Your guests will be thoroughly impressed this holiday day season when you pop open a bottle of refreshing, perfectly cooled wine for their enjoyment. Since most wines are typically served at a temperature that is too warm, the Avalon Bay 21-bottle Wine Cooler comes to the rescue to alleviate this problem by keeping your wines at the ideal chilled temperatures.
The Avalon Bay 21 bottle wine cooler arrived at our house in perfect condition. It was safely housed within one box then padded inside another box.
Detailed instructions were included on how to set up our wine cooler quickly and efficiently. The setup was very quick and easy. Everything came constructed and ready to go except the handle. To attach the handle, all we had to do was tighten two screws just beneath the rubber gasket and voila, it was done and set to use.
The top section, which holds 6 bottles, is designed for cooler wines such at white ones. The temperature for this section can be set from 44° F to 64° F. The bottom section holds up to 15 bottles and is designed for slightly warmer wines like red ones. It adjusts from 51° F to 66° F. Both sections have their own LED light. The light is a crisp, pleasant blue color and casts just the right amount of light. It even gives the cooler a very attractive “night-light” glow. If lights are unwanted, each can easily be turned off with the tap of a button.
The wine cooler is very quiet and small enough to store underneath a counter-height bar. While in the same room as the cooler, we can hear a small fan turn on every once in a while, but, overall it is very very quiet.
The cooler comes with 6 adjustable racks allowing space to hold regular size wine bottles or the larger champagne size bottles. The racks are designed to cradle each bottle, preventing them from rolling around in the cooler.
The cooler seems to hold its set temperatures steadily, only rising by a degree or two if the door is opened for more than a minute or two and quickly bringing it back to temp within a few minutes of shutting the door. My husband and I are very pleased with this wine cooler and look forward to the relaxing nights ahead when we can share a bottle of wine at its proper temperature.
Tips for Chilling Wines
As mentioned above, many wines are served too warmly. The familiar “room temperature” guideline we know comes from Europe where the typical room temperature is between 60° and 65° F (not the 70° to 75° F as is usual here in America, making about a 10 degree difference). And white wines are typically chilled in the cellar in Europe, where the temperature is around 55° F (yielding an approximate 20 degree difference!).
The perfect wine temperature varies from person to person, but here are some tips to help you out:
- Light dry white wines, rosés, and sparkling wines should be served from 40° to 50° F to preserve freshness and fruitiness. For sparkling wines, chilling keeps bubbles fine instead of frothy.
- Full-bodied white wines and light, fruity red wines should be served from 50° to 60° F to enhance their complexity and aroma or to make it more refreshing.
- Full-bodied red wines and Ports should be served from 60° to 65° F to make it more obsequious and to reduce its bitterness.
You can purchase Avalon Bay’s wine coolers and other small home appliances via various local and online retailers including Amazon.com.
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