Frequent readers of my blog know that we like to drink fine wines to pair with many of our dinners. Since we live in a humid climate in Virginia, it is important to keep wine at a cool controlled temperature. Therefore, a good wine refrigerator is essential to have at our home, especially in late spring and summer.
We recently received a new Cuisinart 8 Bottle Private Reserve Wine Cellar from CSN Stores. It is elegant and sleek with a beautiful stainless steel finish. It operates very quietly with almost no noise or vibrations. This wine refrigerator uses a thermoelectric cooling system designed to keep the wines at the exact set temperature.
This is the third wine refrigerator we have owned from Cuisinart, and we have learned quite a bit about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of system. Themoelectric wine refrigerators use an innovative technology based on the Peltier principle, which essentially acts as a heat pump to cool the air inside a small space such as a wine cooler without the use of refrigerants such as Freon. Some advantages of this system are it runs with very low noise, no vibration, and is energy efficient. Wine coolers using this method are also relatively inexpensive. Some of the limitations of thermoelectric cooling are that the method only works in small wine coolers (from 1 bottle up to about 30 bottle storage capacity), and it supports only moderate cooling over room temperature.
This wine cooler does its job, and does it well, keeping wine at a cool and constant temperature until it is ready for drinking. We typically store red wines, which are kept at a slightly higher temperature than white wines, but the refrigerator seems to keep a steady temperature in the 50-60 degree F ranges necessary for both types of wine and can be set higher or lower according to preferences. (The unit also comes with a guide book for those seeking advice on proper storage temperatures for different types of wine.)
The minor disadvantages have had a small impact on the way we are using our newest system. We would have preferred the ability to store more bottles of wine, and store larger bottles of wine. This Cuisinart model stores 8 bottles of wine as noted, whereas our previous model (now out of production) stored 9 bottles. The only wines that fit well are 750ml wine bottles, while larger bottles only seem to fit well when racks are removed. We are keeping the last rack off to allow for these exceptions.
Most importantly, we learned that when the room temperature reaches about a 20 degree difference with the desired temperature, the unit begins to strain. In two previous cases, warm days (and 80 degree temperatures inside the house) caused these units to break. Therefore, we have learned that it is best to keep the wine refrigerators in the basement where we believe the cooler temperature will prolong the life of the unit. Anecdotal evidence of other reviews seem to suggest that the lifespan on these units may not be long in cases where they are stressed by high temperatures. Still, it must be recalled that this is an inexpensive, quiet unit that achieves exactly what is promised, as long as the temperature gradient isn't too steep.
So far, our new unit is running great in the basement. Wines stored inside fresh and well preserved, and we hope with these lessons learned, this unit will last longer than the previous models we have purchased in the past.
We would recommend a wine cooler is almost essential in any home where wine is often served. Unless you happen to have the fortune of a wine cellar, or an expensive wine refrigerator (typically costing thousands of dollars), a thermo-electric wine cooler such as this Cuisinart model is an ideal compromise, and should ensure a quality wine can be made available at your table on demand in every season.
