Wine Cabinets Furniture

Most people who are going to be looking at their wine, living with it, want more of a wine cabinet than a wine rack. The exceptions are if you are storing your wine in a wine cellar or a store room, or unless your decor style is minimalist or industrial. Then a standard bare, unstained wood wine rack will do.



The first issue before you step out and buy one of these wine cabinets (and they cost from $150 to $1000 for the nice ones) is how much space you have and how much wine you want to store. I am going to assume that you care enough about your wine that you know how important it is for the wine to be touching the cork while its being stored, so you know you only want a wine cabinet that stores the wine flat on its side.

Average storage size is between nine and twenty bottles, which works out to using up between 18 to 27 inches of wall space width wise. I like the idea of keeping the number of bottles stored in these wine cabinets at a minimum. As you probably know, wine really ought to be kept right around 55 degrees longterm for optimal flavor. Few houses are kept at 55 degrees, and if you are buying a nice-looking wine cabinet the odds are pretty high you are keeping it in a living room, dining room or a den. Wine is okay kept at room temperature too, of course, but its really not ideal for long-term storage, so I am assuming you're using this furniture either to store wines for the short term that you just took out of a wine cellar or a wine refrigerator, or you are not too concerned about the 55 degree guideline and you just want this wine rack to hold a dozen or so bottles so you have something nice to drink on hand.

Glass Racks and Drawers

I like these a lot -- they are nice features that make it so you can have everything you need for a glass of wine without having to run to the kitchen. The glasses will stay cleaner (collect less dust) if they are behind doors, but incredibly almost none of the models I've seen put the glasses behind doors. They usually only put the wine behind doors One good exception is the Howard Miller Santa Cruz, which is sadly $1940 (way beyond my budget). And the real alternative is humble Target's "Wine Cabinet with Glass Door" that costs $170.

Doors and Air Circulation

I'm in the middle about the door issue on so many of these wine cabinets. Ideally, your wine is supposed to get as much air circulation as possible -- you want that cork to breathe. So in terms of air circulation, the doors on so many of these pieces of furniture are not so good. However, doors look neater, which certainly matters, and doors would insulate the wine from any sudden temperature changes. So if you're keeping this wine cabinet next to an exterior door that get frozen winter gusts everytime someone comes in, then the doors serve a good purpose.

Another drawback of the doors is that some of us really like looking at the bottles, and get significant pleasure out of it. For us, closing those doors up and cloistering the wine is kind of a heartbreak. Silly, I know, but true.

If you have small children, or rowdy children, I would recommend getting a cabinet with doors. Its too easy to knock a bottle loose, or for some creative young person who just saw a bar fight in a movie to make pretend with your last bottle of 1960 French Cabernet.