Garages in the 21st century are taking on a whole host of new uses with space at a premium and the cost of living rising, they are our gyms, they are our hobby rooms and they are our wine cellars too! Click the link for a full list of our wine cabinets ideal for the garage.
However, they can also get very hot and very cold and if you do want to store wine in your garage avoid scenes like the photo above and purchase a wine cabinet for long term maturation.
The decision of which wine storage solution is best for you often comes down to the number of bottles you own and the space available in your home. If you have thousands of bottles you want to cellar over the longer term then potentially you should be looking at an underground wine cellar or a bonding warehouse, as it would be difficult to accommodate that number in the home. However, if you have several hundred bottles (200-600 or so) then a great choice is often a wine cabinet in the garage (or two) and they're surprisingly economical.
You can mature around 300 bottles of wine in a Climadiff, a top brand for long term wine maturation, for around £1500-£2000, and these units are renowned for longevity with many powering on for a decade or longer. They're also economical to run with surprisingly low wattage compared to wine fridges, this is due to their solid doors and internal technology.
These units are often full height, so nearly two meters tall, around 60cm wide and the same deep and as freestanding units they need around 10cm around them to safely vent too. That's a lot of space to take up in a modern home and so many oenophiles prefer to keep their wine in the garage. The only issue with the garage is that it can become very hot in summer and very cold in winter and standard wine coolers will not work if the ambient temperature range changes too much.
Fortunately, Climadiff (as well as Liebherr and Swisscave) understand this and so have created specialised wine cabinets to withstand ambient temperature fluctuations and equip their wine cabinets with the ability to cool and warm the internal temperature with their 'winter systems'. If you want to store your wine in the garage use the 'winter system' filter on our website when choosing your new wine cabinet.
Which are the best wine cabinets for the garage?
As mentioned, Climadiff wine cabinets have been designed specifically for this purpose and come with a winter system so the unit continues to protect your wine regardless of the weather outside. The best wine cabinet for you then will depend on what other features matter as well as a winter system.
Largest Bottle Capacity
If you're looking for the largest bottle capacity, with a winter system, at the best price then the Climadiff Reserve 300 XL, which can cellar almost 300 bottles is the ideal choice. Complete with charcoal filter, lock and key and quiet at just 38dB then this is one of the most efficient, safest, quietest, most energy efficient and cost effective wine cabinets on the market. Customers with larger collections often buy two or three units as it works out cheaper than holding the wine in commercial cellars. This unit comes with 5 shelves which means bottles will be stacked on top of each other and a solid door so the wines are not visible from the outside.
Full Shelving
The only drawback to traditional wine cabinets is that they lack the visual appeal of a wine cooler (UV protected glass doors instead of solid doors) and they have few shelves. If you're looking for something that gives your garage or cellar a wow factor and prefer to have all your wines on their own individual shelves then there is an option, the single zone or dual zone, Dunavox Grande range.
The single zone Dunavox Grande DX-194.490BK can accommodate 194 Bordeaux shaped bottles and its shelves are also wide enough to accommodate Champagne bottles. Available in black or stainless steel, these are visually appealing units that are also ideal for long term wine maturation with carbon filters equipped too.
If you want to use the fridge for partial service and partial service then opt for the dual zone version instead, the Dunavox DX-181.490DBK.
Luxury Wine Cabinet
If the features of the Dunavox Grande range were not premium enough then the next step up the ladder has to be the Swisscave Premium Edition wine cabinets, with mahogany display shelving and full strip, changeable LED lighting, these really are show stopping wine cabinets built to impress.
The same wine cabinets that grace the Savoy Hotel in London and country homes throughout the UK, the premium edition Swisscave WLB-460FLD represents the ultimate in wine cabinet technology with a elegant design too. This wine cabinet is designed to showcase wines from premium brands and vintages and will impress even the most discerning wine friend in your cru!
Which are the best brands for garage wine storage?
Climadiff - The wine cabinet specialists, this brand is ideal for the wine lover wants top quality wine storage that is economical to run and mimics a real life cellar. Climadiff are the experts at what they do and these cabinets last for years. If your garage is not a focal point of your living space and perhaps not a place you invite guests anyway, then a Climadiff may be ideal, even if its not as aesthetically pleasing as the other wine cabinet brands, your Climadiff will perfectly mature your wine for years to come.
Swisscave - Luxury wine cabinets designed for the home and the garage, all equipped with winter systems. These units come with luxury features designed to impress and to display your wines. Swisscave are a favourite for the home and also with restaurants too.
Liebherr - Known for their quality, Austrian engineering, Liebherr are experts at producing high quality refrigeration of all kinds. Whilst this brand doesn't specialise in wine cabinets alone it does manufacture high quality, economical to run and good value wine maturation cabinets with a reputation for longevity.
Artevino - From the original innovators of wine cooling Eurocave, Artevino is this premium brand's solution for long term wine maturation and with winter systems they are perfectly suited to wine maturation over the longer term in a garage or outbuilding. The Artevino range are made to order so will take around 30-40 days to deliver from the day you place your order. The advantage of the wait is that you can choose between solid or UV protected glass doors, choose which direction the door opens and the shelving options too.
Do I have to choose a wine cabinet with a winter system?
It's tempting to buy a wine cooler and place it directly in the garage and hope for the best, wine coolers are often cheaper and many look better than a wine cabinet, however, it will be a decision you'll likely come to regret as soon as the temperatures rise too high or plummet too low. The issue with extreme ambient temperature gains or drops is that they cause the wine coolers to overheat and work overly hard to maintain an internal temperature.
If the external temperature is reaching above 20 degree the wine cooler will be working all the time to cool the wines, causing it's lifespan to be reduced. Conversely, if the ambient temperature is too cold, under 12 degrees, and the wine cooler has no winter system, then it can not warm the area and will simply fail to keep your wines at the correct temperature for wine maturation. Basically the wine cooler will either break trying to keep your wines cool or it will fail to do so as it doesn't have the internal systems to do so. Wine coolers are designed to be kept in the home where the ambient temperatures stay around 15-20°C.
In the end, the decision on which wine cabinet to buy is going to come down to what's most important to you, the size of your home and the number of bottles you need to mature over the longer term, whether or not you need security around your wines like a lock and key or child lock etc. If choosing your new wine cabinet for your garage or cellar is proving difficult, please speak to one of our wine cooling experts on the chat facility or give us a call, we'd love to help.