Each year over 36 billion bottles of wine are produced worldwide. Of those 36 billion, 31.4 billion 750ml-sized bottles are bought and sold. That’s a lot of wine going around, and consumers need a place to store it.
Do you have the space in your home to build even a small cellar that’s dedicated entirely to your favorite fermented grapes? That’s a great way to keep things organized, but it isn’t exactly practical for a great number of wine lovers. Instead, wine bottles tend to gather in cupboards, on counters and wherever else there just happens to be room.
A designated wine cooler can organize your collection and free up counter space that you’ve been missing.
Which Kind of Cooler Best Suits Your Needs?
Generally speaking, there are two different kinds of wine coolers that you will look at after you’ve made the decision to get one for your home. These are single-zone and dual-zone coolers, which ultimately serve the same purpose but in different ways and with different wines in mind.
Which type of wine cooler you’ll need depends on a few things:
Is your taste in wine very specific? Is your collection composed entirely of reds or whites?
Are you trying to expand on a wine collection?
Many wine enthusiasts find themselves naturally gravitating toward a dual-zone wine cooler as their collections grow, but this isn’t always the case. Some “novice” wine collectors go straight to the dual-zone coolers without paying any mind to single-zone coolers at all. It really depends on your wine collecting ambitions.
Single-Zone Coolers
As you probably figured out already, single-zone wine coolers keep all of the wine contained inside of them at a single, uniform temperature. This is great if your collection is small and uncomplicated, or if you’re not yet comfortable experimenting with different temperatures for different wines.
Dual-Zone Coolers
A dual-zone wine cooler best suits the complicated nature of wine, as different types taste best when stored at different temperatures. Rather than having separate single-zone coolers for each kind of wine, you can consolidate space with a dual-zone wine cooler instead. Many wine enthusiasts prefer the benefits of a dual-zone cooler, usually after spending some time with a simple single-zone cooler.
The Best Single-Zone Wine Coolers
Our Favorite Overall: The Kalamera
The Kalamera 15-inch wine cooler is one of our favorites because it offers everything that you’ll need from a single-zone cooler. This truly versatile cooler can be installed under a counter or left as a freestanding unit, making it a great and easy addition to any kitchen or bar layout that you could think of.
The Kalamera’s functional features are where it really shines. This deceptively small wine cooler can store up to thirty of your favorite bottles, all of which will be kept at perfect temperature with the help of the cooler’s dual-layered temper glass door. If that’s not high-tech enough for you, may we suggest taking a look at its one-touch LED control and display panel?
For only $599, this top-tier cooler can revamp how you think about wine storage. You don’t have to sacrifice style, size or functionality when you bring the Kalamera single-zone wine cooler into your home.
Our Favorite Budget-Friendly Cooler: The Whynter
For $163.99, you can store your wine like a true connoisseur with the Whynter Thermoelectric Wine Cooler. This small, black cooler can store up to twenty bottles while utilizing hardly any space at all. This makes for a great find if you love your wine enough to have as many as twenty bottles, but don’t have a whole lot of room to devote to your collection.
The black-tinted door and recessed handle make for a very sleek and space-saving design that also keeps your wine from being effected by unwanted UV rays. Doesn’t that sound perfect for a yacht or other outdoor recreational area? Nobody wants to open that bottle of wine they’ve been saving for a special occasion, only to find that the sun has messed up its flavor or consistency!
Save Space with our Favorite Compact Cooler: The NutriChef
Not every wine enthusiast has a lot of room to devote to their love of wine, and the creators of the NutriChef cooler have designed this unit with space-saving in mind.
This cooler has all of the bells and whistles that you’d want from the coolers with higher price tags, without the enormous size. The freestanding NutriChef can hold up to twelve bottles in any room of your home, and will do so in impeccable style. A modern-looking design makes this cooler almost like a piece of décor rather than a functional appliance!
Touch-screen controls and an air-tight seal work together to keep your wine exactly at the temperature you want, so you never have to fret when it’s uncorking time. Sometimes the best things really do come in small packages.
The Best Dual-Zone Wine Coolers
Our Favorite: The Koldfront
This Koldfront unit can easily store up to eighteen standard-sized bottles on up to four shelves. These shelves can also be removed in the event that you have to store bigger bottles than you’d typically buy. Each zone can be set to a different temperature to best suit the wine in each via the press of a button. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
The Koldfront’s stylish design makes use of chrome racks and internal LED lighting to ramp up the element of sophistication that you want for your bar, study or kitchen.
Our Runner-Up: Akdy
If you have the space in your home, the Akdy wine cooler can store up to 33 of your favorite 750-ml bottles across seven removable shelves. This cooler is more like a high-tech vault for your wine with its LED display, single-touch controls and tempered glass to prevent problems posed by UV rays.
This freestanding unit can go in any room where you want the wine to be and add a dash of class to any space without any additional effort. The cooling system also runs quietly, which is a great find in units of this size and capacity!
Our Favorite Budget Cooler: Haier
Upon looking at the modern, curved design and the smoked glass on the door, you might be surprised to find that the Haier dual-zone cooler is only $218. Not only is this unit practically silent, but it also offers a stunning touch-screen temperature control that keep you from having to open the doors to adjust the temps.
Four chrome racks store up to twelve bottles with ease behind a black-tinted thermopane door that makes the Haier an unbeatable style choice in the world of wine coolers. It makes for the perfect wine lover’s statement piece in any kitchen, living room or home office.
Our Favorite High-End Cooler: The Kalamera
Kalamera has established itself as something of a ‘golden standard’ of wine coolers, and it’s not hard to see why when you look at the Kalamera dual-zone wine cooler. The 24-inch unit stores up to 46 of your favorite bottles in a stylish chrome-accented design complete with stunning LED lights.
Not only does this Kalamera cooler keep your wines at temp, but it also can restore its previous temperatures if you ever experience a power outage. With this awesome feature, you don’t have to stress about your wine going bad after being exposed to higher temperatures.
The Benefits of Buying a Wine Cooler
We stand to argue that a wine cooler is rarely a bad investment for active wine-lovers, but what are the most compelling reasons to buy? First, let’s look at space and storage. A wine cooler can fit under a counter or table in small or cramped homes, but a dozen loose bottles can take up serious real estate on your counter or in your fridge.
Second, consider the effects of the environment that a wine bottle resides in. Temperature, the presence of UV rays and exposure to humidity can really curb the longevity of your wine. A quality wine cooler protects your wines from all of these unwanted elements to keep them delicious for even longer.
If you are a serious wine connoisseur (or are just thinking of becoming one) there is a wine cooler out there for your every situation.
