A strong burgundy, a refreshing Riesling or a bottle of sparkling champagne: A well-stocked supply of fine wine is the dream of every wine lover. For these treasures to last a long time and not lose their quality, they must be specially stored: wine lovers, or even those who simply like to enjoy a glass from time to time, know that this drink should be stored and served in the right way, to avoid unpleasant surprises in the taste. To do this, wine cellars are the ideal place to store wine and guarantee the perfect temperature, humidity and light. However, not everyone can afford a cellar at home, especially in modern flats; on the other hand, kitchen refrigerators should not be an option.
The solution, in these cases, is to use a wine cellar, i.e. a refrigerator designed specifically for wine and other drinks. But how to make the right choice? In this small guide, we explain the parameters to be taken into account, the price range, the contexts of use and the main producers. Klarstein offers a wide range of wine cellars, from small-sized models to professional set-ups to use in restaurants and bars. All our models ensure perfect storage conditions, protecting your precious bottles from light, maintaining a medium-low temperature between 10 and 16 C° and constant humidity, allowing you to store your wines in horizontal positions, safe from odour contamination. Here is what you need to consider
1. Technical alternatives to wine cellars, Four points are important for storage: Temperature, humidity, shocks and UV exposure. Why is it important? The correct storage not only slows the ageing process of the wine but also ensures that it can maintain its flavour for a long time, even after it has matured.
2. Types of wine cooler, All wine refrigerators aren’t the same - here, too, there are different types of appliances with different models and functions. you should opt for a wine refrigerator with at least two different available temperature zones. This allows you to store both white wines as well as red wines perfectly.
3. Personal Criteria: Size, Design, Temperature, Humidity, Light, Energy, Special Function
Read complete guide article here.
A wine cooler differs significantly from conventional refrigerators that are found in every kitchen. It allows the dark storage of the bottles, because the sunlight, UV radiation and even neon light damage the wine. The most important aspects of storage are temperature and climate. Even if a basement is present in the home, it often does not offer the ideal temperature or climatic conditions to function as a wine cellar. Wines must be stored at a specific and above all constant temperature.
With a wine cooler, this can be optimally adjusted and checked. It also provides the required humidity of about 70%, which prevents wine corks from drying out and protects the wine from evaporation. Similarly, a wine fridge must provide the necessary ventilation of its precious contents. Wines should not be stored with other foods because the wine must be able to breathe, and can also absorb the flavours of other substances through the cork which may eventually spoil it. Thus, the wine fridge should not be used for storing open food. Also, the wine must rest, and should not be moved or exposed to vibration.
A wine fridge is therefore equipped with special shelves in which the wine bottles are stored in a constant fixed position. The many wine fridge models on the market differ in size mini, price and functionality. In addition to the classic wine fridge, there is also a so-called wine tempering cabinet. These two models are not to be confused, however, because they are intended to serve different functions: while the wine cooler is used for the permanent or long-term storage of wines and usually has several temperature zones, the wine tempering cabinet is for quickly reaching an optimal serving temperature shortly before consumption.
To keep the temperature constant, wine refrigerators use an air conditioning system, and can be divided into two large groups: those that adopt the On-off system and those that mount the Inverter. On-off and Inverter are two different systems that the air conditioning mechanisms use to modulate their power while they performing their task.
Before buying a wine refrigerator, or electric wine rack, you need to ask yourself what its destination and purpose will be. In particular: what will be its context of use? One thing is to keep a wine cellar at home, for your family and some guests, another is to use this appliance for a restaurant or a wine bar: needs change and, consequently, also change the aspects to be taken into account in order not to make mistakes. In the first case, the expectations may not be very high (but in any case within an average standard), while in the second case it will be necessary to pay attention to several parameters, including technical ones.
Before purchasing a wine fridge, it is important to decide how and to what extent it will be used. The following points give a rough guide:
Depending on the grape variety, the requirements for optimal storage and drinking temperature differ. Red wines, white wines, rosé wines and champagne must therefore be stored at different temperatures in a wine cooler. Strong and full-bodied red wines develop their aromas between 15 ° C and 18 ° C. On the other hand, white wines require a slightly lower storage temperature, which is between 11 ° C and 14 ° C. Rosé wines store optimally in a wine fridge at a temperature between 7 ° C and 12 ° C. Champagne and sekt are also often stored along with the wine supply, and as sparkling wines they require a temperature of 5 ° C and 7 ° C. To enable the storage of different wines in a wine fridge, many models have several temperature zones. The most common is the dual-zone wine cooler. For example, red and white wine can be stored in the same fridge but at different temperatures.
Find the frequency asked questions about wine fridge:
Question: Do I need a single or dual temperature zone wine refrigerator?
Answer
Depending on your needs, eg. the variety of wine you have and purposes. The single zone wine cooler can only set to the same temperature, so its best if you tend to keep only one kind of wine (red only or white only), while Dual-zone can set to two temperature, so its best if you tend to keep a different kind of wine both white and red wine.
Question: What should I get? Wine fridge, beverage cooler or Mini Refrigerator?
A wine cooler is for wine lover because wine should not be stored as cold as other beverages. A beverage cooler and mini-refrigerator are similar to each other, but beverage coolers often have a glass door and do not have door storage that a refrigerator often does.
Question: How to clean a wine cooler
Step by step to clean wine cooler is quite similar like cleaning a traditional refrigerator:
1. Make sure to plug off your wine cooler.
2. Remove everything inside the fridge.
3. Clean the inside surfaces with a mild cleaner and warm water with two different soft cloths or sponges.
4. Clean the outside surfaces the same way.
5. Dry any wet parts with another dry a soft cloth.
Do you know what the actual difference is between champagne, sekt and prosecco??
Sekt is a sparkling wine with at least 10% alcohol, in which the carbonic acid is produced by the natural fermentation process. If the fermentation takes place directly in the bottle, it then belongs to the class of wines that are produced in specific wine regions, to which also the well-known Champagne belongs. This is named after the area from which it originates - Champagne in northern France. Incidentally, Prosecco is not a separate variety, but a sparkling wine or wine from the Venice area.
Did you know that there is more than one way to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew?
If you want a glass of wine but don’t have a corkscrew to hand, there are a few tricks to help you uncork a bottle anyway. One way is to put the bottle in a shoe and then tap it with the sole carefully against a wall. Due to the abrupt shocks, the cork can work itself out piece by piece from the bottle. But beware: if you knock too hard you will quickly have wet shoes and a broken wine bottle! Another possibility is opening it with a screw or a key. Just gently push in the cork and lever it out or pull. If all that does not help, you can simply push the cork into the bottle with a solid object. Bottoms up!
Did you know that during Prohibition there were ways to make wine?
It was quite legal to sell grape concentrate with the explicit warning not to disperse the concentrate in water and to store it for twenty days, otherwise it might turn into wine. Pretty sneaky!
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