When you decide to build up a small reserve of good bottles of wine, the question arises of how to store them. It is then necessary to be able to protect the wine from light, vibrations and heat, while ensuring a good humidity level. And to ensure these optimal conditions, the service wine cellar or the aging cellar are perfectly suited. But let's find out their differences.
What is a service wine cellar?
As its name suggests, the service cellar allows you to store bottles of wine that are intended for tasting soon . This storage space then offers all the conditions to keep the wine in good condition, in the short or medium term.
For this, we find a thermostat system which allows us to maintain the cellar at the ideal temperature to preserve all the qualities of the wine. A ventilation solution is also designed for these types of wine cellars, to allow good distribution of cold or heat . Indeed, the service cellars contain bottles that will be drunk quickly, so it is logical that the door is opened regularly. The ventilation and the thermostat then compensate for any temperature variations that may occur each time the door is opened.
The different options for service cellars
If you aim to build up a wine cellar of bottles to drink young or quickly, you will have the choice among different options for your serving cellar:
- A single-temperature wine cellar (10 to 14°C): with this type of wine cellar, you can only select one temperature for the entire storage space;
- A multi-temperature wine cellar : the advantage of this type of cellar is that you can determine a different temperature for each level of the cellar. You can then keep your red wines, white wines and rosé wines at the right serving temperature, so that they are ready to enjoy in all circumstances.
If temperature adjustment is the main criterion for purchasing a service wine cellar, you can also choose other options, such as color, design (glass or solid door), humidity level, the number of bottles...
What is an aging cellar?
Aging wine cellars are, as their name suggests, intended for wine bottles suitable for aging. They then allow you to bring your best wines to maturity in the best conditions, particularly great vintages, exceptional vintages and great wines.
Rather intended for long conservation, the aging cellar is therefore not intended to be open permanently. Storage conditions must therefore be perfect to ensure good conservation for several years . The aging cellars then allow:
- To ensure perfect ventilation and good air circulation, to preserve the quality of the bottles;
- To have a solid, or anti-UV, door to prevent light from damaging the wine;
- To maintain a stable temperature between 10 and 14°C, but generally set at 12°C on most wine cabinets;
- To ensure a sufficient humidity level, which never drops below 50%;
- To guarantee the absence of vibration, whatever the environment of the aging wine cellar.
Service cellar or aging cellar: choose according to use
The difference between service cellars and aging cellars lies mainly in the envisaged shelf life . Indeed, if the service cellar allows above all to keep the wines in the best conditions for future tasting, the aging cellar offers even more meticulous conditions, to let the wine age in peace.
But the difference also concerns the type of wine that will be stored . Indeed, if you wish to store white wines, red wines and rosé wines, it is interesting to be able to select a cellar allowing you to adjust the temperature depending on the level, because not all these types of wines have the same conservation requirements.
On the other hand, if the objective is to keep all the bottles cool, at a constant temperature, the aging cellar is ideal.
In all cases, these cellars are an alternative to the traditional underground cellar , which remains the ideal solution for providing exceptional storage for bottles.
Service wine cellar or aging wine cellar: any disadvantages?
There are few disadvantages to aging and serving cellars, but if we want to be choosy, we can talk about the energy expenditure of these storage solutions for your wine bottle collection. In fact, electricity consumption can be high , especially on models which do not have solid doors.
On the other hand, there are many common advantages, such as being able to store bottles vertically , or being able to choose the storage capacity . There are many ranges of wine cellars, and the characteristics are therefore very different, but even the lower priced models allow you to keep your bottles in a very good storage environment, in any case always better than your fridge or cellar. .
If you want to build up a small cellar for regular tasting, the service cellar is ideal. To age your wines, we recommend the aging cellar instead. All you have to do is fill your wine cellar , and why not start with Provence wines from the Berne estate?
If you don't have the option of having a wine cellar, here are our best tips for storing your wine bottles without a cellar .
