07 Aug Choosing the right wine storage for your new kitchen
Do you even need dedicated wine storage?
If you’re partial to a bottle or two, ready chilled and to hand. We do recommend incorporating dedicated wine storage into your new kitchen. Standard kitchen fridges are designed to maintain a much lower temperature than needed for wine and to extract moisture (which is not greatfor corks!). A dedicated wine cooling appliance maintains a more suitable environment for wine.
The first thing to decide is what functionality do you need? Are you looking for a wine fridge or a more sophisticated system that can store both reds and whites at the right temperatures? Or not really thought about it yet? The best news is that there are lots of options, full size, undercounter, integrated, stand alone. You want it, you got it.
We take our wine storage seriously so have all the need-to-know’s, alongside our favourite brands.
What do you need?
Wine is sensitive to the environment it’s kept in. When starting to do your research, make sure you’re looking at products with UV resistant glass, with managed air circulation and minimal vibration. This ensures the wine won’t be disturbed until you decide to open it!
Are you looking to keep fizz and white wines predominantly or a mixture? Most brands offer dual temperature zones so if you’re looking at storing your red wines too, make sure you’re looking at the dual-zoned options.
What size do you need?
You can go from the very slim and discreet, right through to underfloor cellar proportions! At this juncture, it is well worth sitting down with your kitchen designer and looking at the size of appliance you need. Then your designer can incorporate the right storage solution elegantly into your kitchen.
Ideas to get you started…
Party time
One of our new favourites is the Kaelo integrated wine cooler and customers are loving adding this to their kitchen wishlist! This is a single bottle wine cooler that is sunken into your worktop or island. It creates a jacket of cold air that keeps the bottle dry and chilled.
You don’t need ice or water and it sits elegantly within the worktop. There are so many reasons to love this kitchen gadget but namely;
- Simple to install;
- There are no buttons, apps or display to fiddle with. Just tap the crown to activate the cooler;
- Hand built right here in the UK.
We love the energy efficiency of this product too. The Kaelo is cold in seconds once activated but only uses the same power as a 60w light bulb. There are no refillables or CFCs used, and because it doesn’t need ice there’s no water to waste.
Want to see it in situ? Check out this gorgeous farmhouse kitchen island…
Party all the time
So, there’s no denying the Kaelo is being added to all our wishlists. But as great as it is, you’ve only got one bottle in there so you’re going to need some more storage close by to keep the party swinging. We’ve installed many a wine fridge and have narrowed the list down to our three go-to brands.
SubZero
SubZero offer the pinnacle of wine storage systems. Their wine preservation is founded on protecting wine from heat, humidity, light and vibration, and this is done to the minutest detail. Their wine fridges have up to three independent preservation zones. This ensures whatever environment your special bottle needs, you can create it.
If you’re going all out, go for the Wine Bar unit. It features storage for 24 glasses in addition to the wine storage!
You won’t go wrong with SubZero, the product development, use of technology and style is renowned, for all the right reasons. If you’re looking for wine storage of the highest grade, you’ll be thrilled with your investment.
Dunavox
This is a new brand to us but we’re really excited to find out about it and keen to start incorporating Dunavox appliances into our designs. Not only is it stylish and available in a range of sizes which offers great flexibility, we absolutely love the alternative bottle storage. You can opt to have your bottles on their side, with the labels to the glass (pictured). We just love this look, not only is it easy to see which bottle you want to pick out but also means you can really enjoy displaying bottles which are special to you.
Yep, we’re pretty excited about Dunavox and think you will be too. If you’re not quite looking at the investment of SubZero, this a very stylish alternative.
Caple
If you want the style, reliability and features but not looking to allocate such a proportion of your budget to wine storage, we love Caple. We love Caple’s integrated solutions, as with other brands, they can fit your chosen cupboard door to the wine cabinet door giving you that seamless integration with the rest of the kitchen. However, if you like the idea of the wine bottles on show but still want a more integrated look, Caple have another solution. They can fit just the frame of your cupboard to the unit. With this design, only the glass of your wine fridge is visible. Giving you both the display of your bottles, and integration with the rest of the kitchen furniture.
If you’re keen to incorporate a wine fridge into your new kitchen design, let’s tick that one off the wish list! Pop in to the showroom, pop us an email info@kitchensbespoke.co.uk, or pop on the phone 01342 313.
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