Vinotemp Wine Cellars

[Stone]

Vinotemp.

Are these any good?

[malachi]

I don't have experience with them. I have a Transtherm Ermitage which I'm quite pleased with. My only piece of advice is to clearly and carefully describe the environment you're going to be installing in (including max and min temp and humidity) and make sure that the unit can maintain correct temp and humidity consistently before buying.

[melkor]

Vinotemp.

Are these any good?

I ordered a 400E from them a few weeks ago, It should be here next friday or the following monday, I'll let you know how it works out.

[melkor]

Oh, and I ordered mine from west side wine cellars which sells the same products at a slightly better price.

[Craig Camp]

Vinotemp is fine but EXPENSIVE option.

[melkor]

Vinotemp is fine but EXPENSIVE option.

The cabinet I ordered holds 350 bottles and cost $1100.75 + tax and shipping. It seems like a good deal to me.

[Craig Camp]

That's a good price!

[MatthewB]

Vinotemp is fine but EXPENSIVE option.

Craig,

What would you recommend?

Say, for 300 bottle capacity? (With price in mind.)

[Craig Camp]

Vinotemp is fine but EXPENSIVE option.

Craig,

What would you recommend?

Say, for 300 bottle capacity? (With price in mind.)

A nice cold basement. No kidding. That is what I used for years and I am pleased with the results. In my opinion the main thing is a generally low temperature and VERY slow temperature changes - and dark. It really depends how long you want to keep the wine. My goal is to get them mature and drink them. If it takes 12 years instead of 15 I can live with it as long as the wine is great.

[MatthewB]

Craig,

What would you recommend?

Say, for 300 bottle capacity?  (With price in mind.)

A nice cold basement. No kidding. That is what I used for years and I am pleased with the results. In my opinion the main thing is a generally low temperature and VERY slow temperature changes - and dark. It really depends how long you want to keep the wine. My goal is to get them mature and drink them. If it takes 12 years instead of 15 I can live with it as long as the wine is great.

Craig,

I'm curious--what about humidity?

[Craig Camp]

Craig,

I'm curious--what about humidity?

Humidity is important because very low humidity can cause the corks to dry out faster and increase ullage over long aging periods. Very high humidity is not required although it does make your labels all mouldy and really gives you that 'old bottle' look - like you just brought the bottle up from the old cavern under your castle.

The average humidity of your house (depending on where you live) is probably lower than you would like to have for wine storage. Also, the problem with air conditioning is that it takes humidity out of the air.

Humidity is only an issue for long storage periods. Temperature and sunlight are the big issues.

[MatthewB]

Thanks, Craig.

I tend not to keep wine very long & I'm moving most of my wine to my SO's basement as soon as Michigan starts to heat up. I mean, *if* it starts to heat up.

The only wine I plan on letting sit for more than 2 years is a couple bottles of Sauternes.

I think I'll be safe.

[melkor]

So it finally arrived, $245.13 for shipping, on top of the $1100.75 and whatever tax ended up being. The shipping company showed up more or less on time, unpacked and setup the wine cabinet where I wanted it in the house and left with all the packing junk maybe 20 minutes after they pulled up in front of the house. I spent the next few hours loading my wine into it.

My only complaint is the bastards up valley from me use strange shaped bottles that don't fit properly in standard sized racking - Quintessa and Cardinales bottles are too long to fit double deep in the cabinet, Insignia, Turley, and all the bottles of Champagne are too wide to fit in the standard width 750ml bottle slots. Westside was kind enough to swap out two rows of standard racking for a row of 4" and a row of 3" to accommodate magnums and 375ml bottles, I ended up packing the space above the racking with the odd shaped bottles that didn't fit in the available racking. If I were to do it again, I'd get two rows of 4" along with the row of 3". Otherwise the build quality is good, the cooling unit is quiet and seems to be doing a good job, and the unit was delivered without any hassle and on schedule.

Here are a couple of pics of the cabinet:

[carpet bagger]

I hate to tell you this now, but it looks like you have already filled this and need to buy your next one. Once you have it completed, try not to open it too often. Especially in the summer months. Enjoy it and just know if you are anything like I was, it took only three months till I had wine cases lying all around and needed more storeage. I ended up giving away that 360 and getting one that holds 2600. That is not and never will be full. I drink enough to make sure of that.

[melkor]

I hate to tell you this now, but it looks like you have already filled this and need to buy your next one. Once you have it completed, try not to open it too often. Especially in the summer months. Enjoy it and just know if you are anything like I was, it took only three months till I had wine cases lying all around and needed more storeage. I ended up giving away that 360 and getting one that holds 2600. That is not and never will be full. I drink enough to make sure of that.

I've got room for at least another couple of cases . I've still got to sort out a system for keeping track of what bottles ended up where, but first on the list of things to do is drink all the wine in odd shaped bottles

[russ parsons]

that looks like the same unit i got only mine's a little bigger (i think it was 450 bottles). and the best advice i ignored was from a friend who said "buy more than you think you'll ever need, because you'll fill it up." i took me about 3 months to get it to capacity. i've had it for 2 years with absolutely no problems. runs about an extra $15 a month in electricity and that's in sunny southern california. if you're thinking about buying, one thing you might try is something i did: there are a lot of folks selling these types of units, so do the research to find out what specs you want,then fax a spec sheet and askfor a bid. i saved a couple hundred bucks that way (which promptly went into wine to fill it).

[Stone]

That looks like a pretty run-of-the-mill wood cabinet. How'd it get up to $1,000? Is the racking expensive? The cooling unit? Are you going to finish (varnish, polyurethane) the outside?

[russ parsons]

they are expensive. that's the least expensive finish (same one i got ... hell it sits in the storage room). some of those furniture finish units will go up to $5,000 and higher. i'm assuming it's the refrigeration unit, which has to be specially mounted to avoid vibration (the reason a refrigerator with a new thermostat won't work)