Anyone looking to store their wines for more than a year or two should seriously consider a small wine refrigerator. It is one of those things where most people do not think that they need it, or would never purchase for themselves but would greatly appreciate as a gift. It makes a great gift because it is very functional as most people will have a use for it. That is unless you know the person doesn’t drink at all. Anyways, why the fascination with an appliance that apparently has such a limited purpose? It is not cold enough to keep beers and other drinks but too warm to be used as a regular refrigerator. But there are many reasons why a wine refrigerator makes sense for many homes.
Unless you are a wine collector and enthusiast, you probably do not have enough wines that are meant for long term storage. This means that it doesn’t make sense to build a state of the art wine closet or full sized cellar to hold you half dozen collections of mediocre vintages. A wine refrigerator provides just enough of the right conditions to keep your wines over the one year mark but is not so fancy and expensive that you would keep real collectibles.
For those who intend to keep their wines over a year, cheap small refrigerators will not suffice. The vibration generated by the compressor used to cool the unit will cause problems with the wine. In the small wine refrigerator, the conditions are kept just right and offer a consistency that is important to the wine and hard to emulate anywhere else in the house. The appliance keeps the space at a constant temperature as well as humidity to keep the wine from evaporating through the cork or the labels from molding from over humidification. Anyone who has a few bottles of wines should consider this useful appliance.