Wine Cooler 4 U Blog

2010 Molly Decker Velvet Glove Shiraz - a wine that will be remembered for a long time

In Australia 462 cases of 2010 Molly Dooker Velvet Glove shiraz – at about $200 US a bottle – fell more than 20′ to the ground as it was being loaded for export from Adelaide to the US. It cost the company more than a third of his annual production.

If only I could have had a few cases of this wine, I would have stored it in my wooden wine cooler.

Selecting, Buying and Maintaining a Wine Cooler (This image links to our Internet wine cooler store)

Introduction

This Guide is your source of complete information about wine cooling appliances, otherwise known as wine coolers, wine refrigerators, wine cabinets and wine fridges.  It replaces the buying guide that used to be on our internet store at WineCooler4U.com.

Since June 2010, when we started this blog, we have posted items regarding every aspect of selecting, buying and maintaining a wine cooler.  This Guide consolidates and organizes all of the prior Posts into an easy-to-use online reference.

WineCooler4UBlog.com is our information site, offering a wide array of informative topics, many serious topics about the subject of buying and maintaining a wine cooler.

But, not everything we do is focused on wine coolers. Other topics are more fun  -  like how to open a bottle of wine with your shoe, and how to perform “savage”, the art of opening a champagne bottle with your sword.  Links to many of the less serious items, interesting notes and ideas about wine can be found in the post entitled, “Wine Fun Stuff” published in February 2011.

The list of topics included in this Post appear down the page a little ways.

A Product Section is also included containing descriptions of some of the products offered on our website at http://www.winecooler4u.com.

Starting here will give you a quick view of the companies whose products are most often ordered by our customers.

• Which are the Most Popular Wine Cooler Manufacturers?

The links below will take you to the topic within this page.

• General Considerations of a Wine Cooler Purchase
• Buying a Wine Cooling Appliance
• Topics Related To a Wine Cooler Purchase
• Products
• Maintaining and Moving Your Wine Cooler
• Why You Should Buy A Wine Cooler from WineCooler4U.com

• Why Buy a Wine Cooler?
• Demographic profile of a wine refrigerator owner
• Choices on Wine Cooler Brands – Be Informed
• Buy a Bigger Wine Cooler Than You Think You Need
• Remodeling Your Kitchen? How About a Wine Refrigerator to Replace the Trash Compactor?
• In the Perfect World, Wine Bottles Would Not be Exposed to Light Or Vibration

This section explains the various aspects of a wine cooler. In most cases the items are presented as generic.  In other cases, an item is described in the context of a specific brand, since some material was obtained from the manufacturer.  In most cases the information may be applied to all manufacturers’ products.

• What Is a Wine Cooler, Refrigerator, Chiller, Cellar, Storage?
• How Much Will I Have to Pay for a Basic Wine Cooler?
• Choices on Wine Cooler Brands – Be Informed
• Should I Choose a Wooden or Metal Wine Cooler?
• Wine Cooler Cooling Methods – Comparisons of the most common methods of cooling a wine cabinet are discussed.  Sometimes you will read about a wine cooler that uses a combination of these methods.
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Glass Doors
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Cooling
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Venting
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Racking
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Hinges
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Construction
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Insulation – R Factor
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets – Woods & Stains
• Choosing the Right Cooling System for Your Wooden Wine Cabinet
• More on Wine Drinking & Storage Temperatures
• Wine Cooler Shelves – Fixed & Sliding
• Do You Need Your Wine Cooler Door to Open on the Left?
• Types of Wine Coolers
• Wines Don’t Like Light or Vibration

This section contains items that are related to one or more of the other sections but do not fit the scope of the sections.

• I Have Decided to Buy a Wine Cooler. What Do I Do Next?
• Do you know about wine bottle sizes?
• Wine Bottles – Big and Small
• Should I Buy a Large Wine Cooler
• Buy Wine You Never Heard of Before for Your Wine Cabinet
• Storing Your Vintage Varietals
• Preserving Your Potent Potables
• Why The Temperature in Your Wine Cooler Varies?
• Should I be Concerned About the Humidity in My Wine Cooler?
• How Cold Should I Keep My Wine?
• The Day After – Tasting a Wine The Day After The Visit to The Winery
• Keep You Best Wines in a Wine Cooler
• Placement & Installation of Your Wine Cooler
• Who Better to Tell Us How to Wash Our Wine Glasses? Riedel, of Course
• I Have Ordered My Wine Cooler. What’s Next?

This section presents some of our more popular or unique products.

