A little history on wine storage. Through trial and error, like most things, people began finding that storing wine in a cool place let it age so much better than at room temperature, or fluctuating temperatures. Storing wine started in underground caves in Europe. Caves were found to have consistent temperature. It would be totally cool to find some old bottles of wine is some long forgotten cave in Europe. Who knows? Today all wine is stored this way; in modern wine cellars. And the ideal temperature you want to store your wine at is 55-58 degrees and around 55-75 percent relative humidity. That is your target. Let’s look at some wine refrigeration points.

Did you know that wine actually breathes through the cork? It’s true. That’s how it ages, by breathing and sitting. And nothing is worse that highly fluctuating temperatures. This ages the wine quickly. And not in a good way. Just like when you leave a glass of wine out overnight, it becomes bitter when it oxidizes. Yes, wine needs to breathe, or to oxidize to mature, but it has to be done just right. Too high temperature and the wine oxidizes too quickly. Too cold and it takes forever to mature.

Next, in wine refrigeration, humidity plays a big role. As I said, 55 to 75 percent is the ideal range to age wine at. Anything over that, say 80 and higher, will cause mold to form. And lower than 55 causes the wine to leave the bottle and air to get in the mix. Not good. What you want to look for in a system is one that keeps the wine at 55 to 75 percent humidity and around 55 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

What I recommend at this point is to search for wine refrigeration units and to make sure they fall into the ranges that I mentioned above. To do this, it’s as simple as searching some websites that offer wine coolers or wine refrigerators. I try to find the ones offering a discount or offering free shipping. That always helps as these units are heavy. Read some of the other entries on this site to get a handle on what unit to buy. Most of the wine cooler units are plagued with problems.

Establish a relationship with one of the vendors online so you can ask about warranties and exchanges if your unit dies. Finding a unit that will fill your needs can be done with a little search. There are a few websites that sales or are big distributors of wine refrigeration units here in the United States. Experts abound so do your homework so you’ll know exactly what you want when it comes time to choose. And don’t forget the free shipping offer I mentioned. Ask, if it is not prominently posted on their website. You never know and you might save yourself some money.