Best Wine Fridge or Wine Cooler Australia (2023) 

In this article we will explain:  

1. Why you should cellar your wine in a wine fridge or wine cooler?  
2. Factors to consider when buying a wine fridge or wine cooler?  
3. Wine fridge and wine cooler options in Australia?  
4. Wine Cellar services?  
5. Our choice: A Vintec Wine Fridge  

The ultimate goal of properly cellaring wine is to avoid corkage. Many contributing factors can lead to corkage, all of which can be mitigated by storing your wine in a wine fridge or wine cooler. Watch/listen to The Wined Up Podcasts episode where Jason creates a business case for purchasing a wine fridge describing the factors.  

The factors to consider why you should cellar wine in a wine fridge or wine cooler are:  

1. Store at the right temperature – Wine stored at the incorrect temperature and changing temperatures can affect the quality of your wine. Wine should ideally be stored consistently at 12 degrees Celsius. Anything below -4 degrees Celsius will freeze the wine. Anything greater than 20 degrees Celsius will destroy the compounds in the wine creating a vinegary and rough mouthfeel. A wine fridge allows you to set the temperature of the fridge.  
2. Avoid fluctuations in temperature – Regular variations in temperature can lead to the cork stretching or shrinking, which can lead to alcohol leaking or oxygen seeping into the wine. Oxidisation can make the wine flavour flat or can make it an unpleasant vinegar or acidic flavour. A wine fridge maintains its temperature at a consistent temperature, adapting to outside temperature changes to keep the wine cool at all times.  
3. Horizontal position – Wines should be stored in a horizontal position so that the wine has an opportunity to touch and moisturise the cork. This can help prevent the cork from drying out and shrinking which can lead to oxidisation. Wine fridges typically have horizontal shelves and racks to ensure wines remain flat.  
4. Minimise any vibration – Regular agitation of the wine which can be caused by things such as vibration can change and alter the quality and flavour of the wine. The increased kinetic energy can dull the flavours or in some cases make the wines taste sweeter. Most wine fridges can minimise the impact of vibration by various mechanisms including shock absorbers, wooden shelves, and different types of cooling techniques such as thermoelectric cooling systems as opposed to compressor cooling systems.  
5. Avoid direct sunlight / UV light – Direct sunlight and UV light can increase the chance of nasty odours coming from the wine. The UV light excites the vitamins within wine creating a reaction that releases amino acids. The amino acids produce a sulphur-like (i.e. fart light) smell which can be unpleasant to most people. Although the colour of the wine bottle can help protect against UV light it is preferable to keep wine in the dark. This is where a wine fridge or wine cooler proves handy as it is kept within an enclosure that typically has UV protective coatings on the outside and the fridge door.  

The prioritised selection criteria or factors that I used when comparing wine fridges/wine coolers were:  

1. Capacity – The right capacity for you depends on where you are in your wine journey and how many bottles you plan to put in your wine fridge/cooler. I am still at the start of the journey but have close to 100 bottles lying around my house. I don’t necessarily want to cellar them all as 100+ capacity wine fridges are expensive (see selection criteria 4 below), so I had to think about what I would cellar. For me, it came down to what wines I’d like to keep and open up in 10+ years and they were largely the reds. 23 x bottles of red wine in total including a few Penfolds Grange and Yarra Yering Dry Red No.1 and Riddoch The Pastoralist Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the next year I would potentially double that at most so I figured I needed a wine fridge with the capacity to store 30 – 50 bottles of wine.  
2. Warranty – Since I’m looking to cellar wine for 10+ years, I want to be confident that the product will last, with available support, as long as possible. Subsequently, the length of the warranty was important. From the options out there are wine fridges with 1-year warranty, 2-year warranty, 3-year warranty, and even 5-year warranty.   
3. Reputable Brand – Again, given the wine fridge should last a long time, I wanted a product from a company that has a proven history and reputation for providing quality, with a focus on wine fridges/coolers in particular. I did not want to buy wine from a company that has a wine fridge that’s only been in the market for a year as this means it hasn’t had enough time for consumers to review and test it over long periods and it means the company may not have had enough experience in manufacturing a quality product. Also, I didn’t want to purchase a product from a company where the wine fridge is only 1 product out of 1000 products that they produce as it may indicate they are not attuned to the specific requirements of a fridge for long-term wine storage.  
4. Price – This one doesn’t need an explanation. You have to buy something within your budget.    
5. Minimal vibration – There are different ways to minimise vibration. This includes the type and location of the compressor system used, the use of thermoelectric cooling systems that have no vibration, the use of shock absorbers, and the type of shelving (see point 6).  
6. Wooden shelves – Research and commentary from the wine fridge/cooling companies indicated that wooden shelves were often good as they minimised vibration by absorbing any vibration as opposed to metal or wire shelves.  
7. Dual-Zone (optional) – When putting the list together I was optimistic that I could find a dual-zone wine fridge that could keep my whites cool at a different temperature to my reds. Subsequently, I included this as an optional item for consideration. Surprisingly there were a few dual-zone options available.  
8. Aesthetics (optional) – As it’s something I’ll be looking at on a weekly (if not daily basis), I included optional criteria on the aesthetics being good and matching the house décor. For example, metallic/chrome wine fridges didn’t match our house and I preferred something black instead.  
9. Reversible door (optional) – This was a good consideration, particularly if you’re uncertain where you will place your wine fridge, or if you may be moving house in the next 10 years in which case you’d want the flexibility to open your wine fridges door from the left or the right. In this instance, the latter was more of a concern for me, so I included it as an optional criterion.  

