Wine storage coolers are designed to chill and hold bottles of wine at a particular temperature – the ideal serving temperature – until the wine can be served. The proper way to use a wine storage cooler is to keep the wine in a wine cellar or other climate controlled storage area.

The morning of a big dinner party, or a few hours ahead of time, the host pulls bottles of wine from the cellar to be served that night. The wine storage cooler is set to the precise serving temperature at which the wine is to be served. Later that night, when it's time to eat, the wine is exactly where it should be temperature wise.

Unlike wine that is stored in a standard kitchen refrigerator, the wine in a wine storage cooler will not undergo inconsistent temperature fluctuations every time a family member opens the refrigerator door to grab a snack or a beer.

Recommended Temperatures

The recommended serving temperature for a rich red wine is 59 degrees to 66 degrees Fahrenheit, or 15 to 19 degrees Celsius. For a light red wine, the recommended wine storage cooler temperature for cooling is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, or 13 Celsius.

Dry white wines, along with blush and rose wines, are usually stored and served at 46 degrees Fahrenheit to 57 degrees Fahrenheit, or 8 to 14 degrees Celsius.

Champagne and sparkling wines taste best when they are 43 to 47 degrees Fahrenheit, or 6 to 8 degrees Celsius.

With a wine storage cooler, you can taste wines at their ideal temperature. Many wine storage cooler owners report that they were surprised when they first started to drink wine cooled to the proper temperature, because the proper temperature brought out nuanced flavors in the wine that were not otherwise obvious to the wine drinker.

Sizes Of Coolers

Wine storage coolers come in a wide variety of sizes. Sizes are measured by the number of standard wine bottles the cooler will hold. The smallest coolers hold about six bottles. A cooler that is about the size of a standard kitchen refrigerator will hold approximately 20 bottles of wine.

Most wine storage coolers can be retro-fitted into a kitchen or bonus room. Many of the coolers fit underneath a kitchen countertop, so a base cabinet unit or a drawer stack can be moved to make way for the wine cooler. The smallest coolers fit easily on top of a counter, where they are accessible for serving throughout the meal. The cooler is then moved back to another less noticeable part of the kitchen.