A wine bottle refrigerator and an actual wine cellar are not the same things, and do not perform their functions with the same consistency. The more expensive wine refrigerators might come close, but in general, a fridge does not quite meet the same standards of temperature, humidity and light that wine cellars do. Refrigerated cellars may straddle the worlds of artificial refrigeration and the natural coolness of a real cellar, but when it comes to long-term storage of the finest wines, a cellar is almost always the best place for storage.
When it comes to temperature, a wine bottle refrigerator has fluctuation problems no matter what method is used to control them. If the fridge is compressor-based, then it will cool very efficiently, yet as the compressor cycles up and down, so too will the temperature fluctuate, even if it’s just by a degree or two. Thermoelectric wine refrigerators, on the other hand, don’t cycle in the same way, but are not quite as efficient as those with compressors. So temperature consistency will always be a concern in a wine fridge.
Nor does a wine bottle refrigerator always control humidity as efficiently as its marketing might claim. The small number that actually make an effort use methods that are not exceptionally reliable, so no manufacturer has actually solved the humidity situation up till now.
And at the same time as a glass door at the front of the wine cabinet itself may be attractive and shows off the wines nicely, it might also be admitting damaging light. White wines, especially, can start to deteriorate in mere hours when they are kept in transparent bottles. As a result, if the glass door of the wine refrigerator doesn’t feature a specially tinted coating which can screen UV light, the wine can suffer damage unless you drink it quite promptly.
In fact, because of these potential problems with this method of storing wine, some review sites, like www.modernwinecellar.com, advise firmly against equating any wine refrigerator with an actual wine cellar. For one thing, wine can be kept in a wine cellar for a long time, whereas a wine bottle refrigerator should be regarded as short-term storage only, with any given bottle stored inside for no longer than a year. This is sage advice anyway, since these appliances don’t tend to last much longer than five years to begin with. For short-term storage solutions for wine that’s ready to drink, these refrigerators work well. For anything long term, however, a genuine wine cellar is still much better.
Wine cooler refrigerators are absolutely essential if you are going to be displaying and using wines often. The best wine coolers keep your wine at the perfect temperature and can protect them from damaging sunlight.
