We work so hard to create a perfect home…safe, sturdy, beautiful and inviting. The thing is, our wine needs the same kind of home. There is absolutely no point in spending $280 on a beautiful Opus One Vintage and then letting it sit in the wrong environment…five degrees too hot or cold may sound like a small issue, but to any wine lover, you know the importance of keeping your precious investments at the right temperature. We put our jewelry and watches in pockets of velvet and silk, our shoes in hardwood boxes and satin bags while our fine china collects dust in a ‘do not touch drawer’. We take care with these possessions that we curate carefully, making sure each has a perfect little protected nook of its own. Which begs the question—why wouldn’t you take the same care with your wine collection?
Each bottle of wine is a story, a memory, an investment; a purchase of purpose. If you just like to have a good bottle of red around for a Wednesday evening or if you spend years curating your collection, it doesn’t matter. You are officially an Oenophile, capital O. And with that persona comes great responsibility… like making sure you have a walk in wine closet that can keep each bottle in its own little cubby of perfection.
If you’ve ever fantasized about walking downstairs and finding a plethora of wall to wall wine bottles, arranged into an expert display of art and functionality, Vinotemp has everything to make those dreams come true.
Francis Ravel, the innovator and creator of Vinotemp, was a man ahead of his time. He began his venture by selling and making his own wine. This is where he was first introduced to the idea of placing a cooling unit into a sealed wine cabinet.
In the beginning, he had one factory making the wine cabinets and another making the cooling systems. Ravel then began manufacturing the wine cabinets himself. In the ’90s, he decided to ameliorate the problems with the current wine cooling system. With better components, he created the Wine-Mate cooling unit; the only UL approved wine cooling system of the time. His daughter, India Hynes, worked with him for 15 years and is now the President of Vinotemp International.
Vinotemp has so many options, you can get everything from portable countertop coolers to exotic wood cabinets with built in cooling units. The big focus is on customization and shielding your collection from humidity, keeping each bottle at a precise controlled temperate for an optimal aging environment.
Keeping those bottles stored laying down, not standing up, is also a key element of protecting each bottle—the cork stays moist and keeps from drying out. If your cork dries out it lets in air, potentially spoiling your 2009 Joseph Dobbes Cuvee Exceptionelle….That’s a pretty big deal.
It’s all about the details, from the bespoke options to working hand in hand to make sure your vision is the same as the final reality. Don’t let that Schafer Hillside Select or spend another minute in a non-temperature controlled climate on that rickety shelf. Build the wine cellar of your dreams and taste the difference.
