Black Wine Coolers and Black Wine Fridges

Why choose a black wine fridge?

Black wine fridges are chosen as they fit readily into home, commercial, kitchen or garage environments whereas other colours, like stainless steel, are much more suited to the kitchen only.

Black wine coolers come in a variety of bottle capacities from slimline, narrow, 15cm wide wine coolers storing just 8 bottles to large, multi-zone wine cabinets storing over 300 bottles that can offer space for wine service and wine maturation too.

Most black wine fridges are destined for the kitchen rather than long term wine maturation and so are fitted with telescopic shelving that pulls out effortlessly for being quickly able to find that perfect bottle. Many, as aesthetics is key in the kitchen, come with display shelves and modern, multi-coloured LED lighting to really offer a feature focal point in the kitchen.

Depending on the size of the unit, it’s also likely your black wine cooler will come with more than one temperature zone with many black units offer dual zone storage so both red and white wine can be accessed at the ideal serving temperature.
Other typical features of a black wine cooler would include a lock, LED lighting, carbon filters and temperature alarms in case the set temperatures should dip or rise above the median.

Depending on where in your home you’d like to place your black wine cooler you may find you need to choose a unit that vents from the front if it is to be placed in your kitchen amongst your cabinets, these units are called built-in or under-counter wine coolers. If the unit will not be built in to your kitchen and would stand alone like a tall American style fridge than a freestanding option will work well for you. If you want the wine cooler to blend seamlessly into your kitchen and be raised off the floor then an integrated wine cooler will work best.

What features should I look for in a black wine fridge?

Apart from the unit being black, your considerations for a black wine fridge would be the same as any other wine fridge. This will depend entirely on what you want your black wine fridge to do. If you want it to hold Champagne then look for wider shelving gaps, if you want it to hold a mix of bottles, look for MIX shelving, if you want to mature your wine, look for carbon filters, if you want to serve wine of all varieties look for a dual zone. Common features of freestanding fridges include;

• Single, dual or multi temperature zones
• Freestanding, built-in or integrated installation
• Alarm systems to notify of temperature dips
• Winter System - Ideal if you wish to place your wine cabinet in a colder room like a garage.
• Lighting on/off or changing coloured LED lights
• MIX shelving systems and space for Champagne bottles
• Carbon filters - you will find these in wine coolers with the potential to age wines
• UV protected doors - all units will feature UV protected doors to prevent your wine from sunlight damage

Considerations when choosing a black wine fridge?

Every wine collector has different needs and considerations when choosing a freestanding wine fridge. It's important to consider;

• The space you can allocate to your wine fridge and its ambient temperature
  
• The number of bottles you need to store
  
• Is this wine fridge for storage or service or both - how many zones do you need?
• The budget you can allocate to wine storage
  
• The long term running and maintenance costs
  
• How might your wine collection evolve over time
  
• What shape and size are your bottles, what type of shelving will you need.
  

Which are the best brands for black wine fridges?

The highest premium brands for black wine fridges are EuroCave and Swisscave, followed closely by Liebherr and Dunavox. Other high quality brands include Dometic, Climadiff and La Sommeliere. Vestfrost is an affordable brand with high quality engineering along with mQuvee.

All of these brands come with at least 2 years warranty and fast delivery.

There are also freestanding wine walls, these can offer great narrow depth for those with special space requirements.

How to install a black wine fridge?

Black wine fridges are most often sought to be built-in to designer kitchens. Sometimes standing on the floor (under-counter) and sometimes raised off the ground (integrated). These wine fridges are just as good at protecting your fine wine and offering stable storage temperatures regardless of installation.

Black wine coolers are available in all height, depth and width sizes including 150mm, 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm with the most common width gaps being 15cm, 30cm and 60cm.

Built-in wine coolers can be installed flush to your kitchen cabinets but you should leave a 1.5cm gap to allow for the door to be fully opened. Look out for the decibel rating of the chosen wine fridge, if you spend lots of time in your kitchen we recommend a decibel rating of no more than 40dB.

Recommended Black Wine Fridges

Under £1000 – Best under-counter black wine fridge

The Dunavox Dauf-19.58B - Dunavox are the leading premium European producers of kitchen wine coolers and their Dunavox DAUF-19.58B is a popular choice for a 300mm width gap within kitchen designs. This single zone, built-in wine cooler has some high end finishing touches like blue LED lighting, touch screen controls and a sleek black design.

 This line of built-in, premium quality, attractive, quiet and reliable wine coolers are also reliable over the long term and have an extensive 3 years parts and labour warranty with 5 years on the compressor.

One of the most energy efficient wine fridges in this category, the DAUF-19.58B has the looks and the features to compliment any luxury kitchen design and is very quiet at just 39dB. The wide-ranging, single temperature zone can be set between 5-22°C making it ideal for lovers of chilled whites or room temperature reds. There is space on the upper and lower shelves for Champagne.

Best luxury black built-in wine cooler

The Swisscave WLB-460DF-MIX - Swisscave are a premium producer of wine coolers with an unrivalled reputation for reliability, efficiency and quality technology. Their WLB-460DF-MIX is energy efficient, whisper quiet and holds your fine wine within a narrow temperature and humidity range to ensure perfect service or long term storage.

This unit can store 154 bottles of wine of mixed bottle sizes (Burgundy/Champagne/Bordeaux/Alsace etc) or 164 Bordeaux shaped bottles with partial shelf removal. Entrusted to store wine at scores of top British, Michelin star restaurants, including the Gordon Ramsay restaurants and the Savoy Hotel in London. This wine cooler can be built into a home kitchen or stand anywhere around the home thanks to it's front venting technology.

Best full size built in black wine cabinet

The Dunavox DX-181.490DBK - The star of the Dunavox kitchen Grande line is the 181 bottle dual temperature zone, freestanding or built-in DX-181.490DBK wine cabinet. With the upper zone setting between 5-12°C and the lower zone 12-22°C your wine will be perfectly protected from the elements over the long term with part or all of the wine cabinet suitable for service or storage. With shelving gaps at 10.5cm, Bordeaux, Burgundy or Champagne bottle sizes can be stored on each shelf.

Dunavox have quickly established themselves as a leading wine cooler brand in Europe whose quality parts, reliability and elegant designs have made them a favourite with kitchen designers and restauranteurs throughout Europe. In Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, Dunavox are fast approaching market dominance thanks to their long warranties and growing reputation.

Best freestanding black wine cabinet

The Swisscave WLB-460DFLD-MIX - The Premium 'Ambiente' Edition, Dual Zone, MIX shelving wine cooler from Swisscave offers great versatility for the oenophile who loves wines of all varieties and wants to showcase their wine within a showpiece wine cooler. We recommend this wine cooler from experience, these are the wine coolers we have here at CoolerSomm HQ.

With alternating shelving optimised for Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne or Alsace bottles and with a dual zone temperature setting, this is the wine cooler for those who want partial service and partial storage of a varied collection of wines. This wine fridge holds up to 155 bottles with the mahogany shelves fully mounted and 200 with shelving removed. The multiple display shelves make this the ideal Swisscave for a stylish restaurant/wine bar or the home of an oenophile who is rightly proud of their collection!

If you have any questions about black wine fridges then feel free to visit us in our London store or contact us via live chat.