NewAir Wine Fridge Delivers Cooling Comfort: A Review

We put the NewAir 24 in. Black Stainless Steel Wine Fridge to the test in our latest review.

A Forceful Rap

About 10 or 12 years ago we received a nice gift from our friends. It was an eight-bottle wine fridge that found its place in our wine cellar basement. When we relocated to North Carolina the trusty little fridge made its way with us, finally settling on the counter in the butler pantry.

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For a couple of years, the little unit was stocked with rosé and chilled white wines that could be grabbed when the mood struck or when my wife decided to have a bubble bath. For a few days I noticed a strained whirring sound. In the beginning, a slight rap on the top ended the noise and the faithful servant returned to its duty.

The dreadful day came, though, when even a forceful rap couldn’t rouse the aging machine. With no power and no alternative, the faithful fridge was retired to the electronics recycling center.

The NewAir Is A Major Upgrade

The replacement is a major upgrade. The NewAir 15” Black Stainless Steel 29-Bottle Dual Zone Wine Fridge (SKU: NWC029SS01) was a joy from the glad moment I unpacked it. This is a beautiful looking unit. Mine is black with a stainless steel front door and handle.

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The assembly is a snap. The wooden shelves are inserted and the door handle attached. Along with a good wipe-down with warm water, it all can be accomplished in a few minutes. The instructions recommended that the fridge be allowed to settle for 24 hours before being plugged in. It was difficult, but finally the appointed time came.

Once plugged in, I was surprised how quickly the fridge cooled each zone to the appropriate temperature. The upper zone (for whites and sparkling) can be set between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The lower zone can be set between 50 and 66 degrees for reds. The top and bottom shelf give extra height for large Champagne or Pinot Noir bottles.

The NewAir wine fridge is cooled by a compressor and really delivers cooling power. By contrast, thermoelectric units can only cool the wine relative to the ambient room temperature. With the NewAir, my whites are ready to drink straight from the fridge.

Another pleasant surprise is the noise level. Having a couple of thermoelectric fridges, I expected the compressor to be noisy. Not so! The operation is very quiet – almost undetectable unless the house is completely silent.

Finding A Place For Your Bottles

The stated capacity is 29 bottles, but it will require some savvy bottle placement to achieve that. That capacity could probably be reached if all the wine were in Bordeaux-style bottles and placed head to toe on each shelf. I’ve got quite a few bottles of Pinot Noir, which have the wider Burgundy style bottles. Fifteen to 20 bottles will fit comfortably in the NewAir and several more with planning.

Technically, the NewAir pushes all the right buttons. It’s quiet. It cools swiftly. It can accommodate large sparkling wine bottles.

The NewAir 15” wine fridge really shines aesthetically, too. This is billed as a built-in wine fridge and I didn’t realize that it is a very attractive stand-alone unit as well. We had intended to place this under the counter in the butler pantry (and it still may end up there). It looks mighty nice in our dining room right now – and it is within arm’s reach. The blue LED lights are elegant and gives it a first-class look.

This is a well-crafted wine appliance that we’ve enjoyed greatly. We’re pleased to give it a high rating and recommendation.

Full disclosure: This wine fridge was received as a marketing sample.

Invisible Enemy Strikes My Wine Fridge

Battling the enemy within!

Mold Invades My Wine Stash

We’ve heard quite a bit about the “invisible enemy” recently. Although the talk currently is about COVID-19, I recently fought my battle with a different foe.

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I was upset when I went to the wine fridge only to discover mold had started to attack the label of my 1994 Château Pavie Macquin Saint Emilion Grand Cru. Before this I was blissfully unaware that mold can invade your wine fridge.

Back in Ohio, my wine cellar was in my basement – where the temperature was cool year-round. After our move to North Carolina, with its sweltering summers, I had to switch to a pair of wine fridges to properly protect my vino.

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Much to my dismay, I have learned that microscopic mold spores are floating in the air everywhere. They find a surface they can latch onto and start to grow. If it gets into your wine refrigerator, it can rot your wine labels and corks.

What About The Wine?

Before I attacked the mold, I decided it was time to attack the wine. It was high time to open my Saint Emilion. I didn't want to expose the rest of my bottles to the moldy label. The cork was intact, but crumbled as I tried to pull it. After straining into a decanter, I took a sniff.

