White wine glasses

Generally, white wine glasses [find at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] are narrower than red wine glasses, although not as narrow as Champagne and sparkling wine flutes, with a tulip shape. White wine glasses are purposefully narrower so the chilled wine will stay chilled for longer. This occurs because of the reduced liquid surface area on top of the wine and the reduced surface area of the glass in contact with warm hands.

Red wine glasses: Bordeaux or Burgundy (Pinot Noir) style

Typically, red wine glasses [find at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] have a rounder, wider bowl than white wine glasses. This wider bowl leads to a larger surface area of wine at the top of the glass, which allows the wine to breathe more. Red wine glasses generally can be thought of as two types:

• Bordeaux glasses: these red wine glasses are the taller of the two red wine types, and they have a taller but still broad bowl. These glasses are generally useful for most types of red wine, especially full bodied red wines like Cabernet and Merlot.

• Burgundy (Pinot Noir) glasses: these red wine glasses are shorter and broader than the Bordeaux glasses. Burgundy red wines from France are all made with the Pinot Noir grape, which is a more delicately styled red. So the Burgundy glasses have a bigger bowl to accumulate the complex aromas. The Burgundy glasses work very well with Pinot Noirs from anywhere in the world.

Champagne and sparkling wine glasses (flutes)

Finally, Champagne or sparkling wine glasses [find at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] are often called flutes. They have a long stem, with a tall, narrow bowl. Again, the shape is all about surface area. The small amount of liquid wine surface area keeps the temperature from rising and lets a smaller amount of the bubbles escape. The small glass size means you have to use your fingertips to hold the glass, which also keeps the temperature down.

Riedel and Schott Zwiesel wine glasses

You might be saying to yourself, “This is all great information, but what brand of wine glasses should I buy?” Two great brands of wine glasses that we use are Riedel and Schott Zwiesel break-resistant glasses.

Incredibly, the Schott Zwiesel Tritan Forte series retails at only about $10 a stem. These glasses look more expensive than they are, since they hold their sheen much better than most glasses. A very nice set of Schott Zwiesel Tritan Forte glasses would include standard white, red, Pinot Noir, and sparkling glasses.

The Sommelier series [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] was released in 1973, and it was the first series of fine wine glasses. Developed with the aid of the Associazione Italiana Sommeliers (A.I.S.), the Sommerlier series consists of 10 different wine glass sizes and all are hand-made in over 24% lead crystal.

The Vinum series [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] debuted in 1986.  It was the first widespread, machine-made series of glasses. If you look at the Riedel Vinum series of glasses, you will see that most wine glasses look quite similar to those manufactured and sold by Riedel originally. The Vinum series is also over 24% lead crystal.

The O series [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] is the latest line of glasses by Riedel, and these somewhat trendy glasses are “wine tumblers” that don’t have stems or bases. These glasses are well-suited for travel, and they fit in dishwashers, picnic baskets, minibars, or tight kitchen cabinets. The price for these non-lead, machine-blown glasses is half the price of the Vinum series. These come in nice two glass sets… a great gift!

	Shop for home wine cellar supplies online:
	Int. Wine Accessories	Wine Enthusiast

If you have too many bottles for a wine cabinet then you might want to think about building a home wine cellar. You can convert a closet or bigger room in your house into a wine storage room. In wine 101, we outline the basics on building a home wine cellar, and here we talk about some of the accessories that you’ll need. For instance, a book that teaches you the basics in more detail would be a good idea. And you’ll need a refrigeration/cooling unit and racks to hold your wine.

Wine Enthusiast will help you design your home wine cellar
so you can feel confident in your investment.

How-to Book on Home Wine Cellars

If you are going to undertake a project as serious as converting a closet or room to a home wine cellar, it pays to be well-informed. This book that has five-star reviews on Amazon, which can probably give you most all the necessary information.

