Long Term Storage

This is the only thing I have found the Architect Series 11 wine cellar use full (sic) for.

You asked for it

I was just thinking maybe I should buy a humidity reader. Thats the only thing I am really worried about. I have about 25 bottles in the $200-$600 range. I would hate to get a dry cork on these guys. Any thought still welcome.

As long as the temperature is consistent your probably just fine. I have a hard time believing that a cork will dry out if stored on it's side.

Please post your 25 botles at $200 to $600, just too curious?

Move them to the Kitchenaid wine refrigerator from where? It seems rather small (46 bottles) for long-term storage, especially since you say you have over half of the unit's capacity in the $200 to $600 range. 46 bottles won't last 2 months around here.

Anyway, if you do have a separate cellar, consider one of the remote temperature and humidity gauges available from any of the wine gadget places or from an electronics store. I have one from Oregon Scientific that I picked up at Fry's for around $30 several years ago, and it works great.

HI Mpls wine guy and RDCollins. I currently have the bottles in the basement. With a temp of 59F. I was thinking about moving the more expensive bottles to kitchen aid. ( mostly because I can keep a close eye on the temp and humidity.

But a quick list of my inventory for Mpls wine guy.
1988 Chateau Haut-brion x3
2000 Chateau Lafite Rothchild Pauillac x2
2003 Chateau Cos-d'Estournel x5
2003 Chateau Leoville Poyferre x4
2003 Chateau Leoville Barton x3
2003 Chateau Lafleur Pomerol x3

Those are some of my favs.

Vanortan, you don't say where you live, but passive basements often make for really good wine storage. If it stays close to 59 degrees year round, I'd say the wine is better off there than in the kitchen-aid. While I don't have any experience with the kitchen-aid, smaller wine storage units notoriously move up and down in temp and humidity.

Randy,

I am out in Chicago. I been watching the Kitchen aid for about a month now and one degree is all it really moved so its pretty stable. The basement I have less controll over. That is the only thing I am worried about.

V

Wine refrigerator may not be the best idea. The corks aren't going to dry out and fall from the bottle, but in the dry environment of refrigeration, liquid can evaporate from around the cork slowly over years leaving low shoulders. Why limit yourself to 25 bottles, you'll eventually need more room. I came across a site from Texas that explains all of this to detail that is above what you may want to know, but there are cooling units that drop temp and not humidity, and there are wine refrigerators that act like A/C, they cool by dehumidifying. Check out the site and look at small wine coolers or cabinets to protect your investment. You'ld hate to have these nice bottle die in a wine refrigerator, which is like a cool desert environment.

http://www.galtwine.com/WineRefrigerators.html

The guy that I spoke to was very opinionated, but didn't force any opinions on me and in the end I got what I wanted. And, in case you're wondering, I have no connection to this group, I just found the link on eRobertparker.com