• >100 Bottle Wine Refrigeration – Avanti 166 Bottle Wine Cooler
• >100 Bottle Wine Refrigeration – Avanti 149 Bottle; Dual Zone

Cavavin

• Cavavin Majestika Wine Cellars – Basic Characteristics
• Cavavin Majestika Wooden Wine Cellars Available from WineCooler4U.com
• Cavavin 93 Bottle Majestika Metal Wine Cellar
• Majestika Wine Cellars – Elegance, Options + Capacity and Dimensions

Danby

• >100 Bottle Wine Refrigeration – Danby 166 Bottle Silhoette Executive Wine Cooler
• Wine Cooler Work Horse – Danby 75 Bottles

Vinotemp

• What’s New & Hot With Wine Cooling at Vinotemp!
• Most popular Vinotemp wine coolers
• Does Vinotemp Have a Wine Refrigerator for Me?
• Vinotemp Wooden Wine Cabinets
• Vinotemp International – Manufacturers of Fine Wine Coolers
• Vinotemp Portofino Series Wine Coolers – Part 1: Napa1 & Napa2
• Vinotemp Portofino Series Wine Coolers – Part 2: Rioja1, Rioja2 & Rioja4
• Vinotemp Portofino Series Wooden Wine Coolers – Bordeaux1, Bordeaux2C, Bordeaux2H, Bordeaux3
• Vinotemp 100 Series Economy Wine Cabinet – 80 Bottles
• Vinotemp Sonoma Series Wine Cabinets

Why You Should Buy Your Wine Cooler From Winecooler4u.Com

• Eleven Reasons to Buy a Wine Refrigerator from WineCooler4U
• WineCooler4U.com Testimonials

Maintaining And Moving Your Wine Cooler

• What Should I Know About Shutting Down My Wine Cooler?
• Cleaning Your Wine Cooler
• Wine Cooler Power Pointers
• Using an Extension Cord with Your Wine Cooler
• Moving Your Wine Cooler
• Cleaning Your Wine Cooler

The answer is NO.  Yeah, but what about the caffeine?  The caffeine in coffee, tea and chocolate belong to the same class of compounds.  Coffee stimulates the central nervous system. Tea does the same, but in a lesser amount. The caffeine, theobromine, does not stimulate the central nervous system at all.

How about drinking with the chocolate?  Every wine lover knows that they go together.  Dark or bittersweet chocolates need a wine that offers a roasted, slightly robust flavor itself.  Cabs and Zinfandels are perfect matches. A Cabernet Sauvignon or a Zinfandel will more than fill your chocolate pairing expectations.  A Pinot Noir or a Merlot go well with dark chocolate of about 55% cocoa.  Lastly, try a Tawny or Vintage Port with a dark chocolate dessert or truffle.

They go well together in your wooden wine cabinet as well.  We store our chocolate on the top shelf of our wine cooler, making it easy to grab for the after-dinner wrap-up.

With one of our wines for “special occasions” from our wine cooler we stayed up late to share the joy of the early successful rescues in Chile.

"Wine Tasting Tab" Winery Finder Application for your iPhone and Droid

We have found a new way to locate wine for our Vinotemp Sonoma Series wine cooler.

A new smart phone app called Wine Tasting Tab will launch as soon as late October on the Apple (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and Motorola Droid smart phones.

A group of four can spend a lot of money quickly, tasting wines in Napa at $10 a pop.

Wine Tasting Tab lets you search by tasting room fees simultaneously with location, type of wine and other info with a focus on a wineries tasting fee.

Wine Tasting Tab has 25 categories of information, including addresses, websites, varietals, tasting menus, bottle prices, hours, whether you need an appointment and more. The application can say if the winery offers wine and food pairings, or whether it has a view and is pet-friendly. You can also click “map it,” and the device will create a map.

Using the app, you can enter the region in the correct field, then narrow it down to wineries with food or those with tasting rooms that cost $5 or less. The app carries the entire wine-tasting spectrum, starting with destination wineries like Ironstone in Murphys and Quintessa in Napa. The bigger wineries are often those with free tastings. They also may have a gift shop, restaurant, wine education and cooking demonstrations on site.

At $2.99, Wine Tasting Tab will launch with information on about 650 tasting rooms. A third are located in the Sacramento wine region – Sacramento, San Joaquin, Nevada, El Dorado, Calaveras, Amador, Yolo and Placer counties – as well as about 250 in Napa County and 200 in Sonoma County.

A few hundred more wineries are expected to be added over the next few months for a total of about 1,000 by year’s end.

Sabrage - The Final Moment

Have you ever seen someone open a Champagne bottle using a sabre? Probably not. Happily, we have. I am going to give you a brief written explanation and a link to a demo of it.  Remember, the risk of doing this is yours.  Be careful if you try this.

When my wife and I saw it done, we were amazed. It is, indeed, impressive. The use of the sabre improves the delight of the process.  Note: some bottles sabrage better than others.  Thicker bottles do better. All French Champagne bottles do well.

1. Chill the Champagne. Do not chill the bottle using an ice bucket as the most important part of the bottle (the neck area) is not being chilled properly.
2. Completely remove the foil from the top and neck of the bottle.
3. Remove the wire basket from the top. Keep your thumb on the top to prevent the cork from flying out.
4. Find the bottle seam.  It is easiest by rubbing your finger around the annulus (top of the bottle).  Either seam is fine.
5. Dry the bottle near the bottom so you will be able to have a good grip on it.
6. Hold the bottle with the thumb in the punt (at the bottom of the bottle) and the remaining fingers underneath the bottle.
7. Hold the bottle with the seam pointing upward and the bottle pointed upward at 45 degrees.
8. Place the back side (either side is fine, but…) of the blade on the bottle near the base with the blade pointed downward a bit.
9. Gently, slowly, (this is to help you establish the method) drag the sabre toward the top of the bottle, keeping it in contact with the bottle.  Caution.  Do not let the blade lose contact with the bottle.
10. Now repeat the last step moving the blade quickly and firmly along the bottle seam.
11. The top should now be 10′ to 15′ away and the bottle still in your hand.

