Wine Cellars, Wine Racks, and Wine Coolers
When you finally catch the wine collecting bug and you’re looking for an appropriate means of storing your fine wines, you’ll need to decide how to best do that based on your available space, budget, and overall needs. Below you’ll find a list of some of the finest wine storage providers in the business. Each offers a variety of different products and services, so in order to provide you with a quick review of what they have to offer, we have created a simple rating scale which will give you the best information you’ll need in order to choose the right retailer with just a quick glance.
For each retailer, we have provided information about the company, given our summary of the site itself, and ranked the site using a five-point rating system. The rating system goes from one (lowest) to five (highest) and covers five basic areas. We will also provide a total overall score which will average the five individual scoring categories.
- About Them: Information about the company.
- Breadth of Offerings: How many different products the site has to offer.
- Novice Level: How much you need to know before purchasing products. In this case, a 1 means you must be an expert and a 5 means it’s very novice friendly.
- Ease of Navigation: How simple it is to navigate the site.
- Additional Information: Whether the site offers expert advice or information.
- Price Range: Do they offer a variety of prices or do they focus on low/high end products.
- 100BestWines Summary: We offer a summary of our overall impressions of the site and any special characteristics not covered by the categories above.
| Wine Enthusiast | |
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| Link: | www.WineEnthusiast.com |
| About: |
In 1988, the company started publishing Wine Enthusiast Magazine and has become the world’s largest magazine focused solely on wine and spirits. The company also hosts a series of wine tasting events directed by “Toast of the Town” to both consumer and industry members alike. |
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| Overall Score: | 3.8 |
| Summary: |
The Wine Enthusiast website is a little on the confusing side. While it provides a variety of different search criteria, it’s difficult to know where to begin. There are tabbed choices at the top that divide the different individual categories, but when you get to the specific pages there are too many choices to choose from. You can click on the category list to the side, choose one of the featured products in the middle, or pick one of the most popular products to the right. It’s a little overwhelming for the casual buyer. The best part of the site, however, is the link to the Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Here you can find extensive information on specific wines, read wine and spirit ratings, view vintage charts, and read feature articles from the magazine. Wine Enthusiast offers a wide range of custom wine cellar and wine racking designs that are perfect for those with a large budget and a serious interest in wine collecting. They also offer a wide range of racks and cooling units. Overall, the Wine Enthusiast website is better suited for someone with a more advanced knowledge of wine understanding. |
| eWineRacks | |
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| Link: | www.eWineRacks.com |
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Located in Omaha, Nebraska, NetShops was named the nation's 13th fastest growing company in America in 2006 by Inc. Magazine and is ranked 120 on Internet Retailer Magazine's Top 500 List. |
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| Overall Score: | 4.2 |
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Since eWineRacks.com is a mass distributor of wine rack and wine accessory products, they certainly seem to have a wide range of products as well as a wide range of prices for any wine collector. The website is well organized and on the front page of each product category is a "Quick Tips" section that gives practical and useful information about buying the different products available. Each product also has a Customer Rating system that allows you to rate the product you purchased or to read what other buyers thought of the product before purchasing it for yourself. Perhaps the most important benefit of buying any product from eWineRacks.com is their shipping policy. Most items are shipped to you free of charge via FedEx Ground to the 48 contiguous states. Even the $1,000 wine storage units shipped for free, however most took 4-10 days to be delivered. But what do you want, it's free! Overall, this website is easy to use, offers a large selection or products, and seems to provide excellent customer service based on the customer reviews. |
| Ice and Wine | |
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| Link: | www.iceandwine.com |
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| Overall Score: | 3.6 |
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While this site does not focus solely on wine related products, it does offer some high-quality wine cellars that feature the most revolutionary technology on the market today. For instance, their 8 bottle thermoelectric wine cellar cools wine without the use of a compressor, making the unit completely noise and vibration free which benefits both you and your wine. There are only four wine cellar products to choose from, but you have your choice of an 8, 28, 36, or 100 bottle cooling unit, so what more do you need? Overall, this is a nice and simple site that focuses on quality over quantity. The products appear to be high-quality units that can be added to any home or business. There is quite a nice selection of articles to read on wine cooler purchasing that offer general information about different types of wine coolers and what to look for when purchasing one. |
| Comfort Channel | |
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| Link: | www.comfortchannel.com |
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| Overall Score: | 3.8 |
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The Comfort Channel offers a wide selection of wine storage and non-wine related products. Under the Home Furnishings department listing, you'll find Wine Storage and Refrigerators. From there you can search by type, brand, or price. One of the nicest features is the "compare" function. By simply clicking on more than one product, you can choose to compare the products against each other. A page will then pop up showing you each product's price, dimensions, shipping time, warranty, and any additional information that may be provided. Another service they offer is called Zcash, which allows you to accumulate points that can be used like cash on future products purchased from the Comfort Channel. If you type in "wine" in the search field, you'll also find a variety of other wine related products, such as wine totes, wine carriers, and wine picnic baskets. Overall, the site has a large selection of wine racks, wine cellars, and wine coolers. However, you may get distracted by the many other luxury and comfort products offered by the site that you might forget that you went there to look for wine racks in the first place. |
