Wine Cabinet Buying Guide

Buying a wine cabinet is the first step towards convenient and proper storage of good wines. But how to choose the right wine cabinet? There are a few basic traits to look for in a wine cabinet that will ensure proper storage of your fine vintages. You may have to pay a little more... but the money saved in well-preserved wine will be well worth the price.

Ensuring you have a high quality wine cabinet involves taking a look at a few different factors of the unit. The first is the storage of the wine inside the cabinet. Make sure the bottles can be stored on their sides and that you can easily remove one without disturbing the others. Lack of disturbance is key to preserving the quality of wines.

Secondly, you should examine the wine cabinet's construction, particularly around the door. Because quality wine cabinets are refrigerated and humidity-controlled, a tight seal on the door is essential, as is durable construction of the seams of the body. Check the hinges of the door - they should be refrigeration-quality and not just regular door hinges. If you can see the hinges on the outside of the door, chances are they are the cheaper "piano hinges" and will not preserve temperature as well as refrigerator hinges, which tend to be built into the seam of the door.

In terms of preserving temperature inside the cabinet, choose a high quality unit that includes a temperature and humidity thermostat. Temperature inside the cabinet should remain around 53 to 58 degrees Farenheit, with approximately 70 percent humidity. Also look for a well-insulated cabinet. Most manufacturers use one of three types of insulation - styrofoam, "blueboard" (a more advanced form of styrofoam), or foil-covered polyisocyanurate foam, which is the highest quality. Also look for cabinets with hardwood doors, which preserve temperatures better than laminate woods, as well as glass viewing windows instead of plastic ones.

Other factors of choosing a wine cabinet will depend largely on your tastes. Wine cabinets come in various sizes, and the size you choose will depend upon how much wine you want to store. Avoid cabinets that line up bottles in front of each other so that you have to remove one in order to reach another (unless you know exactly in what order you will remove the wines and can put later bottles in the back). Wine cabinets also come in multiple styles, so you can choose one that blends easily with your decor.