Any glass shards resulting from the removal are immediately washed away by the foaming wine.

May you survive this exercise to repeat your new found skill on another day to another amazed audience.  Practice on a cheap bottle of bubbly that you keep for just such an opportunity in your Vinotemp wine storage unit .  I am going to try it on an empty bottle the next time I have one.

To view a demo of Savage, copy and paste this link into your browser: (There may be an ad preceding the demo.)

http://www.howcast.com/videos/9044-How-To-Open-a-Champagne-Bottle-With-a-Sabre

*Disclaimer: We do not endorse nor recommend sabering a Champagne bottle, or any other glass bottle, unless you have been properly trained by an experienced sabreur. It can be very dangerous if not done correctly and under the proper conditions.

Is there such as thing as a breathable glass? According to Eisch Glaskultur, the maker of breathable wine glasses, the answer is yes.

A wine poured into a breathable glass for just 2 to 4 minutes will show signs of aeration equivalent to the same wine that has been decanted and aerated for 1 to 2 hours. The original character and structure of the wine are preserved, yet the wine’s aroma and palate impression become more open and generous. The properties of breathable glasses were confirmed by wine professionals all over the world and Eisch also received innovation awards from Germany and Canada. The breathable glasses are made in Germany. In addition to wine, breathable glasses can also lead to improvements with spirits, fruit juices, and mineral water. Breathable glasses are made from lead-free crystal-glass. After the manufacturing process, the glasses undergo an oxygenizing treatment which gives the breathable glasses its unique properties. Breathable glass does not lose its effectiveness-ever. It also does not have any special cleaning requirements. Wash it as you would other quality crystal glass. The glasses are dishwasher proof.

The Eisch glass factory is located in Bavaria, Germany and is a family business since 1946. Due to its high quality in production and design and its innovations Eisch has been voted eleven times number one glass producer by German retailers since 1995.

We have breathable wine glasses. We experienced them for the first time at a wine tasting some years ago. Everyone agreed that the wine was better after a few minutes in the glasses. Does that make it so? You experiment, you decide.

So, forget about the decanter. Now you can take your wine from your Vinotemp wine cooler and immediately pour and taste.

This is a story that all wine lovers can relate to. Curiously, in all of my wife’s and my 35 years of tasting wines, we have never read this story. The story is about visiting a winery, having a good time tasting the wines, buying a wine (at least one), and then drinking it the next day. This is a story about the next day experience.

We have all experienced this. We visited the winery, always optimistic for a good tasting. In the tasting room, the tasting room personnel are always cordial and enthusiastic about serving us. A crowd of tasters can be good or bad – it just depends. Whether there is a gaggle (geese on the ground – we’ll use this fun word for people instead) of people or just a few, we are all connected by the wine. That’s a good thing.

We taste the wines. The sum of the environment, the people, the talk, the wine – the experience is always a good one. So, at the end of the tasting, we have a favorite and we have to buy at least one bottle. It’s the right thing to do.

Now, for the motivation for this story in the first place.

The next evening you are looking forward to those wines you have bought on your tasting venture. So, your new find is removed chilled from your wine refrigerator. You are looking forward to a little bit of reliving those moments in the tasting room. We pour, we swirl, we smell, we taste. Is the tasting room experience repeated? Or ….. does it not quite taste the same as what we tasted at the winery?  We have discovered that the wine is not bad, but . . . . . . the experience mentioned above made the taste of the wine different somehow!

A great way to try wines that you have never heard of before is to attend a benefit wine tasting. Not only will you benefit the charity involved, but you will benefit yourself as well. I just attended a wine event that had about 300 wines from wineries that I had never heard of before – and I have attended many wine events.

Vinotemp VT-VINO100WCB

Some notables were discovering flavored Champagne and flavored Port:

• Almond Champagne from Wilson Creek
• Raspberry Champagne from Weibel
• ChocolatePort from Wilson Creek

Learn about the events in your area, help a charity, and have fun discovering new wine to store in your wine cabinet.

You’ve taken a very special wine from your elegant Cavavin wine cellar for a special celebration.  Here is Riedel, the maker of the finest wine glasses in the world to tell us how to keep those glasses spotless.

Step 1 Wash under warm water, detergent is not necessary

Step 2 Place on linen to drain for the time being

Step 3 For extra shine, steam over boiling water Authors note: We boil a cup of water in a 2 cup measurer.  Works just fine.

Step 4 To polish use 2 microfibre crystal towels

Step 5 Hold glass by base and polish

Step 6 Use left hand to cradle the bowl and polish with your right hand

NEVER! Never twist the base and bowl

Voila! Perfect result