Which is the best wine fridge for larger bottles?
A question with many parts to qualify, one being 'best' and another being 'larger bottles'! The easier of the two 'larger bottles' can be qualified for most customers as Champagne and Magnum sized (1.5l) bottles, however, even some Provençal Rosé and Burgundy shaped bottles can be wider than the average Bordeaux bottle, which is the unit in which all internal capacities of wine fridges are measured.
There are also larger bottle formats than Magnums but storing Double Magnums and Jeroboam and Imperial bottles in a traditional wine fridge would be close to impossible and in this case, a wine cabinet, made specifically for maturation with few shelves would have to be the best choice.
'Best' also means many things to many people. It can mean most energy efficient, highest value for money, cheapest, greenest, the most premium, the most reliable and more. For the purpose of this article we're going to qualify 'best' as great value for money and reliable over the longer term.
Which are the best wine fridges for larger bottles like Magnums, Jeroboam and Imperial bottles of wine?
These wine bottles are so large, and so far away from the traditional sized bottles that go into 95% of wine fridges that you will simply not fit them in anything undercounter or mid sized without removing a lot of shelves and reducing a lot of internal storage capacity.
If you want to store Magnums, Jeroboams and Imperials you're going to need a wine cabinet and also one designed for this purpose with fewer shelves. Brands like Artevino and Climadiff do a great range of wine cabinets created especially for the wine lover who wants to age great wine over time and they usually only have 3 or 4 shelves inside and some even have special storage areas for cases of wine and larger bottles.
You could buy a wine cabinet not specifically designed for the larger formats and remove shelves but you'd also need to ensure that the wine fridge has the ability to remove the shelves and that they are not fixed.
If you only have 2 or 3 larger wine bottles then many of the tall freestanding wine fridges allow for this by having a large bottom compartment where bottles can be stored side on.
Which are the best wine fridges for larger bottles like Champagne?
Champagne bottles are that little bit wider and some wine fridges can not fit them smartly on their shelves without compromising a lot of width on the shelf and, even more commonly, ripping the labels on the shelf above or even shunting the shelves up above them.
Several brands have shelves that perfectly fit champagne on every shelf as they have the height between shelves to allow for it, other brands do wine fridges in their range specifically designed to fit Champagne neatly.
One brand who has large height gaps between shelves is Swisscave. They have space for Champagne and often, on the full size units, space for magnums on the bottom shelves.
Dunavox produce a range of wine coolers within their Grande range that can also hold Champagne bottles on any shelf. These wine coolers have 10.5cm height gaps between shelves so any shelf can store champagne. The Dunavox DX-194.490BK is a great example of this and is also available in stainless steel.
Which are the best wine fridges for a mix of larger bottle sizes and regular bottle sizes?
Again, the Swisscave range are great for this as they come with MIX shelving as standard where every other shelf is optimised for either Bordeaux or Burgundy/Champagne shaped bottles. This is the best choice if you're looking for a wine cooler for the home.
If you're looking to mature a mix of bottle sizes over the longer term then you're back to a wine cabinet and we'd recommend the La Sommeliere VIP330P due to its ability to cellar a large amount of wine (over 300 bottles) and because it has 3 separate temperature zones allowing you to store or serve a range of wines at different temperatures. This offers great flexibility for the wine lover with wine to drink and wine to mature who also has lots of larger bottles.
If you're unsure which wine cooler to choose for your wine collection please use the chat facility to speak to an expert.