The question
I just bought a new fridge. Can I use my old one for wine storage in the basement if I keep the temperature dial on the warmest setting?
The answer
Tempting as it may be, I would not advise it.
Even at its warmest setting, a standard kitchen refrigerator might still run colder than the ideal 13-degree cellar temperature recommended for wine. But temperature is not the fatal problem here. In fact, at, say, 7 or 8 degrees, which is warmer than the 4-degree level under which most fridges operate to keep food fresh, your wine won’t so much fall apart as simply take longer to mature and yield pleasantly evolved flavours that are the essence of old wine. Instead of 10 years, for example, you might have to wait 15 or more for that tannic Barolo to come around.
The bigger issue is humidity. Fridges built for food tend to get very dry. I just checked my own second kitchen fridge, one in which I store only beer and white wine, for sampling purposes, for short periods of time, and my hygrometer read 20-per-cent relative humidity. That’s far below the recommended 75-per-cent level for a proper cellar. Within a few months, wine corks could desiccate to the point where they’d lose a tight seal and begin to permit air to slowly seep into the bottles. After a couple of years in a fridge like that, your wines could degrade significantly. Even opening the bottles could be problematic. You might end up with brittle, crumbly cork on your hands.
Purpose-built wine fridges, by contrast, are able to accurately maintain a high level of humidity to keep corks moist.
E-mail your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the Wine & Spirits newsletter and on The Globe and Mail website.