• How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, by Richard Gold

Home Wine Cellar Cooling Units

Your home wine cellar should be kept at 55 °F. The cooling/refrigeration unit for your cellar is probably the most expensive piece of equipment you’ll buy for your new cellar, so it is an important consideration. The majority of the cellar chilling units are made by Breezair or Whisperkool – to see a large selection of these units, you can browse the home wine cellar cooling units at IWA. Most of the units at IWA are self-contained units.

Self-contained systems by Breezair and Whisperkool are designed to fit through a standard wall and vent the removed warm air into another room or outside. When operating, the unit produces air that is 30 °F colder than the air in the room outside the cellar. Since the maximum temperature difference is set, these units must vent the warm air to an indoor room in warm/hot climates, because of high outdoor temperatures.

However, Whisperkool has recently released their Extreme series. These self-contained units can be exhausted to most outdoor climates and still generate 55 °F air. The Extreme series costs about twice as much as Whisperkool’s other self-contained systems.

Wine Racks for Home Wine Cellars

Of course, in your wine cellar, you must have wine racks to hold the bottles. The most common wine racks are made of wood. You can get very nice wooden wine racks in a variety of configurations, such as individual bottle column racks, cubes and bins, corner racks, magnum racks, etc. Select the configuration based on the size and shape of your cellar and the type of wine you like to collect. Don’t forget to account for fat bottomed bottles, such as New World Pinot Noirs and the occasional magnum. Wine racks are available on the web.

	Shop for home wine cellar supplies online:
	Int. Wine Accessories	Wine Enthusiast

	Shop for wine refrigerators & cabinets online:
	Int. Wine Accessories	Wine Enthusiast

Besides having your own dedicated wine cellar as a room in your home, a plug-in refrigerated wine cellar is the best way to ensure your wine is properly stored. There are a wide variety of options available, which will store your wine bottles at the proper temperature of 55 degrees F and minimize light intensity. Some refrigerated wine cabinets are even stylish enough to be used as furniture.

Wine Refrigerators & Coolers

If you are looking to store up to 100s of bottles of wine, a wine refrigerator or cooler [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] is a good choice. These are plug-in units that keep the wine cooled, and they are made to stand alone or fit under the counter in the kitchen. Eurocave makes particularly attractive versions of these wine refrigerators. If you are looking to save some money, there are B.Y.O. (Build Your Own) versions available, too. The very best wine refrigerators and coolers will also not have excessive vibrations, which can spoil wine over time.

Refrigerated Wine Cabinets, Credenzas, & Furniture

If you want to store your wine out in the open, consider using a refrigerated wine cabinet or credenza [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast] that is also nice as a piece of furniture. These models are not meant to built into any cabinetry, as they need a space to expel the heat in the back. The styles of these wine cabinets or credenzas range from traditional to modern, with wood finishes such as mahogany or cherry.

Refrigerated Wine Cellars

A larger option to store many bottles of wine is a refrigerated wine cellar [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast]. Some of these units take up a lot of space and can hold as many as 500 wine bottles. The downside to something this big is that it can come with a hefty price tag. The upside is that you’ll never have to regret the 100 bottle wine refrigerator you bought when you run out of space a year later.

Home Wine Cellars

Finally, if you want to hold more than about 500 bottles, you might want to consider constructing your own home wine cellar [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast]. There are three major components to your wine cellar: construction of the room, the refrigeration unit, and the racks that hold your wine. It is a major undertaking, and Wine Enthusiast will help you get started with your designs and even install the whole thing for you if you want.

	Shop for wine preservation options online:
	Int. Wine Accessories	Wine Enthusiast

If you would like to keep an open wine bottle for more than a day or two, there are some things that you can do to maximize your wine preservation. Re-corking a bottle of wine and putting it in the refrigerator will work for a day or two, but there are some more robust methods.

