Five great wine storage solutions
If you are a wine connoisseur in the making, or if your wine collection is outgrowing your kitchen cabinet, it’s time to look at other wine storage options.
While wines are ideally stored in an underground cellar, Australia does not necessarily have the ideal climate for wine to mature. As temperatures vary too much between winter and summer, the likelihood of high humidity rotting wine corks and affecting wine quality is high.
Adding a wine cellar to your home could also increase its value. James Malone from Classic Cellars says if a prospective buyer is a wine collector, having a wine cellar could be a plus.
However, Herron Todd White Melbourne director Craig Veljkovic warns that wine cellars do not necessarily increase the value of your property.
"A wine cellar doesn't really tend to add value to a property. What it can do is add a feature that causes a purchaser to choose that property rather than another one," he said.
Here are our five favourite wine storage solutions – cellars or not – available in Australia and around the world.
Eurocave
Eurocave has been offering wine storage solutions since 1976, first by inventing the wine cabinet. Since then, they have expanded to over 70 countries with some 350,000 wine enthusiasts entrusting their wine collection with Eurocave’s storage solutions.
Choose from standalone wine cabinets to compact solutions that will fit just under your countertop. You can even encase your wine fridge within furniture, and install sliding shelves to properly manage your wine list.
Photo courtesy of Eurocave.
Imagine the floor opening up to a beautiful spiral staircase leading to your wine collection. Spiral Cellars has made that a reality.
Your very own Spiral Cellar can be installed anywhere you can dig a hole. Made from concrete, it is cylindrical and has a spiral staircase for access, as its name suggests. Choose from seven options – be it an all-white cellar that can store up to 1890 bottles, a weatherproof cellar in your garden, or a mini-version that uses a step-ladder rather than a spiral staircase, which still packs a punch at a capacity of 770 bottles.
Photo courtesy of Spiral Cellars.
Vintec’s product range spans from equipment preserving the integrity of two bottles of wine to walk-in wine cellars that have a 4,140-bottle capacity. The walk-in cellars are temperature-controlled, are lockable for optimum safety, and have an alarm to alert you of high temperatures.
Photo courtesy of Vintec.
Bookcase-turned-wine-cellar
Have cabinets that are not adding much to your space? Victoria-based Classic Cellars can turn that into your very own wine cellar/cabinet, making the most of your available wall space. Classic Cellars’ wine cabinets are temperature and humidity controlled, ensuring the wine is optimally preserved.
Photo courteys of Classic Cellars.
Wine cabinets
While not yet available commercially in Australia, Vinotemp’s wine cabinets brings the best of both worlds – storing your wine at the right temperature and humidity, while offering extra space for clothes, books, or ornaments.
Photo courtesy of Vinotemp.