some ideas of how easy it can be, and if you PM me your e-mail I can send a link to show you the process of building my own cellar - great learning and the result still amazes me.
Good luck,
Josh
i agree with this all the way. our basement wasn’t a consistent temperature, hence the cooling unit (i had an idea to put temp control in a walled off space though). but if the space is consistent, shelves give much more bang for the buck. that is a great way to go.
josh, do you have pics of what you did? if so, will you post so we can oogle it? 
If you have a basement, just get some nice racks and call it good.
I’ve got it on the Kodak Gallery - you can watch the entire process from drywall and insulation through the painting and tiling (thanks mmrocker) and finally racking and lighting. I’m really pleased with how it turns out and if the link doesn’t work let me know and I can e-mail folks that are interested.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=13erjem5.60x0hw89&x=1&y=-dg9bbi
Josh
I’ve wanted one for a long time, just got a bonus from work, but I don’t want to spend a ton.
The Home Depot has a Magic Chef 50 bottle with a digital temp control, for $299, it seems like a good deal, but what do I know. Any advice out there from all of you winos?
I have that very model…and I still can’t figure out how the hell you get 50 bottles into the damn thing. Works fine for me, but if you tend to buy by the case you’ll find it just isn’t big enough. I wish I’d gone twice the size.
See - that’s where my estimate comes from. As soon as you think “hey, I’ve got 40 bottles so a 50 bottle storage would be great!” you’re going to end up with 60-80 bottles and wonder what the heck happened.
Not that its a bad thing though, more wine has been good for me - I like liquid assets!
Josh
oooo, Walla Walla, my girlfriends and i have been trying to get up there for a few months to do some drinkin. tell me what you got, and what you like! we are heavy into reds, Cabs, Zins and Syrahs.
There are tons of great reds to be found in Walla Walla. I belong to the the Dusted Valley Vintners wine club. They are a newer winery and are putting out some really nice Syrahs. I also like Isenhower, Reininger, Dunham Cellars (really good) and Walla Walla Vintners.
The first weekend in December is Walla Walla’s holiday barrel tasting event. It’s very fun and festive and a great way to find new wines. I think there are now over 50 wineries in the area.
thanks for the recommendations. we are in Boise and could easily make that drive for that weekend. i’ll tell the girls tonight.
S