Okay, so you know why you should store your wine in a wine fridge/wine cooler, you know what factors to consider when choosing a wine fridge, now you need to go out there and determine what wine fridges are available on the market. Google helps in this instance, and I didn’t realise so many would be available. I used Google to find articles on wine fridge review lists, retail stores selling wine, and online sales for wine fridges, I went through them all. This was probably the most time-consuming part (2 hours in total) as I searched through the online stores and then researched each wine fridge to see how it met my selection criteria. I only looked for wine fridges with a 30 – 50 bottle capacity.  

A summary of the wine fridge/wine cooler options that we assessed against our selection criteria is as follows:  

After sifting through the options and comparing them against my selection criteria I shortlisted the option to 3: 

• Devanti 34 Bottles Wine Cooler Compressor Chiller Beverage Fridge 
• Hisense HRWC46 46 Bottle Wine Cellar 
• Vintec 35-Bottle Single Zone Wine Cabinet VWS035SBB 

The Devanti wine cooler was actually recommended by one of my mates and the price was very compelling and it’s a good looking wine fridge.  However 2 things swayed me away.  The first was the warranty.  A product with 1 year warranty did not give me confidence that it would be a quality product that can list, coupled with the very cheap price.  The other thing that put me off was it was largely sold in online stores like mydeal.com.au.  It wasn’t sold in your typical storefronts like Bing Lee or The Good Guys, etc.  This painted a picture in my mind that the although cheap and good looking, the quality may not be poor.  So I ruled it out. 

The next option I heavily considered was the Hisense 46 Bottle Wine Cellar.  This one took a lot of time for the quantity, the price, the 3 year warranty, and the fact that it was a dual zone it was very appealing.  I was not a fan of the aesthetics with its metallic cover but everything else looked good.  Then I looked at a few reviews online and they mentioned problems with the door not sealing properly and a high pitched sound and it placed some doubts in mind.  On top of that Hisense were not a company focused on wine fridges and Trent’s advice kept ringing in my head ‘Treat your wine like your children.  You want to ensure they are well protected and you don’t want price to compromise their them’! 

That’s what pushed me over the line to choose the Vintec 35-Bottle Single Zone Wine Cabinet VWS035SBB.  Yes I had to pay a bit more, but I had comfort in knowing my Penfolds Grange bottles (retailing for $900+) were protected with a wine fridge from a company started by winemakers, that are the leading brand for wine fridges in Australia and Asia-Pacific and ticked all the boxes in terms of 2-year warranty, low vibration, and had very few poor reviews online. 

I couldn’t be happier with the Vintec 35-Bottle Single Zone Wine Cabinet.  It looks good and is well protected.  A few things I learnt since purchasing the wine cabinet for consideration is: 

1. The shelf capacity of a wine fridge can vary with some modelling the capacity on a Bordeaux size bottle, which can differ to other Australian bottles.  This means may not fit the expected capacity, with all laying flat horizontally.  So expect that you may not reach the advertised capacity. 
2. You can easily fill up a wine fridge.  I put in more wines in the wine fridge than I originally intended to so it felt up very quickly.  I had instant regret that I should have bought a bigger wine fridge, however I was quickly reminded that I did not have the budget to do so.  My workaround for this is that I may be second Vintec 35-Bottle Single Zone Wine Cabinet next year or in the year after.  Having both will still be cheaper than buying the 50 bottle unit. 
3. You can’t use the wine fridge straight away.  You need to give it 24 hours for the gases before using it.  So don’t get too excited once your receive it. 
4. I still have think about whether or not the Hisense 46 bottle Wine Cellar may have been a good purchase.  If you are more of a risk taker then me or more budget constraint try the Hisense and let  me know what you think. 

I hope that helps you in choosing a wine fridge or wine cooler.  Leave your comments below on the wine fridge that you purchased or recommend and why.