Smart Wine Storage

It’s becoming more and more common these days to install a small, built-in or freestanding wine cellar in the kitchen. Not only is a kitchen-based wine cellar considered a convenience by many homeowners, but it’s also a great way to show off your wine collection. These stylish cellars can hold anywhere from a few to as many as 40 or 50 bottles or more, and will keep your wine in a cool, low-light, humidity-controlled place until you’re ready for it.

Generally, two types of kitchen wine cellars are available – those cooled by compressors, similar to your refrigerator, and those cooled by a thermoelectric system, which uses an electrical current flow through two dissimilar conductors to create a cooling effect. The benefits of thermoelectric cooling is that is uses less electricity than a compressor, is very quiet, gives off no vibrations (which can sometimes affect the sediments in a bottle of wine), and releases no CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), as compressors do.

On the downside, thermoelectric cellars can take longer to cool a bottle of wine, and can cool only to a certain temperature, usually about 18 to 20 degrees below the ambient temperature of a room. So if your kitchen is 70 degrees, you can cool your wine bottles to about 50 degrees – fine for reds but not ideal for whites.

Thermoelectric wine cellars are widely available. Haier, for instance, sells a number of thermoelectric wine cellars with capacity from six to 48 bottles. Some have dual storage compartments (for whites and reds) and electronic control LED displays. Franklin Chef, Avanti, Urbina Design and SubZero also make thermoelectric wine cellars. Prices range from a few hundred dollars and up.

Which type of wine cellar is right for you? That depends on your home, your tastes in wine and your interest in energy efficiency and air quality. Talk to your local wine dealer or retailer, but just be aware than you have options before you buy. For more information: www.haieramerica.com.