At first there was an acetone odor and the taste was medicinal. Gradually, the funk started to dissipate, like the sun burning off the morning fog.

Free of the funk, there is a core of blueberry and dark fruit accented with cigar box and a riffle of minerality. Twenty-six years on, there's was lot to like about this wine. We spent the entire evening sipping it. Then it was time to go to work.

Unfortunately, mold needs the same conditions that we have inside our wine fridge: water, food, darkness and a stable temperature.  Corks are made of wood (mostly) and labels are made of cellulose. Mold decomposes both these substances. Based on my experience, an old label is like an aged porterhouse steak to hungry mold spores.

To address the situation in my cooler, I pulled all my bottles and wiped them down with a diluted mixture (50-50) of ammonia solution and water. The inside of the fridge also got a good wiping.

I placed a packet of silica beads (that came in a package for another product) into the fridge and also a small box of baking soda to boot. I also increased the temperature in my fridge by a couple of degrees to throw the mold spores off balance.

The solution has worked. I check occasionally, but try not to be opening the fridge so often that mold rushes back in. Here is a link to a great resource from NewAir, a manufacturer of wine refrigerators. In this time of crisis, the last thing we need is to be fighting two invisible enemies.

It’s A Gas! New Product Brings ArT to Wine Preservation

Spoiled wine sucks. ArT¹⁸ aims to bring the neutral gas blanket preservation technique to the masses at a reasonable price.

Searching For The Holy Grail

For wine lovers, preserving their favorite vino can be a quest that borders on obsession. The problem is that when you pop the cork (or twist the cap) and start pouring, you are exposing the wine to oxygen. That begins the oxidative process, attacking the high qualify molecules and promoting bacterial growth.

Ironic, isn’t it? As you open a bottle of robust red wine, you might put it in a decanter or use an aerator to help the wine “open up” by introducing oxygen. That same oxygen that helps in the initial experience, can take down a perfectly good half-finished bottle you are trying to save for another night.

The wine may taste stale or develop the odor of fingernail polish. We’ve tried various types of corks and other closures and devices that manually or automatically pump the air out of the bottle. We drew the line on one product that required you to insert a floating plastic disc into the bottle – it was designed to minimize contact with the wine. Maybe so, but we decided we didn’t want some funky piece of plastic floating in our bottle.

In general we’ve found that a red wine might last two or maybe three days after the initial opening, especially if it is refrigerated. A white wine can last longer, maybe four or five days if refrigerated.
The gold standard of wine preservation is Coravin, a device which allows you to pour wine without removing the cork and preserves the remaining wine with a blanket of inert Argon gas. However, the price tag of Coravin can exceed $300 –so for most of us, it is just wishful thinking.

Enter ArT¹⁸

We were recently introduced to ArT18 a product that promises to bring Argon gas wine preservation to wine lovers at a very reasonable price tag – a mere $9.99 per can. We were anxious to give the system a whirl.

Calling it a system may be a bit presumptuous. It is a can of Argon gas along with a cork. The cork isn’t necessary for the system to work and the ArT¹⁸ team specifies that it is for aesthetic purposes only. I misplaced their cork with the dozen or so we had floating around and ended up using the first cork within my reach.

When you first heft the can, you might wonder what’s up. The can feels empty – but indeed it is filled with Argon and can be used up to 130 times. I’m not sure how you tell when it is empty, but I still have more than 100 uses to go.

My initial test was with a bottle of Locations wine. This is a wine label that focuses on producing blends that are representative of an entire country. Green Dragon and I popped open a bottle of Locations I, which is the Italian blend. We each had a glass, maybe a tad more, and then I decided to give ArT¹⁸ a whirl.

To use it, you simply aim it into the bottle neck and give a one to two second burst. I then put a cork in it.

Fast-forward five days. I took part in an online tasting of Location wines. This time it was Italy – I, France – F, and Spain (E for Espania).  This was the ideal opportunity to contrast two bottles of Italian red, one five days old preserved with ArT¹⁸  and the other freshly opened.

The Verdict?

The ArT¹⁸ can proclaims that it can maintain the wine profile for weeks. Would this claim hold up? The first bottle had been sitting on my kitchen counter for five days. This, I felt, would be a true test. I already knew that my refrigerator can help extend wine life. But what about ArT¹⁸?

