Did you know that vibrations in your wine storage area such as a cellar or wine rack can have harmful effects on your wine? A vibrating storage area can disrupt the chemical balances in your bottles of wine, leading to negative changes to its taste and aroma and hurt its ability to mature over time.
Frequently passing trains (underground or over-ground), washing machines and tumble dryers, enthusiastic toddlers with a trampoline; all can cause untold damage to your wine collection! Unfortunately, you may not even know that your wine is vibrating because the vibrations are so subtle that our human senses can’t pick up on it.
So, how do vibrations cause harm to your wine and how do wine fridges help protect your wine from vibration? Well, there is actually science behind vibrations and how they can prematurely age a bottle of wine. Today, we will discuss the science and how to prevent vibrations from disrupting your favourite wines anticipated balance.
How Vibrations Can Prematurely Age Wine
Wine, especially maturing wine, is a finely balanced organism. Vibration excites the molecules in the wine and cause an imbalance. When red wines are stored for a long time, sediments accumulate and need to settle. Especially when it comes to wines that aren't filtered or fined by the producer. There is a possibility that if you place the wine in a storage area where vibration is present, the sediment will be stirred into the wine again. As this happens, it will remove the aromas and flavors of the wine, and ultimately you will have unbalanced and distasteful wine.
Why does this happen? As a result of vibrating constantly, chemical reactions are accelerated, and the aging process is sped up. In essence, the wine, when it comes to opening, will taste a little bit sour since it had essentially gone bad far before you ever expected it to. This can be incredibly upsetting for avid wine collectors who were saving a vintage bottle for a special occasion and, upon opening, find out that little but frequent vibrations have ruined it.
How to Keep Vibrations from Ruining Your Wine
One of the easiest ways to keep vibrations from ruining your wine is to store it properly in a high quality wine cabinet. There is a good chance that your wine bottles will experience a lot of vibration if they are kept in a standard refrigerator or in a rack in the kitchen. This is because a typical kitchen fridge has compressors that create vibrations radiating through the entire fridge. For this reason, it is best to invest in a wine fridge, as they can greatly reduce the amount of vibration your wine bottles experience through their mechanism, through the shelving, through the very material from which they are made.
Further, you are going to have to make sure that your wine cooler is not placed in direct proximity to any appliances, such as tumble dryers or washing machines in the house. These machines will vibrate the floors and surrounding appliances, putting even the best wine fridge at risk of vibrations. An ideal location would be away from a door, in a room with little foot traffic, and away from a doorway.
In order to prevent disturbing your bottles and creating unnecessary vibrations when you want to grab them, you should not stack your bottles in a logical manner with those you wish to drink first at the top of the stack (in case your wine fridge doesn't have a shelf for every row).
If your wine fridge is experiencing vibrations, you may want to check that the compressor hasn’t fallen off its mounting if you find that your wine cooler is causing unnecessary vibrations or making a lot of noise. Normally, your wine cooler's compressor is mounted on top of rubber or silicone, so if it is not, then it has fallen and needs to be fixed. Rubber or silicone compressor mounts reduce vibrations in the fridge.
Wine Fridges that are Excellent at Protecting against Vibrations
Among the wine refrigerators we offer at Coolersomm, you will only find those with incredibly low vibration frequencies. As a result, your wine will never prematurely age or start to lose its taste due to the presence of mixed sediments.
Here is a list of our most popular wine fridges, each with:
Freestanding Wine Coolers
La Sommeliere - 32 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cooler: The La Sommeliere SLS33DZ is a well-priced, attractive, dual zone wine cooler that benefits from a modern aesthetic and efficient space-saving design from premium wine fridge producers; La Sommeliere. With two temperature zones which can be set between 5-14°C and 12-18°C, this wine cooler is designed for service and will keep red, white and sparkling wines at the perfect temperature. The upper zone holds 15 bottles while the lower zone holds 18 with space for Champagne on the bottom shelves.
SWISSCAVE - Premium Edition 152-164 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cooler: A premium wine cooler manufacturer, Swisscave has built an unmatched reputation for reliability, efficiency, and quality technology. With the WLB-460DF-MIX, you can store 154 bottles of wine of mixed bottle sizes within a narrow temperature and humidity range for perfect service long-term storage. This unit is energy efficient, whisper quiet, and holds your fine wine within the narrow temperature and humidity range. We have even installed this model in several of Gordon Ramsey's kitchens!
Built-In Wine Fridges
SWISSCAVE - Built-Under 9 Bottle Single Zone Wine Cooler: Its compact size, premium features, and luxurious appearance make it ideal for use within commercial environments as well as luxury kitchens. This wine cooler can be used without handles, giving it a perfectly symmetrical appearance. With the ability to cellar 9 bottles, all wine bottle shapes except Champagne are catered to. With a winter system, this wine fridge can also be stored in a garage or cellar while looking stunning within a designer kitchen as well.
Dunavox - 32 Bottle Built-In Wine Cooler: Dunavox, a leading manufacturer of wine coolers, offers a range of built-in wine coolers that are premium quality, attractive, quiet, and reliable. They will look great in any kitchen design. With a whisper-quiet 39dB and exceptional energy efficiency, the DAUF-32.78DB wine fridge is a great choice to complement any luxury kitchen. A dynamic LED lighting system can be switched between blue, amber, or white to make the wine cooler more luxurious. The two temperature zones can be set as follows: 10-18°C in the upper section (15 bottle capacity) and 5-10°C in the lower section (17 bottle capacity).
The QT
If you want to maintain your favourite wines' overall quality and flavor profile, you need to store them in vibration-proof spaces. The most effective thing to do is invest in a quality wine refrigerator designed to have the least amount of vibration possible, if any at all. Keep in mind that storing your wine in a refrigerator that causes the bottles to vibrate will only have detrimental effects.
Keeping your wine safe and in top-notch condition is important to us here at Coolersomm, and we are committed to helping you achieve this. Therefore, you should make sure that you protect your favourite wines from premature aging as well as spoilage by choosing one of our best-selling vibration-proof wine refrigerators.
If you're unsure of the right wine fridge for you, speak to us on live chat for expert help.