Vacu Vin wine saver systems

If you would like to keep the wine longer, consider a Vacu Vin wine saver [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast]. This system has been around for more than a decade. If properly used, you can preserve your opened wine for up to a week. The idea is pretty simple — you just put in a Vacu-Stopper and pump the air out of the bottle with the (appropriately named) Vacu-Pump. Since the oxygen has been removed with the air from the bottle, there won’t be any spoilage due to oxidation.

Bottled argon and nitrogen

If you don’t want to use a Vacu Vin system, another easy and low cost choice is using bottled argon or nitrogen [view at IWA or Wine Enthusiast]. The basic idea is the same as with the Vacu Vin — remove oxygen from the bottle — however the method is different. Spraying the argon or nitrogen into the bottle will displace the oxygen-containing air in the bottle. To use these products, spray a two-second burst of gas into the opened wine bottle and quickly replace the cork.

EuroCave wine storage & dispensing systems

EuroCave wine storage systems [view at Wine Enthusiast] hold two bottles and will chill and preserve wine for up to 10 days. Uncorked bottles are placed inside and kept fresh with a vacuum system, so there’s nothing to replace. There are two compartments with variable temperature settings, which allows you to keep red and white bottles at different temperatures.

WineKeeper wine storage & dispensing systems

WineKeeper wine storage systems [view at Wine Enthusiast] preserve up to four to eight bottles of opened wine. As you dispense wine through the spouts, the WineKeeper keeps the bottles filled with nitrogen to prevent oxidation. As with the EuroCave system, the wine is kept at proper serving temperatures. The units come either in Mahogany or Oak facing, with a glass display door.

Pek Preservino Wine Preservation Set (Professional Edition) from Wine Enthusiast

Description from Wine Enthusiast — The Pek Preservino Professional uses high-purity Argon gas to keep wine at the peak of freshness. The system is portable so it is ideal for preserving a bottle of wine from your favorite restaurant or at a friends home. Simply insert the Preservino Professional’s injection nozzle into either one of the two included custom professional stoppers, inject the Argon gas and, the Preservino Professional protects every bottle effectively. ‘Click and Pour Technology’ means that individual glasses of wine can be poured directly through the stopper, which saves up to 67% in argon gas usage. The moment you open a bottle of wine, exposure to the air begins to change its character. The Preservino Professional extends the life of an open bottle for days or even weeks. The Preservino Professional uses 100% argon gas to replace air in the opened bottle; experts agree that argon gas is 80% more effective than any other system for wine preservation. The Pek Preservino Professional System includes 1 Preservino Portable, 1 Argon cartridge, and 2 Professional series stoppers — all presented in a beautiful Rosewood Gift Box. Extra stoppers and argon cartridges are available. ($69.95)

Winekeeper Wine Preservation Refillable Nitrogen Tank (2.5lb) from Wine Enthusiast

Description from Wine Enthusiast — 2.5 lbs. refillable nitrogen tank for Winekeeper. Tank only; regulator tubing and stopper/dispenser not included. Please Note: This item is not compatible for use with tabletop single bottle Winekeeper (Item # 485 11 01). ($149.95)

Winekeeper 4 Bottle Wine Preservation System from Wine Enthusiast

Description from Wine Enthusiast — Enjoy your wine a glass at a time with the Enthusiast 4 Bottle Winekeeper. As wine is dispensed through the individual spouts inert nitrogen blankets your bottle preventing oxidation allowing you to enjoy it day after day. And the thermostatically controlled compressor insures that your wine is served at ideal temperature as well. Includes beautiful Mahogany or Oak facing and glass display door. Size: 24-3/4′H 18′W x 18-1/2′D Item is made to order. Nitrogen tanks are sold separately. ($1,495.00)

Winekeeper Wine Preservation Stopper Dispenser from Wine Enthusiast

Description from Wine Enthusiast — Extra Stopper Dispenser for Wine Keeper. Order extra to keep as many wines opened and preserved as you like. Store stopped bottles in the refrigerator. ($29.95)