Will my wines be fine in the wine fridge?

75 Bottle wine fridge located in my finished basement. No humidty control, but I have a gauge inside and it always reads between 50-80.

Some bottles have been in the fridge approaching a year, and I plan on leaving some for a couple more years. I find myself buying more wines that I wish to hold onto, so I am finding that the wine I consume young needs to be relocated somewhere else in the house. Eventually, I anticipate filling this fridge up with bottles that I plan on opening just for special occasions.

I know my allotment is small, but it's still hard earned money spent, and I would be very dissapointed if in 2-4-5 years the wines have not matured properly, or even became ruined.

I have read many opinions on wine fridges in general. I don't have a top end one, it simply keeps the wine at a controlled temperature and looks nice built into the bar. I can't notice any vibration when I touch it, but I assume there is probably something there...

Should I be concerned, or is 4 years really not enough to be worried about?

-Mike

[David M. Bueker]

50 and 80?

If so, yes!

Mike
Just to clarify. Is 50-80 the temp in Fahrenheit or the % humidity? If the latter then no issue. If the former, then this is a little excessive, though the jury is still out on how badly moderate heat affects wine (see for interest, the experiment that David and others are performing with differing storage). That said, I've never known a wine fridge to vary temperature that much unless it's switched off!
regards

Ian

[David M. Bueker]

Gah! Read too quickly. Of course that's fine.

Mike
Just to clarify. Is 50-80 the temp in Fahrenheit or the % humidity? If the latter then no issue. If the former, then this is a little excessive, though the jury is still out on how badly moderate heat affects wine (see for interest, the experiment that David and others are performing with differing storage). That said, I've never known a wine fridge to vary temperature that much unless it's switched off!
regards

Ian

Sorry....the humidity gauge reads between 50-80, mostly remains around 70 though.....

The temperature is set at 55, but will go as high as 58 before it kicks in....

[David M. Bueker]

That will be no problem at all.

That will be no problem at all.

Thanks Dave. So anything within 5 years should be good....what about longer? Where would you draw the line between using my wine fridge, and finding proper cellar storage?

[David M. Bueker]

Your wine fridge is proper storage.

Mike
Yes, I very much agree with David. There are plenty of instances of wines in much worse conditions maturing well for decades.

This does depend on the wines, where some might be very nice inside 5 years, whilst others might be crying out for another decade beyond that.

regards

Ian

Thanks guys!