If you’ve been shopping for a 12 bottle wine cellar you already know that no ordinary cooler will do. The reason why they are given the name cellar is because the market wanted to distinguish these coolers from the one you drink. You know wine storage is critical, and that’s why you’re here to check out recommendations on the popular units. These are great devices when they are working, but they are plagued with problems because of a single issue.
In order to chill wine to the proper temperature, and to have it sit at the proper humidity, like a wine cellar, so it tastes like we’re used to – come to think of it – the moment wine leaves the wine cellar for consumption, i.e. from the darkness of some cellar in California, France or Italy, it takes quite a journey. The big deal with wine, or so they tell us, is that it stores better when it is totally still, not shaken. I am not sure what the pros would say about when wine is transported to various countries. Surely it must take a toll on the vintage. But that is just the reason 12 bottle wine cellar manufacturers claim they must put in a thermoelectric (no moving parts) chiller rather than the normal compressor and gas unit. You see, the thermoelectric does not vibrate, so the wine does not get moved.

It’s easy to make a small cabinet for a refrigerator for these 12 bottle wine cellars. Small refrigerator manufacturers have been doing this for quite some time. A little modification and they are ready to be fitted with the chiller unit. The major problem in all of these units has been that the thermoelectric unit does not hold up under continuous use. It breaks down around the 8 month mark and you either have to replace it with another one or junk the cellar. If you find this to be untrue, drop me a line here using the contact us link above right.

Searching, but I’ve yet to find a wine cellar that uses any other technology for the 12 bottle size. However, some of the larger wine cellars have a better track record and would be my recommendation. There is no best of the best, but there are many 12 bottle wine cellars on the market. What I would do if you must have one of these is to find an online retailer that will honor a 24 month warranty, has an 800 number, and has been selling these for a while. Try to get free shipping if you can and just know that you may have to be sending the unit back or replacing the chiller parts in about eight months.