I sampled the just opened bottle – nice juicy berry flavors with blackberry and maybe light vanilla. I then sampled the ArT¹⁸ bottle. Whoops. The bottle had started to turn and I could taste the oxidation. My first effort was not a success.

Hold the phone! My testing wasn’t over. I had three nice bottles of Locations wine and that was beyond the capacity of me and the Green Dragon to finish in a day – so I “gassed” the bottles up. This time I made sure to give it a full two-seconds.

The next day, we had an impromptu wine tasting at our house. I had a couple of whites and a reserve Cab France. I set out the Locations wines, but was ready to grab other bottles if these had gone bad. I opened the trio of bottles and the wine was as fresh and aromatic as when I opened them the previous day.

This obviously wasn’t the same as our five-day test – but normally there would be some degradation over a 24-hour period, especially when the bottles are sitting on the counter in a 74-degree kitchen. This made me wonder if during my initial test I didn’t give a long enough spritz.

My conclusion is that ArT¹⁸ can indeed have a significant impact on wine preservation. By placing an inert blanket of Argon gas between the wine and air, the wine gets a degree of protection. ArT¹⁸ won’t replace Coravin. Coravin is a more ideal process, with the cork firmly in place the whole time, the effectiveness of the Argon is increased. For $9.99, however, this is a very affordable entry into a scientific method of preserving your vino.

Another interesting claim is that the aromas are preserved as well as the flavors. Also of note is that the ArT¹⁸ system can be used for coffee beans, spices and other items that benefit from reduced oxygen exposure.

Why does this all matter? Ryan Frederickson, the GM of ArT¹⁸, points out that this will allow consumers to explore higher price point wines. It also allows you to enjoy wine by the glass without the fear of the remainder spoiling.

ArT¹⁸ will continue to undergo testing here at Vino-Sphere world headquarters and we’ll provide an update on what we find. We’ll just have to wait until we find an unfinished bottle of wine – a rarity around here. Initial results are positive and at about 8 cents per use, I’d encourage you to purchase and experiment yourself.

Full disclosure: We received this product as a marketing sample.

Simple Wine Storage Tips Can Avoid Damage To Your Vino

Wine storage is a key to avoiding damaged wine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OK, wine aficionados, today we’re happy to pass along these wine storage tips courtesy of our friends at Underground Cellar.

"I don't have a fancy cellar or wine fridge to protect my wines- how should I store my small-yet-important stash of bottles? I don't want to ruin them before I can drink them!"

Look, most casual wine drinkers are not utilizing a climate-controlled walk-in cellar of any sorts, and many folks don't even have a small countertop wine fridge in the kitchen or dining room.

The thing is, you don't have to spend big money on a fancy wine cooler that's bigger than your kitchen refrigerator or dig a small cave into the hillside next to your house to safely store your bottles of vino.

Here are a few easy yet important tips on keeping your wine from being damaged in your home:

* Consistency of temperature is key. Major temp fluctuation kills wine, and may lead to cork leakage due to the wine expanding/contracting from the wide temp changes. No bueno!

* Keep the wine out of direct light- be it sunshine or direct bright indoor lighting of any kind. There's a reason almost all wine bottles use tinted, colored glass- it's like wine sunglasses to protect the juice inside from damaging UV rays.

* Store your wines on their side, ensuring the cork stays moist. If a bottle is aged for many years upright there's a chance that dry cork could crumble and be a pain in the ass to extract in one piece! I hate trying to fish out cork bits from my precious wine...it's torture.

By remembering these very simple yet very effective storage tips, you can find a suitable spot in your humble abode to keep your wines safe and provide you with a little peace of mind as well.

1) First grab a few crates, racks, or simple storage shelves to hold your bottles. There are many options online, at the wine shop, or hardware store that are cheap and effective.

2) Next clean out that half-full, disorganized, under-utilized closet/pantry space. Reorganize that cluttered basement. Clear out those old golf clubs from underneath the staircase. Make room for your cherished vino collection to move in and find a new, safe home:)

3) Then get your DWSA (Designated Wine Storage Area) identified, prepared, and stocked up. Minor temp fluctuations in your home are normal and just fine. Keeping temps between 55-65 degrees in your DWSA would be ideal, but again as long as things are pretty stable you should be fine.

 

Related articles

• How to Start a Wine Cellar (online.wsj.com)
• The $2.7 million wine heist (ocregister.com)
• How to Stock Your Wine Cellar (drinks.seriouseats.com)