New Wine Cabinet

[tw]

I am thinking of purchasing a new wine cabinet, by EC hopefully. Wondering where the best place to buy is. I've been on the wine enthusiasts web and they have expensive shipping and all sorts of shelf options that arent very well explained. Any help is appreciated.<P>Txx

[hotwine]

As I understand the EuroCave company, their US distributor is in NY; so you've got to pay shipping from France to NY, then from NY to your location. I don't believe the units are stored in inventory in NY, rather they're shipped on demand from France in response to a specific order.<P>As to the options offered:<BR>- The standard configuration (at least, for the EC 260 1-temp, the one I bought) consists of immovable shelves on which you stack a couple of cases each (assuming Bordeaux-sized bottles). To get sliding redwood shelves (that hold one case each), you need shelving rails that accommodate the rollers on the redwood shelves. The sliding shelves reduce the total stated capacity of the particular unit... but at least the wines are easily accessible, unlike with the basic configuration.<BR>- If you plan to position the unit in an un-air-conditioned space like a garage (which I did), you need a beefed-up compressor.... because otherwise, the unit is only designed to handle a temp differential between the room/space and the unit's temp of 20 deg. F, or less. (And that's the norm with all wine fridges that I know of.... they can't handle differentials of more than 20F, without burning out the compressor.) The beefed up compressor option further adds to the cost... and it's only available with the 260 size. So mine, with sliding shelves and the big compressor, only holds about 160 Bord.-sized bottles.<P>If you call the Wine Enthusiast "cellar consultant", they should be able to talk you through the options and their implications.