Any recommendations for a small c18 bottle wine fridge would be appreciated .
Thanks in anticipation
A company called Dellonda in Bury St Edmunds do a nice range of many products including wine fridges. ÂŁ209.98 for an 18 bottle one. We have one of their portable fridge freezers for holiday rentals that only have a fridge.
We’ve been looking for one for a while, but bizarrely we can’t find any that allow for a regular cabinet front. Are we really the only people that just want our wine (and beer) cool without showing it off?
So sorry, no recommendation, just a little rant in the hope that someone reading this thread knows of one.
I’ve been very happy with my Klarstein fridge.
Dual compartment, individual temperature controls and nice blue lighting inside.
Which model is that, Neil? I can’t seem to find anything similar on their UK website.
I will take a look tomorrow.
1 Like
If I were to feel the need and had the space for one my desire would be similar. As it is, I normally keep a bottle of white and a bottle of champs and a dessert wine in our normal fridge ready for use anytime, though our fridge is a large, so-called larder, model. If I fancy something I hdn’t already chilled I either shove it in the freezer for half an hour, or I have a wine cooler in the form of a bottle hugging tube jacket containing glycol or similar, that I keep in the freezer, and can pull over a bottle shortly before serving. That said, I drink red far more than white, chilling not needed.
1 Like
By wine fridge, I assume you mean a fridge to keep wine at drinking temp rather than cellar conditions? I bought a Miele wine conditioning unit about 10 years ago, it held about 30 bottles and was pretty good. Not really for drinking temp though, more for cellar conditions/aging. I don’t have it anymore, but my wine is still kept in “cellar conditions” rather than drinking conditions. When I want to drink a wine chilled, I just transfer it to the fridge or freezer beforehand (depending on patience levels).
Not sure that helps at all, sorry.
1 Like
That’s what I currently do. Sometimes (if I plan ahead/can be bothered) taking things out half an hour before to slightly warm up, because a fridge is generally between 4-6 degrees.
That’s fine for a lager, but a nice tripel you’d want at about 8 degrees, a quadrupel probably at 10-15 degrees.
I’m not so much a wine drinker (but my gf is), but from my understanding you also don’t want your red wine at 22 (my current room temperature), but rather at 16 or so? And white should also be at about 10, not 4-6?
Even with a wine fridge you’re probably not going to get every drink perfect, but with two zones there and a third from your regular fridge, you can get relatively close. But, as mentioned I don’t want a random different looking cabinet in the middle of my kitchen. It would have to fit in, but apparently you and I are in the minority there.
1 Like
I’ve had a Caviss the last couple of years. It claims to take 29 bottles and it does if they’re all Bordeaux style, a bit less if there’s a mix. Reasonably quiet and no issues.
Whilst white wine is a bit too cold straight out of the fridge and into the glass, within a few minutes in the glass at room temperature it’ll be up to ideal (and in a warm room doesn’t take long to start getting above that unless consumed fast!) As for red wine, I am quite happy to drink it at whatever is room temp, target around 21C but the wine could start colder if opening not long after coming come after some time out in winter (when holding in hand helps bring the first glass up to temperature), and could be several degrees warmer during a heatwave.
1 Like
Thanks Neil - appreciated.
Website is a bit vague about how many zones - is it definitely dual? Also says it can’t go below 11 Celsius, so presumably a Peltier motor not compressor.
I’m after a small (8-16 bottle) dual zone compressor cooler to get wine to the ideal drinking temperature. I seem to be finding it rather difficult!
Mark
The bottom section can go to 8 degrees, the top to 12 degrees minimum.
I’ve had this for 3 years now and hasn’t put a foot wrong. White wine is nicely chilled in the lower section normally and beer nice too.
1 Like
Well, that’s much better than the website description! Sometimes comparing thing online isn’t as straightforward as it should be.
Many people drink red wine far too warm. Room temperature relates to much lower temperatures than many people’s houses, particularly in the summer. Some posh friends in Umbria had two massive fridges, one for red and one for white. Our fridge is set at 4°, which kills the flavour of a white, so we normally put them in for an hour or two, and most reds go in for 20 minutes or so.
2 Likes
It’s easy to forget that ’room temperature’ in most historic French chateaux is a long way from the low-20s Celsius most of us have our modern thermostats set to. Fifty or more years ago, no-one would have been drinking decent claret at much more than 18C which, not coincidentally, is the upper limit of what most wine makers recommend their wares are drunk at. It’s usually stated on the back label.
Mark (currently in France, having had a very nice medal-winning Grand Bordeaux with supper which cost a mere €4.60!)
Liebherr is the best in my opinion. Easy to source if you are in Europe and they last forever. The catalog his huge.
I had several and they all still working at different houses after many, many years.
3 Likes
Back in the UK the cupboard under the stairs and a drain pipe wine rack sufficed. I bought the wine fridge when we moved to Langudoc, we had 35C room temperature for days if not weeks on end the last two years, this year we have aircon but at 25C (24 if I’m getting my way) it’s still too warm. My brief research suggested 16C was about right for the local reds but currently it’s full of whites which never seem to make it to the fridge in time to cool to drinking temp so don’t get drank as a result. The two zone version is looking like a better idea but I was only considering reds when we bought it.
The opened whisk(e)y doesn’t like 35C either.
We keep all our wine in a cupboard that’s away from various heat sources (sun, radiators etc). Fairly stable conditions throughout the year.
For whites we just use a wine cooler sleeve that we keep in the freezer. It chills the wine to drinking temperature in about 5 to 10 minutes, though it is hardly an exact science. I find the sub 5 degrees temperature of the kitchen fridge far too cold for wine.